On Memorial Day, I often think about the USS Stark. My brother was aboard when it was struck by two missiles in May 1987. He survived. That fact has shaped how I experience this day, and while I am always grateful he survived, I am also always aware of the 37 sailors who did not come home.
I also think about Tim Porter. Tim and I knew each other briefly before he shipped out on the Stark for that fateful voyage. It wasn’t a long relationship, but I’ll never forget who he was. In May of 1987, I was on my honeymoon in California when the attack happened. We didn’t have access to info back then like we do now. It was much later that I learned that Tim was in the water for 10 hours before he was rescued, and called a miracle.
I remember being relieved to learn that Tim had survived the attack at the time. Much later I also came to understand that he carried a heavy burden afterward, the kind that survivors sometimes carry when they are left asking why they lived when others did not. Survivor’s guilt that he never got over. And then I heard that he died by suicide, and the sadness I felt then has stayed with me all these years.
There isn’t much more to say than that, at least not in a way that makes sense of it. I was compelled to write this post to memorialize him because when I tried to google him, nothing came up. He deserves to also be remembered, so here is his post. I’ve gone to the annual memorial ceremony in Mayport, Florida a few times. He is memorialized there- in the news clippings they’ve saved, and the exhibit they set up. But apparently there isn’t anything online, which is why I wanted to create this post on my blog. Tim Porter was on the Stark, he survived, but later died. I think he was from Georgia. If I go back for another Mayport memorial I will update this post with more info. I do have one picture I’ll add here that describes his time in the water after the attack.
So, on this Memorial Day, I remember the crew of the Stark, my brother among them, and I remember Tim too.
