We were swinging at anchor out there off that low rocky coast, and mirroring us, just a short distance away, was another US aircraft carrier, the USS Eisenhower. It felt odd to be anchored close to another carrier that way. I remember it was somewhat misty which softened her a bit. She was there to relieve us, her first Med Cruise, I think. She was new and fresh.
Now, a six month deployment is nothing compared to what we have put our sailors through since then, but I was young and did miss the United States of America. I wanted to go home. I could taste it.
Anyway, there I was in my compartment. Middle rack, second one up, right on the passageway a spot I always tried for after I learned which rack locations didn't appeal to me. Sure, it was noisy even when the lights were out, people going back and forth on their way to and from the flight deck, but I liked being on a passageway where I could stand in front of my open rack and not crouched down or having to climb up.
I was pretty excited to be weighing anchor the next morning, and going to sleep was hard, but...I did eventually sleep.
I woke up the next morning to the 1MC blaring "Now, Set the Special Sea and Anchor Detail", and music began playing as the lights came on.
The music was Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street".
Baker Street
By Gerry Rafferty
Winding your way down on Baker Street
Light in your head and dead on your feet
Well, another crazy day
You'll drink the night away
And forget about everything
This city desert makes you feel so cold
It's got so many people, but it's got no soul
And it's taken you so long
To find out you were wrong
When you thought it held everything
You used to think that it was so easy
You used to say that it was so easy
But you're trying, you're trying now
Another year and then you'd be happy
Just one more year and then you'd be happy
But you're crying, you're crying now
Way down the street there's a light in his place
He opens the door, he's got that look on his face
And he asks you where you've been
You tell him who you've seen
And you talk about anything
He's got this dream about buying some land
He's gonna give up the booze and the one-night stands
And then he'll settle down
In some quiet little town
And forget about everything
But you know he'll always keep moving
You know he's never gonna stop moving
'Cause he's rolling, he's the rolling stone
And when you wake up, it's a new morning
The sun is shining, it's a new morning
And you're going, you're going home
All these years later, whenever I hear that sound, I get a twinge inside me. A short, powerful twinge. It is the same feeling I get when I go to the airport, and get a brief whiff of jet exhaust.
So, in the year 2021, when I hear the stanza:
...And when you wake up, it's a new morning
The sun is shining, it's a new morning
And you're going, you're going home....
For a second, a brief, short, fraction of a second, so brief that it might be missed, in my body, brain, and heart I can actually feel as if I am again a young, healthy man who missed his family and friends so much that today, some forty odd years later, I want to go back to that time in my life just so I can remember how much I ached to go back home to my family, my friends, and my country.
And then I appreciate anew all those things in the intervening years and how my heart was rewarded for decades after I went back home. How I love that feeling.
