ELYRIA — Donald Rothgery remembers his time aboard the aircraft carrier USS Intrepid like it was yesterday.

When he closes his eyes at night, he still dreams about the ship.

That’s why he couldn’t believe his luck when he was chosen to be one of 250 former crew members to be on the ship as it returned to its place of glory in downtown Manhattan after a two-year overhaul.

“It was overwhelming,” said Rothgery, former clerk of courts in Elyria and Lorain County. “I had reoccurring dreams for years about going back on ship, and to actually do it was surreal.”

Rothgery served on the ship January 1957 to January 1959. He was a yeoman for the captain’s office the first year and was yeoman-in-charge of the gunnery office the second year after being rated a petty officer 3rd class.

On Oct. 2, the day after their 48th wedding anniversary, Rothgery and his wife, Marcia, reported to Staten Island for the historic event.

Rothgery boarded the aircraft carrier, while his wife rode on the escort vessel Atlantica.

The ship was pulled about 10 miles on the Hudson River by a fleet of tugboats to her spot of honor on Pier 86, where some 700,000 people a year visit the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum.

Marcia Rothgery said the view was spectacular as an accompanying fireboat shot red, white and blue spurts of water into the air.

During the daylong series of events, Don Rothgery was interviewed by a number of news organizations, including NBC. He also spotted himself in a photo in The New York Times.

While en route to Pier 86, the aircraft carrier paused at the Statute of Liberty and Ground Zero.

At Ground Zero, Rothgery took part in a solemn flag-folding after a ceremony honoring the 285 crew members and aviators who died in service while aboard the USS Intrepid.

The ceremony was the most moving portion of the event for Rothgery, who himself remembers a tragedy.

He recalled watching two aircraft collide during maneuvers in the Caribbean. By the time rescue crews arrived, sharks had attacked both pilots, and neither survived, he said.

During World War II, the ship played a prominent role in the invasion of the Marshall Islands, the Philippines and Okinawa, Japan, and many sailors and aviators died in battle and in attacks on the ship.

“To me, those were the real heroes,” Rothgery said. “We served in peacetime, but for those guys, it was a constant struggle and they had to fight for their lives. I can imagine how bad that felt going to battle stations and being attacked rather than going to battle stations for drill as we did.”

The ship was damaged again and again over the years.

After a torpedo attack in February 1944, the captain had to jury-rig a sail of wood, canvas and other items to help the ship limp back to Pearl Harbor, Rothgery said.

Rothgery was on board at the height of the Cold War with the Soviet Union, and he recalls seeing nuclear warheads while touring the ship with the captain.

His duties during maneuvers included preparing secret documents to dump overboard with lead weights, he said.

After his tour of duty, Rothgery flirted with the idea of going to Officer Candidate School. Instead, he returned to Elyria, where he was Elyria City Council clerk from 1973 to 1976, Elyria councilman at-large from 1977 to 1979, Lorain County Common Pleas Court clerk from 1983 to 1999 and Elyria Municipal Court clerk from 2000 until his retirement Dec. 31, 2005.

Contact Cindy Leise at 329-7245 or cleise@chroniclet.com.

 

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