Cruise Widows

by Hope Moore

Overview

After a detachment of photographic reconnaissance aviators is sent from Florida to the USS FDR, five cruise widows are left behind. With a lengthy separation ahead of them, the widows have no choice but to establish a bond as their husbands begin their mission.

The five women, who already know a great deal of trust and faith is necessary to be a good navy wife, are at different stages in life, but new to this type of separation. Nan Levin is a mother of two with a talent for creating delicious meals and clothes from designer patterns. Pat Dunn is happy to have her mother help with her children. Mert Sorensen is an excellent cook and baker and mother of three who runs her house like a business. Lia Hayes has seen her share of tragedies, but is now a happily pregnant newlywed. Beth Williams, whose husband is the photographic interpreter for the detachment, is an exceptional bridge player. As the five women find companionship during the separation, none have any idea that a catastrophe aboard the ship will cause not all of their husbands to return home.

Cruise Widows shares the compelling tale of five women who embark on an unforgettable journey of bonding, friendship, and heartache after their naval husbands head to sea.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781491739990
Publisher:	iUniverse, Incorporated
Publication date:	11/03/2014
Pages:	358
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.94(d)

Read an Excerpt

Cruise Widows

A Novel

---

By Hope Moore

iUniverse LLC

Copyright © 2014 Hope Moore
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4917-3998-3

---

CHAPTER 1

The detachment for a WESPAC cruise began organizing six months before the ship was to depart from the navy's base at North Island, Coronado, San Diego, California. However, the men who were going aboard the Franklin D. Roosevelt, an aircraft carrier, were in Jacksonville. The aircraft carrier Coral Sea had just returned from a six-month cruise in the Mediterranean Sea and was due for a-six month shore period before leaving port again for parts unknown at this time. Each day the aviators of the detachment began making practice landings aboard the ship to be qualified to leave for the Rosey Boat six months later.

Bernie Levin was the senior officer of the detachment. His brown eyes never missed a thing, either in the cockpit of his plane or while he listened to his fellow aviators. He was an accomplished flyer and was respected by the squadron, officers, and enlisted men as well. He didn't fly the same plane each time, and so he had no name underneath the opening for the cockpit, but he had a plane captain, an enlisted man who saw to it that BL always got a plane in perfect condition. BL came to know his young plane captain, and friendship as well as respect developed between the two.

BL had made a Med cruise as the leader of the detachment aboard, and so he was familiar with all the necessary paperwork that accompanied any position of responsibility. He again began scanning the papers just to see if there were any additions or changes he would need to know. BL was conscious of all these quirks the navy wanted to know about from the photographic squadron, because they were extremely important.

Lieutenant Commander Charles Dunn, the executive officer of the detachment, had responsibilities that were almost the same as BL's, but the buck always stopped with the senior officer if any mistakes were made, so the exec was off the hook if anything went wrong no matter how minuscule it was. "Done It" was an expert in paperwork and knew the importance of overseeing it before he gave it to his CO. BL and Done It were friendly enough to make a tightly knit detachment. Their wives also were well acquainted, and each husband knew the two wives would become almost like sisters while they were cruise widows, which was a relief to them because the wives were remaining in Jacksonville during the long cruise.

Chas, as his wife called Done It, had accepted having his mother-in-law live with them. His wife, Pat, was the younger of the two sisters, and when Pat had their first child, her mother, Grace, came to be of help, and she was. Pat's father had died when Pat was a teen, and his estate was considerable. While living with the couple with a new baby, Grace found the house unsuitable for her, so in her spare time while both Pat and the baby were sleeping, and while Charles was at the base, Grace took her car and a map of Norfolk with the real estate ads in the paper, and she began searching for what she considered comfortable.

Grace found a much nicer home, and that afternoon with the agent she told the agent that she was sure the house would be bought the next day. When Chas came home, Grace told him about the house and said she would take the financial responsibility for buying it, so she and Chas and the agent went out. Chas was uncertain of what this meant, but he got along well with Grace, and when he saw the house she liked, he also liked it.

Grace was going to give them the down payment, and because the house was empty, he and his family could move in as soon as the papers were signed. The following day Chas went to the legal officer, signed the papers, and gave Grace's check, and the house was theirs. Grace saw to it that the house was spotless, and Pat was moved first into the house along with the new baby, a daughter. Within a week they were properly settled, with Grace having a livable room for herself and a kitchen she approved of for her to take care of the cooking.

Now, in Jacksonville, Grace was still living with Chas and Pat and another baby, a son. Done It was satisfied with the arrangement.

Lieutenant Edmund Sorensen got along very well with the enlisted men, because he knew what their lives were like, having been enlisted once himself. Sorry and the chief, who was in charge of the enlisted men and was responsible to BL for their behavior as well as their workmanship, got along better than Sorry did with the other officers in the detachment. He never felt as at ease with them as he did with the chief, but he never had any problems with either coterie in the detachment. BL, Done it, Cowboy, and Pee Eye joked among themselves, but Sorry never instituted the joking and camaraderie these men enjoyed. Still, everyone liked and respected him.

