This Christmas, Larry “Gene” Hayes of Tennessee brought his family to visit the USS Orleck, where he worked as a sonarman detecting enemy submarines during the Korean War.
Hayes visited the Orleck for the first time in October. Seeing the ship for the first time in over 60 years had a big impact on him, he said, and he resolved to bring his family to see it soon.
Hayes said he wanted his grandchildren — two of them the same age as he was when aboard the ship — to see where he lived and worked as a young man.
“I grew up on this ship from a boy into a man,” Hayes said.
Hayes retraced his old steps aboard the Orleck on Thursday and answered the family’s many questions.
Hayes’ youngest grandson, Levi Hodnett, 12, said he was shocked by its complexity.
“It’s very intriguing to see a piece from 1950, to see how everything worked,” Levi said. “I’ve never seen so many wires in one place.”
Levi’s brother Lane, 18, described it as “stepping back in time.” Luke, 20, said he enjoying seeing firsthand what his grandfather had talked about for so long.
“We finally put a picture to what he has been saying ... where he ate, where he slept, where he worked,” Luke said.
Hayes said his two trips have made him passionate about seeing the ship preserved.
“This was not just a ship,” Hayes said. “This was a famous ship.”
He said the Orleck is now in poor condition and needs more funding from both the government and local people. His wife Billy said she hopes the ship can be preserved so that young people, like her grandchildren, can learn about the sacrifices others have made for their freedom.
“We’ll be praying that good things happen to the Orleck,” she said.
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