Eric’s Blog

We held my retirement roast last Saturday night and it was amazing! I was so thankful for everyone who came to wish us well on the next chapter of our lives.

Adrianne pulled off the party of the year. There were times where I wanted to get involved and help her sort through things, but I wasn’t allowed. I think if I did get involved, I would have tried to make it more low-key and instead, it wound up being one of the best retirements I’ve ever been to.

She had a ton of challenges to work through with COVID shutting down gatherings like this for a whole year leading up to this event. First, we were limited on how many guests we could have. Then, we had to provide hand sanitizer and masks for guests. Eventually, things settled down; the restrictions went away, the extra requirements went away and she was able to find a venue, a caterer, a DJ, a cake-person, an interpreter for our HI friends, decorations, and the party came together beautifully.

Everything was perfect; I could not have imagined a better party. My closest friends and family were there and even a few surprises along the way. Like the video of Pete Cestaro personalizing The Watch for me and my family.

We even had a Google Meet conference set up so that people who couldn’t make it in person could dial into the online conference and participate in the event.

I opted for the roast because I wanted to have some fun, I knew that people had some funny stories about me they wanted to tell, and I don’t like to take things too seriously. My buddy Ed, stole the show with his Lieutenant Pete Mitchell cosplay. He mentioned that I stole a lot of his life from him and when it was time to return shots fired, I totally forgot and just gave the speech I’d prepared.

The big theme of my speech was, “‘Tis the set of the sails and not the gales that tells the way we go.” It’s a quote from my favorite poem by Emma Wheeler Wilcox.

It means that circumstances are irrelevant. What matters is our reaction to the circumstances we find ourselves in. The same boiling water will make a soft egg hard and a hard potato soft. It all depends on what we’re made of and how we decide to look at things. I even had that saying placed on my coin that I gave out to everyone at the party.

My naval career didn’t turn out the way I’d expected. It definitely didn’t end the way I wanted it to. It bothered me for a long time about how things went down towards the end, but i kept my chin up, I kept looking up, I kept moving forward, and things turned out the best way that they could have. In the end, I have a wonderful family, amazing friends, the love of a beautiful woman, and a full life. I am blessed, and I couldn’t be more thankful than I am.

I did have one left-handed compliment for the group; something I’ve wanted to say at my retirement ever since I knew I was going to stick the Navy out to retirement. It was from my favorite literary character, Mr. Bilbo Baggins. At his 111th birthday, he said…

“I don’t know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve…I regret to announce that this is the end. I’m going now…Goodbye.”

I saw a few faces in the audience recognize what I’d said and fill with amusement. I saw many other faces that filled with confusion about what I’d said. The confused faces probably thought I was drunk (which I was) or had never read The Fellowship of the Ring. Either way, I said what I needed to say, I never cried, and I leave the Navy with a full heart.