Lieutenant Allen McAfee Hayes, had a reputation for pushing the envelope when he was airborne. He loved climbing his plane as soon as his wheels retracted after leaving the flight deck. Cowboy had earned a pilot's license when he was only fifteen, and he took the family's small plane all over the acres of land the family owned in the McAllen, Texas, area where their herd of Char roi Le cattle were spread out.

He could tell if there were any signs of losing heads to coyotes, and this did happen, usually to a newborn. He carried a rifle with him in the plane and had shot two coyotes who were feasting on their kill and were so hungry that they wouldn't leave the carcass, even though they sensed the danger from the low-flying plane. Cowboy expended this same energy in air fights, and he usually was the leading aviator when the tally was completed. His ambition was to be appointed to Top Gun school at Miramar, California, where the best of the best were trained. BL hoped Cowboy didn't do anything extreme, because then BL would have to ream out the young lieutenant and humiliate him in front of the detachment, but so far Cowboy behaved rationally, much to BL's relief.

Darren Williams wasn't an aviator. He had earned a private pilot's license when he attended a private high school, but he found flying not to his liking. He wasn't afraid of flying, but he simply wasn't that interested in furthering it as a career. He kept the license up to date, and he enjoyed listening to the other aviators' stories of the day's happenings, but he was content with interpreting what they had photographed. His expertise was in connecting one day's film to that of the day or week before to see if anything had changed. BL was glad to have Pee Eye in the detachment because he had a good sense of humor and kept the group laughing daily, which was good for morale because it lessened the boredom and stress of being at sea for nine months.

After seven and a half months into the cruise, when the end was in sight, the morning began with the air boss readying the deck for flights. BL and Done It had flown the day before, so this was the day for Sorry and Cowboy to fly. Each of them had risen early enough to eat breakfast before the flight, and Done It had joined them. All four were in the ready room listening to BL explain what and where they were to fly and photograph.

When Cowboy put on his flight helmet, he thought there was something wrong with the mike and the ear pieces, because he wasn't hearing clearly the instructions the air boss was relating to the crew. Sorry was already in his plane on the flight deck, and Done It had come just to watch and check. BL was still in the ready room finishing the report he had to turn in about why Cowboy and Sorry were flying. Cowboy climbed out to get another helmet, and Done It was near enough to see him exit the plane and knew this was irregular.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Done It asked.

"My helmet isn't connecting to the ear piece, and the mike isn't working. I've got to find another one, or else I'll be late for the launch." Cowboy was frustrated with this because the air boss wouldn't like a delay.

"I've got mine and can take the flight, Cowboy, so forget it. You can make it up to me later." Done It was already getting into the cockpit when he finished talking to Cowboy, who was walking on the deck and heading toward the open hatch to go inside the ship.

"Thanks. I owe you when we go ashore." Cowboy was relieved that the launch wouldn't be delayed due to his helmet's faulty connections. Communications were vital when one was flying a mission, and Cowboy was intelligent enough to know how important this was. He simply felt disgusted with himself for not acting on this fault earlier. "I'll tell BL as soon as I see about a new helmet. I don't think he will mind as long as you don't."

Done It was already strapped into the cockpit and had checked everything out, and his plane was being put into the slot to be launched off the deck. Sorry was in the accompanying plane and put into the other slot; the two would leave the deck within seconds of each other. Both aviators had given the deck crew the thumbs-up signal that everything was ready for launching when a thunderous explosion occurred. Both planes in the slot were completely destroyed. The men on deck and most of the deck crews were killed instantly; others were injured severely from the unexpected explosion.

The air boss reacted as he had been trained to do if this sort of disaster and chaos occurred. Firefighters and auxiliary deck crews appeared instantaneously, along with the navy's physical corpsmen. Already the smoke was a deterrent to the work going on. The hatches had been shut immediately, but smoke had already sought openings in which to dissipate. Later, bodies would be found that had suffocated from smoke inhalation, and Pee Eye would be among them. All the quarters had curtains for privacy to the rooms, not doors, so smoke had no barrier to the vital quarters.

Cowboy was trapped by closed hatches, but he was far enough down the ladders that there was little smoke inside his catacomb. His flight helmet went on reflexively because there was a certain amount of safety within its confines. He knew there was no use in trying to open the hatch; it was locked securely for his safety. He only wanted to know what had happened, but all he knew was that there had been an intense explosion, and he didn't know if it had happened on the flight deck or the hangar deck, each of which would be catastrophic.

