Two retired sailors from Alabama and NW Florida traveled hundreds of miles to Mayport (Fla.) Naval Station to reunite March 17 under the oaks of the base's memorial park, where there's a marker for the 37 men who died in an attack on their ship. Gary Goodale of Gulf Breeze, Fla., and James Pair of Coffee County, Ala., caught up with each other before the memorial service, which was attended by about 200 people, shipmates, families, and active-duty sailors. It's been 32 years since an Iraqi jet fired two Exocet missiles at the USS Stark, a guided-missile frigate, while it was on patrol in the Persian Gulf on May 17, 1987, during the Iran-Iraq War. Goodale was a mechanic on the ship's jet engines. He was in the main control room of the engineering plant when the missiles struck about 9 p.m. He was among those who worked though the night and into the next day to keep the Stark's power on so the crew could fight the rampaging fires. "We didn't have a choice. Either (save the ship) or swim," he said. "We were out there alone." Pair, a sonar tech, was in Jacksonville when the attack came. His four-year hitch was to have ended the day after the attack. He'd left the ship days before. He could only watch on TV. "I let my shipmates down because I wasn't there." Goodale and Pair both said that in the confusion of the attack, they were both briefly listed as missing in action. The crew was successful: The ship was saved and repaired in 15 months at HHI-Pascagoula, Miss., and sailed until it was decommissioned at Mayport in 1999. (Source: Jacksonville.com 05/17/19) Among the 37 casualties aboard Stark were four from Gulf Coast (GC) states: Bradley Brown of Calera, Ala.; Ronnie Lockett of Bessemer, Ala.; Jeffrey Sibley of Metairie, La.; and Vincent Ulmer of Bay Minette, Ala.
Shipbuilding and maritime related news from the Central Gulf Coast region
