On March 17, 2015, the San Diego Union Tribune (
visit link) ran the following story:
"USS Midway fulfills dying vet's wish
By Jeanette Steele | 4:48 p.m. March 17, 2015
When 85-year-old Bob Mountz arrived at the USS Midway Museum on Tuesday, his heart, he said, fluttered up toward his throat.
The former Navy hospital corpsman served aboard the Midway for two years in the mid-1950s, toward the end of the Korean War. He hadn’t seen the aircraft carrier since.
So it was, you might say, the wish of a lifetime to see the old ship again.
Mountz, from Fort Wayne, Ind., is dying of lung cancer.
His daughter nominated him to be sponsored by a charity that grants the final wishes of older people. The Denver-based group Wish of A Lifetime covered Mountz’s travel and hotel expenses in San Diego this week.
Daughter Laura Miller knew her dad would want to see the flattop. He had made a bucket list after receiving a diagnosis of Stage 4 cancer, and it included a reunion with the Midway.
“He talks about the war all the time,” said Miller, who accompanied her father to San Diego along with her sister Debbie Mountz.
And sure enough, standing with the help of a cane in the old ship’s hospital, the former sailor launched into a story about battling to save pilots who had crash-landed.
“There was a lot of good. More than bad,” Mountz said about the memories.
Veteran Bob Mountz was greeted by this sign aboard the USS Midway Museum on Tuesday. / photo by Jeanette Steele * U-T San Diego
Museum docent Wayne Steele, a corpsman from the Vietnam War era, thought he was going to give the distinguished visitor a tour. But Mountz seemed to need no introduction to the Midway.
“I want to see where my old desk was,” he said immediately upon arrival.
There were many nice touches, courtesy of the Midway staff.
Mountz was welcomed by an old photo of himself in “crackerjacks,” the dark dress uniform worn by sailors through the decades.
The lively dark eyes of the photo speak of long-ago days for Mountz.
But his face was aglow several times Tuesday morning — especially when he stopped to explain to his daughters how F4U Corsairs, like the one on display, “came out of the sun at 500 miles an hour” to land on the bobbing ship’s deck.
Also, no one knew if Mountz would be able to navigate the set of steps necessary to descend to “sick bay.” So two sturdy master-at-arms sailors from the nearby Navy Region Southwest office were in attendance to carry him down the stairs if needed.
In the end, the old corpsman managed the steps under his own steam.
After all the attention Tuesday, Mountz concluded, “I felt like I died and went to heaven.'”