THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 4, 1995 TAG: 9506020286
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAWSON MILLS, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
T.J. and Pat McCabe of Virginia Beach have traded the seven seas for 30 acres of trees.
In a joint retirement ceremony held in the base chapel at Dam Neck Fleet Combat Training Center Wednesday, the husband-wife team wrapped up 20-year careers in the Navy.
It was an emotional moment for both T.J. McCabe, a chief petty officer, and Pat McCabe, a first class petty officer, as their two teenage children, both sets of parents and a crowd of shipmates and well-wishers looked on.
``I'm fine, I'm great, I'm ready to go,'' said T.J. McCabe before the ceremony. ``I was ready to go yesterday.''
Pat McCabe was a little more somber. ``I'm nervous. I have mixed emotions,'' she admitted. ``I hope I can get through this without crying but I doubt it.''
She had already cried, she said, the night before.
But it was her husband who, while looking back on his Navy career, choked up, his voice filling with emotion. He paused, stepped away from the podium and doffed his hat. Then he continued to reflect upon life in the Navy, only minutes before that part of his life - and his wife's - would draw to a close.
He pulled himself together before the traditional piping over the side marked their transition from active duty military to retired civilians.
Quipping about how good life has been to him he concluded, ``I got a war hero for a wife as well.''
The McCabes are pulling up stakes. They've already sold their trailer to another Navy couple and are heading south to Florida where they own a 30-acre tree farm, growing trees for pulp, cellulose and lumber.
Its in Mayo, where T.J. McCabe, who had broken service, worked as a forest ranger for five of the six years he was out of the Navy in mid-career. It was then that he fell in love with the locale. Pat McCabe professes to love it, too, although her husband said ``She hasn't always been that convinced.''
She said, ``It took awhile.''
T.J. McCabe, who is from Florida, joined the Navy in 1969 and became a hospital corpsman. Pat McCabe, who is from Minnesota, enlisted in 1975 and was trained as an air traffic controller.
She, too, got out, although for only 89 days. They were both undergoing refresher training in Florida when they met in 1979; a month later they were married.
She explained that they wanted to get orders together to the same duty station and being married was the only way to do it.
T.J. McCabe agreed with the reasoning, but said it was love at first sight. He knew right away, he said.
At first it was a little rocky. She had orders to Japan but there was no billet for him. Then she found out she was pregnant. They got together in Minnesota in May 1980 just in time for the birth of their son, Jason. Their daughter Sara was born in February 1983.
Things did work out more often than not. They were in, or based out of, San Diego, Calif., for four years, Jacksonville, Fla., for five and Sigonella, Sicily, for three before reporting to Dam Neck in 1992.
Both changed rates during their time in uniform. When T.J. McCabe rejoined the Navy, he became an aviation systems operator. In 1989, the Federal Aviation Administration ``grounded'' Pat McCabe because of the medication she was taking for a heart condition discovered two years earlier; she became an operations specialist.
Both qualified as aviation warfare specialists and were decorated for service during the Gulf War.
She said she hopes that after their numerous moves, retirement and the final move to Florida will put some stability in the lives of their children.
Sara, now 12 and a sixth grader, wasn't so sure and noted that it's hard to leave friends. Trying to be optimistic, she concluded, ``It sounds nice.''
Jason, now 15 and a sophomore, was more upbeat and agreed with his mother. ``I'm really glad about it. I'm tired of moving.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by DAWSON MILLS
Pat McCabe, a first class petty officer, and her husband, T.J.
McCabe, a chief petty officer, exchange glances during their joint
retirement ceremony in the base chapel at Dam Neck Fleet Combat
Training Center.
by CNB