Ears to Hear

Reflections on April 1976

A long time ago in a land not far away, a young man answered the call to accept an appointment to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. He boarded a plane to Hartford, CT along with a classmate who seemed a bit more self-assured and smart than him. Putting that behind him in the rush of the day, he took the oath with his heart in his chest, and he threw himself into swab summer with all he had. It went well. He stood tall on a yardarm as Eagle moored in Charleston, SC for Opsail ’76. He played football and then preferred the challenge of rowing. Silver and gold stars appeared on his collar with regularity and demerits were few.

Then came a shock. A disturbing truth about his father, whom he adored, was revealed to him. He didn’t know how to talk about it. “If he’s not who I though he was, who am I?” The same things he had been doing for the past two years suddenly seemed much more difficult. “Disciplining the underclassmen? I don’t even feel like keeping my room squared away.” He was referred to an Executive Board hearing. Based on his record, he was retained but on the condition that he would not be considered for regimental leadership for the rest of his time at CGA. “No problem. I don’t think I could handle that anyway.”

He had quit the crew team. But his former coach, Bill Stowe, somehow saw the hole in his heart and did what he could to fill it. There were weekends at the Gales Ferry boathouse and a road trip to Acadia Park in Maine. Don’t tell anyone, but Bill helped the cadet with pranks on the tyrannical company officer. Yes, that definitely felt good.

Then there was his civil engineering professor, Doc Dunn. No weekend trips or pranks, but instead steady, good-humored kindness and encouragement. By 1/c year, the shock had passed and the cadet got some of his footing back. He started rowing again, earned top academic honors, and even had a cute girlfriend, Nancy. The rest of the story is for another time.

If the Link in the Chain program had been around during our time, the Class of 1980 would have been mentored by the class of 1930. This blows my mind. I really AM that old. Yet as difficult as it is to swallow, having mentors from that class would have helped me, just as Coach Stowe and Doc Dunn did. Even more so, because they shared the CGA experience.

I just finished an amazing book, The Seven Basic Plots, by Christopher Booker. It took him 34 years to write it. He studied the patterns of stories from the beginning of human history right up to the 21st century. One of the things he found is that heroes inevitably go through stages of frustration and nearly impossible nightmares as they seek to solve their problems on their own. Only through the assistance of helpers can they make it, partly because they must learn to see differently. Think Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke, Gandalf and Frodo, or The Professor and Gilligan. Um, maybe not the last one.

That’s what we’re here for, ’30. Can’t wait to meet you at your swearing-in.

No longer a pretender,

Robert Aleph