UNDERWAY! SHIFT COLORS! The beginning of Sea Term is an event. The Academy swells with pride and bristles with excitement as the time approaches. Children and pets run among the boisterous crowd that crams the pier and overflows onto the parade field. Many people hoist brightly colored banners and balloons. Others wave ornate, hand made signs proclaiming last minute well wishes. They cheer, some cry, and all revel in it.
Then it comes. UNDERWAY! SHIFT COLORS! The proclamation is very significant to mariners. It declares a major change in ship's status and it signals that fact to the outside world. The phrase is synonymous with beginning. Underway! Shift Colors! Prompts action. The National Ensign is hoisted smartly to the mast top, all lines are recovered on deck, the whistle sounds, the Sea Term begins.
Aboard ship the beaming cadets, new to the sea and this tradition, nervously man the rail. They stretch to catch last glimpses of home and family without appearing too obvious. Their laughter is louder today; they talk faster. They cover it well; youthful anticipation always overcomes fear. Even still, the raw emotions permeate the crisp salt air. This is the big day for new cadets heading out for the first time. It is a colossal day for the uninitiated parents and loved ones unfortunately remaining behind.
On an earlier morning, my wife and I, then the parents of a proud Youngie, stood on the pier in the lee of a small brick building, hiding from the biting wind. We were celebrating the start of Sea Term. Except for the weather (it was very cold that day) events proceeded almost identically.
We had no idea where he was, away up there, among all of those young faces at the rail, and he could not recognize us either, apart in the crowd. But, we waved to him just the same. To a career Navy family, leaving was ordinary stuff. We were seasoned to it. Regardless, like most of the parents, we were caught up in the delightful moment. However customary the proceedings seemed, we discovered that this was no ordinary departure.
Oblivious to the cold, I recalled warmer days when he was a child waving to me from the arms of his mom as my ship retreated into the stream. He grew up on Navy bases. He saw me off to sea countless times. He understands this. He will be okay. The resounding blast of the horn startled me. His ship was backing. As if somehow bound to it, the crowd surged forward, seemingly pulled to the edge of the quay only to be abruptly and mercilessly cut off from them by the sea.
He was truly underway then, undeniably out of reach, and moving slowly out of touch. Ironically, we had come full circle.
My wife and I stood silently, huddled against the frigid wind, watching the ship gain speed and grow smaller and smaller in the distance. As the clamor subsided and loved ones began to slowly drift away, the magnitude of that simple occurrence unexpectedly began to dawn, on all of us, I suspect.
With the familiar pronouncement, "Underway! Shift Colors!" he was gone; off to sea and his new beginning. We were left with an empty berth. The declaration (which I had always related to new adventures and excitement) had taken a new twist. At that moment, life in our home was forever changed. Too suddenly, it seems, he was grown.
I saw that same realization on many faces today, along with the concern, and the questions.
The departure routine is deeply ingrained in the spirits of every sailor and his family. But no matter how often it is repeated the apprehension, the excitement, the mystique, it is a wonderful adventure. Getting underway and heading out to sea is an adventure each and every time..
They are Underway! They have Shifted Colors! They are Beginning!
Cdr Curt Murphy, 5th Company Officer