Clouds

Thoughout his autobiography Waiting for Snow in Havana in which, from first page to last he longs for the Cuba of his childhood, Carlos Eire desperately remembers the spectacular Cuban clouds and the brilliant turquoise sea. Going from Cuba into exile in the United States at age eleven, he often bemoans never seeing them again. Well, I think he does once mention a day when he saw Cuban clouds while he was in Miami. 

Early in my Navy career my ship did refresher training at the Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay. We sailed there from Norfolk in January 1959, bitter cold wind and snow battering us as we veered south into the Atlantic Ocean and headed toward Cuba hundreds of miles away. I was 23, Battista, known as a brutal dictator, was fighting Castro in the mountains. In fact as I recall, Castro was in the mountains in the area near Guantanamo where we were headed. I do remember that because of that conflict no one was allowed to leave the naval base. 

But the clouds. My memory of rising, shower and dress in uniform the first morning in Cuba, and coming topside, was that I was home. Warm, humid, and the sky filled with the same enormous white clouds that I'd known all my life growing up on StAndrewsBay in Panama City. Seems to me we were there a month, with our division, DesDiv, of four and destroyer squadron DesRon, of eight destroyers. In part because of my alertness as crypto officer (no really!!), sleeping in the crypto shack, opening and decrypting trick messages meant to test our readiness by catching us off guard in the middle of nights at sea during reftra, our ship scored highest and best of all. His outstanding showing was partly responsible for our skipper, Commander Ward, later becoming Captain Ward, USN. My all time favorite Navy boss, he's long dead, but he was personally responsible for my own below zone promotion from ltjg to lieutenant in December 1960. 

Anyway, Robert likes to quote, was it Dizzy Dean? saying "if you done it, it ain't braggin'", and I done it. And I do remember Carlos Eire's beloved Cuban clouds. We have wonderful clouds here too.

Here's a larger picture of that gorgeous shelf cloud that floated over StAndrewsBay, viewed from 7H porch yesterday at 3:05 pm.

January 1959, Malinda was seven months old, she turns 62 tomorrow, June 25th. And yes, I realize it's Wednesday and that I'd promised a Bible study every Wednesday, but it's my blog and I'll do whatever I DWP.

T+