Further below in the ready room, BL heard the explosion and got on the phone to call the officer of the day, because he knew the flight engineer and the air boss would both be frantically occupied. When the OD answered, he didn't wait for the caller and yelled, "The hydraulic fluid exploded. The flight deck is in chaos, as well as the hangar deck. Stay where you are. You can't help!" Then he hung up. BL now could only hope his two men were safe, but he also knew of the possibility that they were not.

With nothing more to do, BL told all the other aviators in the ready room what he had learned, and he looked at the ever-ready coffee pot and Danishes that a yeoman always kept available. He poured himself a cup of coffee with unsteady hands, holding the cup with both hands to be sure he didn't spill any of the coffee on his uniform, and then he sat down. His thoughts were on Sorry and Cowboy because he didn't know of the change between Done It and Cowboy. He took a ledger pad and began trying to think of pertinent facts about the two aviators in case he had to inform the captain of the ship or the admiral about his men, whom he assumed to be dead. He couldn't reach his quarters where his files were kept because the hatches down here were automatically locked, too.

Everyone in the ready room was in as much shock as BL. These were the aviators of the air group, and they also knew men who would have been on the flight deck or the hangar deck. The commander of the air group, or CAG, was in a similar daze. He walked over to BL and stared at him for a few seconds, waiting for BL to talk. BL nodded his head, and that answered the CAG that disaster had struck his detachment. After being at sea for the seven and a half months, these leaders could read each other's body language as well as their verbalizations. The CAG knew that the first to launch were always the two aviators from the photo recon detachment. He put a hand on BL's shoulder in a gesture of condolence, and BL almost couldn't control the tears that were partly mixed with anger. How could this have happened? he wondered, and he was angry that he couldn't get an answer to his question.

Throughout the ship the much-practiced drills were now realities, and every man aboard knew what his duty involved. The firefighters division had donned suits of fire retardant, and they were dispatched to the flight deck and hangar deck before the hatches were automatically closed and locked. They were accompanied by medics, whose job it was to determine the lifeless forms from those of the wounded. Colored tags were attached to the bodies, and those who were determined dead and their dog tags removed for identification were soon put into black hurt locker bags. Often it took more than the two men assigned to envelop the remains into these bags, and then they zip up the bag and attach another colored tag indicating these were bodies to be moved to the port side of the flight deck next to the hand lines, to be out of the way of activity on deck.

When the hatches came unlocked, and assembly line was formed to take the injured down to the infirmary. Stretchers were used to transport the wounded, and those whose conditions were most severe were the first to be handed down the ladders until they reached the infirmary for treatment. The passageways were not wide enough for anyone to pass when a stretcher-born casualty was being handed along from group to group.

Medics were there on both decks, and more were with the ship's doctors to assist when the men arrived. Chaplains were also on the alert. The majority of the men aboard were Protestant, and so their chaplain took precedence, then the Catholic priest, and lastly the rabbi. The men who were wounded didn't really care which one came to him, and the Catholic priest gladly offered last rites to anyone requesting it.

Cooks were preparing huge containers of broth flavored with chicken or beef, and some with just broth. After the doctor examined a victim, the man on the stretcher was exited through another door, and a server from the kitchen appeared with a covered bowl with straws for the victims to use to ingest the broth. Dehydration was universal with all the wounded, and this was attended to by the kitchen crew, who kept the large vats holding the broth kept at room temperature so that no one was scalded internally. Two large straws were used so that the broth could be ingested easily. If a casualty was unable to suck with the straws, a specially designed spoon, almost entirely covered but open at the tip, was used to feed the wounded. Here, too, everything was organized due to practice, practice, practice.

All the crew members who were asleep and were awakened by the explosion jumped into the necessary part of their uniforms upon awakening. Some had heat-retardant suits, and as soon as possible they rushed to the decks to assist the fire detachment and the medics. So much practice made this rehearsed action easy to deliver.

About half an hour later, all the hatches were unlocked, and the yeoman entered with two pots of coffee and a stack of Danishes on a tray because he the ready room's supply was gone by now. He was right and was given nods of thanks by the still baffled aviators. The pilots were all thinking, Thank God I was here and relatively safe. Please, God, don't let it be someone I know who bought the farm.

BL waited until the passageways had cleared somewhat, because he knew those occupying them first were the most important. He finally pulled out the files on Sorry and Cowboy, took his phone, and called the personnel officer. A yeoman answered the phone, and BL identified himself and asked if there were any information he could get about who had been killed in his detachment.

"One moment, sir. We are getting reports from all departments with the identities of those killed. The medics have taken dog tags to be positive before we list anyone accidentally."

"I'm sure my two aviators who were in the slots were killed. I've heard from my chief that the planes were destroyed immediately, so I can give you their names. Lieutenant Edmund Sorensen and Lieutenant Allen McAfee Hayes. Do you want their home addresses also, and who will notify their next of kin?"

(Continues...)

---

Excerpted from Cruise Widows by Hope Moore. Copyright © 2014 Hope Moore. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse LLC.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

---