My Hero Wears...Coveralls

 I don't remember where I saw it, but there is a cartoon of either Batman or Superman that reads, "Some heroes wear capes." Since then, the saying has been begged, borrowed, and spun to every other vocation - some heroes wear badges, scrubs, or whatever other acoutriment needed to carry the message that this person is or this group of people are heroes. (For the record, I've never seen "Some heroes wear clerical collars." Just saying...)

Fair 'nuff. In today's world, in today's socio-political climate, the more heroes we have, the better off we all will be, raising the collective bar and setting the ecumenical standard that the rest of us can rise towards and elevate our way of live and service. 

My hero is my son. He doesn't wear a cape and a half-face mask. Thankfully, he doesn't wear tights with a letter on his chest. He doesn't wear a badge and carry an ax (my son-in-law does - also a hero) or a gun. He doesn't wear scrubs and a stethoscope. 

My son wears coveralls and carries an 8" crescent wrench. 

My son is, for all basic purposes, a mechanic in the US Navy. He turns wrenches, slings oil and lubricating fluid, and helps keep the ship moving forward. I could tell you more specifics, but, well... you know how that would go. 

He's pretty low on the Naval food chain, an E-2, but he's learning and growing as a person, as a sailor and as a man. Some time ago, he was flying from Point A to Point B. The plane was having mechanical problems before departure and the captain came over the intercom and said, "Our fillamijiggy isn't floppendoodling the flappenstacker, but don't worry, our mechanics will have us luftwaffenating before you can say 'oofdah'." That's what everyone else on the plane understood, but Junior understood what it was and what it meant. He Googled up the shop manuals for the plane engine and started scrolling through. 

Let me re-state that: my son, who 18 months ago failed his dual credit government class because he was bored and hated school, was sitting on the tarmac, reading a shop manual for an airplane engine, and guessing what was wrong and how to fix it. Best of all, he understood it all. He was working at working.

I asked him if he likes his job. "Most days," he said, "I would not call it 'fun,' but yeah, I like it." He likes the challenge of troubleshooting, of working with his hands, of starting out with something that needs fixing and, when he is done, having something that works. And, he was part of what made it work. And that, in turn, keeps his $2.5 billion dollar ship moving. 

I know he is one cog of 300 on-board, plus all those who built the ship at Bath Iron Works and the various components in her. But he is part of a team which is part of a division that is part of a unit that is part of a ship which is part of the fleet which is part of the Navy. He's a small part of something much bigger. 

But to me, he is the most important part. 

He's doing something that I could never do, for several reasons. It takes guts to do what is hard and different and unknown. If courage and bravery is being afraid and doing it anyway, he has courage in spades. He said he is excited to do what is ahead, a little bit curious how it will soon go, a little scared about what it might entail, but mostly excited. That sounds like a pretty good ratio to me. 

His ship is named after a United States Marine who sacrificed his life to save his squad, Cpl. Jason Dunham. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, and a copy of his Citation is in the ship for the sailors who share his name to read. In honor of him, the ship also shares the motto of the Corps: Semper Fidelis, Semper Fortis. That means, "Always Faithful, Always Strong."

Seems like a good motto for a ship full of heroes to have, all striving to live up to the standard of the hero DDG-109 is named for. 

So, to my son, my hero: I will wear this hat with pride. I think I'll also get a small crescent wrench to keep in my pocket and get it engraved with Semper Fidelis, Semper Fortis. 

Maybe I can live up to my son, someday. But, I'll skip the coveralls and save those for him.