Navy Vet Has Poignant Return to Former Ship

More than 60 years ago, Gerald Bowman ended his four-year tour as a engine mate on the USS Laffey, and he didn't spend much time over the next decades thinking about his old ship.

"I had lost contact with her," Bowman said on Friday while standing in the engine room he operated while fighting in the Korean War. "Raising a family and going about your daily business, it was not one of my priorities."

In failing health, given less than a year to live by doctors, Bowman on Friday returned to the historic 69-year-old Navy gunship. The trip was funded by the Dream Foundation, a California-based charity that provides gifts and trips to chronically ill patients and their families.

A flood of emotions overcame the 82-year-old Elkins, Ark., resident as he stood next to his old bunk and explained to crowd of onlookers how the Sumner-class destroyer's engines operated.

"It means a lot to go below decks... and I get emotional," Bowman said. "There are a lot of memories here."

Bowman just assumed those memories were long gone. When he left the ship in 1954, he never really looked back. Few ships of that era still survive, but the Laffey has been on display at Patriots Point since the 1970s.B

By chance, while watching TV with his daughter, they came across a documentary on the Laffey. He was immediately overcome with emotion, his daughter, Kim Bowman Billings, said.

"He told me that he would love to just walk her decks just one more time," Billings said. "He told me he could even find his old bunk."

Bowman recalled to a small audience harrowing tales of war. He described working in 120-degree heat below deck for up to 12 hours at a time. The ship would rock when its canons fired, and he could feel enemy fire strike the water all around the ship.

Despite the tough conditions, Bowman said most of his memories from the Laffey are positive.

"I just wanted to come back and see actually what happened to me in my early 20s," Bowman said. "I think the bottom line was the four years changed me. I was a different person when I left."

CKE Restaurants, Inc.—parent company of Carol’s Jr. and Hardee’s  brands—has been a longtime partner with Dream Foundation. The restaurant chain, along with Hampton Inn at Patriots Point, funded Bowman's trip to Mount Pleasant.