Chief
Spilmon has had 4 of his 6 children
serve in the Navy, Mark, Maria, Martin and Lia. Lia was privilaged to
serve aboard Kawishiwi like her dad.
Chief Spilmon
remembers:
EMCS
Walters,
where each seemed to have a bit of difficulty while on board Kawishiwi.
It was with the settings on the electrical generators for the ship. The
generators would get out of sync and drop the power. Walters and He
left the Ship at the same time and Walters now lives in Florida.
Lia's words: "I will
always
have this ship in my
heart. My dad Marion A Spilmon MMCM retired, was on Kawishiwi when I
was born.
I was surprised by MSC pac with orders for this ship. It seemed fate. I
got to be on it for its last unrep ever." View: " Lia's
Experiences"
Lia's dad, Marion currently
lives in
Wisconsin where he does visit with other crew members. He moved up
there because land was cheap and the view near the river is beautiful.
Whooping Cranes, the largest bird in North America, is being raised
near by in the wild life refuge.
Lia's husband is a former
Crew member also. He got his SW before she
did. "He asked me out at his going away party. Then he was
stationed on USS Long Beach and left navy when it decommissioned.
He is working with Omni Cell INC. as a field service engineer. It was a
toss up after I retired which one of us would get a job first. I ended
up being the stay at home person for my daughter. "
"The Ships Master
I remember the best was Mr. Butterfield. He had at
least 2 tours on board out of the 2 years 5 months that I had on board.
The normal military USNS tour is only 1 year. I extended and then I was
extended another 5 months until they closed down Radio Central."
View an unofficial version
of Kawishiwi's FINAL
Unrep. It did not
go down as planned. They had some difficulty with that one receiving
station at the time. After the Unrep Kawishiwi hooked up with
another large ship and pumped out most of her fuel and went into Harbor
very lightly loaded and very high off the water. The official last
unrep was, Lia believes, with carrier USS Abraham
Lincoln CVN-72. where
Kawishiwi pumped a couple gallons and that was it.
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