Night Watches. Day Sleep Not Much.

Dad served as a Navy man in subs, during the Korean Conflict. Little known of those days.

How many nights were spent at post, just staring into space?
How many pots of coffee roast to keep a wakeful face?
Why is the sailor's often job, just "Hurry up and wait,"
but when incendiary devices lob, the muscles quickly skate?

"Oh, Dad, so much of what you lived, throughout those days at sea,
are blank, and my own thoughts they give some doubts of what they be.
You sailed a sub. How could they lob grenades, that would mean aught,
unless you surfaced near some land, whose lookouts had you caught?"

War movies fill the blanks it seems of what he'd never say.
Some watches must have fought their sleep and snipers 'til break of day.
My Dad lived in a metal tube to serve his country well,
but were the days oft musty, dank, and sweltering, like some hell?

My heart goes out to all, who served on those old Navy subs.
Though drenched in sweat, they never swerved. Support they plied as hubs
of needed help to those on land, and in the sea they came
with every ounce of strength by hand with days and nights the same.

Dad's in the box we laid to rest so many years ago.
His silent service through each test of things I'll not soon know,
until upon that Golden Shore, we finally do embrace.
I'm proud he served all this before, I came the earth to grace.


Line count: 20
Branch: Navy
Nationality of service: United States of America

by Jay O’Toole
on March 31st, 2026