55th in Command Departing

Jack Loren Reifschneider was born on June 10, 1925 in Lincoln, Nebraska.  He was a career navy man. He died this past Saturday, September 20, 2014 at the age of 89 after a brief but courageous battle with cancer.  He was my grandfather's brother.   In the early 70s, he was the Commander of the USS Constitution, otherwise known as "Old Ironsides." Commander Kearns and the current crew of the USS Constitution held a brief ceremony in his honor today.  The 59th in Command, Robert Gillen attended on behalf of himself as a shipmate of Uncle Jack and on behalf of all of the former commanders.  Bernie recorded the very moving tribute; you can watch it here if you are interested.

 

 

Nick wasn't able to join us in person today, but he was there in spirit.  Here is a picture of him folding the flag he got to keep when we attended the turn around cruise as guests of Uncle Jack on July 4, 2010.

 

 

Every family has legends, many of ours involve Uncle Jack. In addition to his distinguished naval career, many people will tell you he was an honorable man. He gave good advice to family, fellow sailors, and friends. He would bring communion to people who could not get to church. When he would joke around, which he loved to do, he would have a glimmer in his eye. Because he spent the majority of his life on the west coast, and I spent the majority of mine on the east coast, we didn't get to spend a lot of time together. We did, however, get almost a whole weekend together in 2001 at our family reunion held in honor of my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary. He looked like my grandfather, he talked like my grandfather, I loved everything about him. He read some material I recently had published and argued with me the whole weekend about how my perspective was all wrong. As the weekend came to a close, he finally admitted that I was at least partly right. I told him I enjoyed our debates. That was the last time I saw him.  This is the Uncle Jack that I remember (photo courtesy of Jodi Totten):

 

 

My dad was lucky enough to see him in July of this year, and took this photo:

 

 

For us, today was about honoring Uncle Jack, but it was also about remembering another navy hero.  Bernie's dad passed away exactly one year ago today. I couldn't have planned a more fitting place for us to be today.  To say that it was emotional, is an understatement.

 

The flag flown over the USS Consitution today in Uncle Jack's honor, along with the certificate, are on their way to Olympia, Washington. They will be displayed at his funeral, next Friday, October 3rd.

 

 

Fair winds and following seas, Uncle Jack.  You were greatly loved and will be missed by many.