Columnist treasured time on the sea

It arrived on a chilly December day in a heavy box.

The box contained an official certificate of authenticity and was, ironically, wrapped in layers of bubble wrap, a virtually indestructible chunk of cold, hard steel.

The steel measures 3 inches tall by 5 inches wide by 1.37 inches thick and weighs 8 pounds.

On the face, the following is engraved:

USS KITTY HAWK

CV-63

04-230-2

I'll never forget the first time I saw her.

I reported for U.S. Navy basic training in summer 1984, and after training I was assigned to the USS Kitty Hawk. On a beautiful day in December 1984, I drove up to a long warehouse and turned the corner and there she was. This massive ship, moored to a pier that literally dwarfed the huge warehouse next to the pier.

I was just amazed that something bigger than a factory in Portland could even float.

But float she certainly did.

She took this rural Indiana farm kid on wild adventures to the farthest reaches of the globe.

Aboard her, I learned a lot about life and this little blue marble in the cosmos that we call home.

I saw the absolutely most beautiful sunrises, sunsets and starlit nights that I have ever seen on the planet.

I entered The Ancient Order of the Deep and was found worthy by King Neptune as we crossed the equator, earned an Order of Magellan Global Circumnavigation World Cruise Certification, an Order of the Ditch Suez Canal transit certificate and a Rock of Gibraltar certificate.

All heady stuff for a landlubber from east central Indiana.

Today, my former noble gray lady is being cut up for scrap in Brownsville, Texas, and watching the progress via remote drone flyover photography fills me with emotions I cannot adequately express. She truly was a beautiful warrior of the high seas, from 1961 to 2009.

So, today, in a prominent place in my Humble Hoosier Heartland Homestead farmhouse, a chunk of her flight deck, purchased from the scrapping company, will be all I have left of her, at least physically.

But, I'll treasure the memories of our travels, adventures and the life long impact of her on my life until my dying day.