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VS-22 S-3A BUNO: 160137 Born: September 8, 1953 Died: October 21, 1986 Hometown: Unknown |
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VS-22 S-3A BUNO: 160137 Born: September 8, 1953 Died: October 21, 1986 Hometown: Unknown |
One evening in October 1986, while cooking steaks on the grill, accidentally spilling beer on the goods, a news flash popped up on the tube. "Aircrew lost from USS JFK CV-67". I immediately started recording with my VHS recorder. It showed CAG in a personal moment, and hoping that his worst fears would not be realized. Well they were and it was a S-3A crew. Now, I wondered who it might be. Kim Morgan, Pappy Tilley or any other SENSO that I had trained or Debriefed down at "The Flight Deck".
Well it was Roy Childress and my heart sunk to my feet. It was just last year (1985) when I made Chief that Roy was going through the Cat II syllabus at "VSSU". Roy somehow got a hold of my charge Book and put some real sweet things in it (YEA YOU BET).
That was Roy. Always a team player. He loved his life, job and country. You could not like Roy. He was "Everyman". If you ever wanted a brother, friend, Best Man; Roy was the model to go buy. His sister used to come out to the Base and place flowers there at the memorial , on his birthday every year. We lost a lot when we lost him , then again maybe we lose part of ourselves, memories both good and bad..
In closing, the most striking thing about Roy was he was such a gentleman. (Not a stuffy puffed up; I'm better than you are) but a person who genuinely cared about who you were and what you were doing.
Thank You Roy for leaving us your Legacy!!!!
Roger Sends
AWCM (Ret.) Gary D. Johnson:
I was sadden to see that none of AW1 Roy Childress' shipmates have contributed to his memorial page. I met Roy for the first time while visiting the TSC at Cecil Field and renewed our acquaintance when his
squadron embarked on USS John F Kennedy (CV-67) in the spring of 1986 in
preparation for our 1986 deployment to the Mediterranean. The image of his
broad smile and bubbly personality remains with me to this day. He launched
with his crew on a beautiful clear October day on a routine freelance
surface search event and simply did not return. No trace of the aircraft or
crew was ever found. Roy was the kind of person you liked immediately and
felt as if you had known all your life. He was a super operator and a true
shipmate. His death left a void in our lives that can never be filled. Rest
in peace Shipmate!
AWC Mike Larson:
Roy was my class leader in AW "A" school in 1982-3. He was cross rating
from QM to AW. As a Second Class Roy seemed larger than life to me as an
Airman. He made it clear from the first day we met in A school that his
passion was to fly in S-3's. He was, of course, top dog in our class and
was always there to help us junior guys along no matter what it was. He eat
up everything that had to do with being an AW. When it came time for our
class to graduate "A" school there were very few orders to fleet squadrons.
At the time the ASW Mods on carriers were hurting pretty bad and Roy was
sent to one of the carriers on the East coast. I was ordered to the ASWOC
in Moffett, due to no orders to fleet squadrons being available, and ended
up with orders to ASWOC school. I met up with Roy again in Dam Neck later
in '83 both of us going to school, he was pretty upset that he had to go to
the carrier. He wasn't mad because of the orders, Roy was a sailors sailor,
he wasn't afraid of going to a boat, he was mad because he would have to
wait to go to a squadron- An S-3 squadron, which is what he had wanted to do
so badly from the beginning. Some time later, he did end up in an S-3
squadron. I found out about the mishap in the Navy Times, it was quite
ironic, but he died doing what he had a passion for. Not just a passing
fancy, a true passion.