Commander Howerton,
I have thought about your post relating to your Uncle Jerry’s passing and I still can’t put your words from my mind. Many Navymen have expressed to me their enjoyment and appreciation of my words, but none have expressed it as eloquently as you have in your portrayal of your Uncle Jerry’s feelings toward what he felt those words meant to him. Just as Stan said, the salt water from sea spray must have got in his eyes, because he could not see his keyboard. I must have been hit by that same sea spray because I had the same problem when I read your thoughts. If my meager words gave Gerald D. Edelen, HMC some solace in his last days on this earth then I have achieved more than I would have ever expected to.

Fair winds and following seas,
E. A Hughes, FTCM (SS)
USN (Retired)