Does anyone remember?

I caught a Facebook post by a friend about the Mohammed Ali versus Ken Norton fight in Zaire today. It seems that today is the 40th anniversary of this "significant" event.

Forty years ago, I was serving aboard USS Independence CV-62 on my first overseas deployment to the Mediterranean Sea/Sixth Fleet.

On 8 September 1974, TWA Flight 841 went down in the Ionian Sea to the West of Greece. The entire Task Force was directed to assist in the Search and Recovery.........................I was three days shy of turning 20 at the time. We had already covered the evacuation of the US Embassy in Nicosia, Cyprus. Does anyone remember?

Seems that the PLO or some other terrorist organization had put a bomb aboard TWA 841 and it went in. The speculation continues to this day about who is actually responsible.

We did as we were supposed to do.................
About 36 hours mostly dead in the water..................the ship held position into the wind for helicopter operations.....................

I was in line at the forward chow hall/bomb assembly area when a bomb elevator came down...............................on it were two Stokes Stretchers with body bags....................
Impact. It is still with me to this day.
The one had a child's toy on it........................

Today, I say Shepard Smith on Fox News and one of Mohammed Ali's daughters having a love fest about how awesome the draft dodging scum bag was.........................

I still remember when Ali refused to show after receiving his draft notice and making it a big deal because of who he was................................
I remember the Vietnam War from TV news and the fact that I had a Draft Lottery Number in the last draft.......................................I still enlisted in the Navy.

I have done more in a single fucking day than Mohammed Ali and his entire family have done in their collective lives for this country that I love.

The fucker gets a pass? Jeebus! I am sorry that he has Parkinson's. My Great Aunt Serina had it as well. She still loved good Canadian Whiskey and taught school for many years.

Oh Yeah. My lottery number in the 1973 Draft was 334, if memory serves. I still enlisted.

Mohammed Ali and the rest of his enablers and entourage can go to hell....................Just sayin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TWA_Flight_841_(1974)