"If ye break faith - we shall not sleep"
Irish Proverb
Dennis White, 5 June 2014
Michael
Just wanted to let you know so that you can put this into the newsletter. I just found out yesterday that we lost one of our own recently. Dennis White (FTM2 USS Reeves 1976 thru 1980) passed away earlier this month due to complications from liver disease. He was on the wait list for a transplant, but it did not happen in time.
Dennis was one of the good guys. He was probably my best friend while I was on the Reeves and we have remained in contact ever since. We did everything together, well almost everything. When I decided to start skydiving, he sat that one out and watched from the ground. He was the first person to get in an airplane with me after I got my private pilot certificate. We were best me at each other’s weddings. He married Barbara Shultz, daughter of Secretary of State George Shultz. We had Secret Service Agents all over the area when they got married at Naval Station Norfolk.
Dennis spent 12 years in the Navy. Dennis was a great technician and an outstanding sailor. After leaving the navy, he spent several years working for Vitro Laboratories and helped design testing protocols for many weapons systems used by the US Navy. After leaving Vitro Labs, he went to work managing the IT System for a Catholic School in Bloomington Indiana.
One of the great things about the USS Reeves Association is that it gives us a chance to renew old friendships and make new ones, based on our association with the Reeves. As I said in an earlier email, being a shipmate is a special relationship that is not well understood by anyone that hasn’t served aboard a ship. These friendships survive decades and even lifetimes. Dennis will be missed by those that knew him. In closing, I would add, that none of us should miss a chance to contact a shipmate, or a friend and just let them know that you are thinking about them. When they are gone it is too late.
I look forward to seeing everyone at the reunion in October.
Fair winds and following seas
Jeff