Bug’s Prayer
Prayer written by CDR John “Bug” Roach
1944-1991
Lord, we are the nation! We celebrate our birthday on July 4th, 1776, with the Declaration of Independence as our birth certificate.
The bloodlines of the world run in our veins because we offer freedom and liberty to all whom are oppressed. We are many things and many people. We are the nation.
We sprawl from the Atlantic to the Pacific, to Alaska and Hawaii. Three million square miles throbbing with industry and with life. We are the forest, field, mountain and desert. We are the wheat fields of Kansas, the granite hills of Vermont, and the snow capped peaks of the Sierra Nevada. We are the Brooklyn Bridge, we are the grain elevators in the farm belt, we are the Golden Gate. We are the nation.
We are 213 million living souls, and yet we are the ghosts of millions who have lived and died for us. We are Nathan Hale and Paul Revere. We are Washington, Jefferson and Patrick Henry. We are Lee, Grant, Abe Lincoln and George Bush. We are the famous and the unknown. We are presidents, we are paupers. We are the nation.
We stood at Lexington and fired the shot heard around the world. We remember the Alamo, the Maine, Pearl Harbor, Inchon and the Persian Gulf. When freedom calls, we answer. We left our heroic dead at Belleau Wood, on the rock of Corregidor, on the bleak slopes of Korea, in the steaming jungles of Vietnam and under the rubble of Beirut. We are the nation.
We are schools and colleges, churches and synagogues. We are a ballot dropped in a box, the harmonious voice of a choir in a cathedral, the crack of a bat and the roar of a crowd in a stadium. We are craftsmen, teachers, businessmen, and judges. We are laborers and nurses. We are parents and we are children. We are soldiers, sailors and airmen. We are peaceful villages, small towns and cities that never sleep. Yes, we are the nation, and these are the things that we are.
We were conceived in freedom, and dear God, if you are willing, in freedom we will spend the rest of our days. May we always be thankful for the blessings you have bestowed upon us. May we be humble to the less fortunate and assist those in need. May we never forget the continuing cost of freedom.
May we always remember that if we are to remain the land of the free, we must continue always to be the home of the brave. May our wishbone never be found where our backbone should be. May we possess always, the integrity, the courage and the strength to keep ourselves unshackled, to remain always a citadel of freedom and a beacon of hope to the world.
We are the nation….. this is our wish… this is our hope and this is our prayer…Amen
Commander
John “Bug” Roach
United States Navy
1944-1991
CDR Roach was born in Monterey, Calif. and received his Naval Aviator wings in 1966. He served as an F-8 Crusader pilot and Landing Signal Officer (LSO) during the Vietnam War, making combat cruises with three different air wings on three different 27C class carriers. In 1990 the Navy League sponsored an award to recognize professional LSO performance, on the LSO platform.
Based on his unsurpassed expertise on the LSO platform, the Navy League felt very strongly that they wanted to name the award the “CDR John “Bug” Roach Paddles Award”, while CDR Roach was still on active duty.
At the 1990 Tailhook Convention, where the first award was presented, the following facts were supplied about CDR Roach’s LSO career:
He made four separate CAG LSO tours. In addition he was recalled on two other occasions as a ready alert CAG LSO due to his expertise. During his tenure as a CAG LSO he waved without mishap:
- ten barricade arrestments
- twenty single engine approaches
- five aircraft missing main landing gear
- two A-4 aircraft with major battle damage
- the first ever S-3 with an unlocked wing
- a night, hand-held radio (PRC-90), talkdown of six aircraft with no meatball and with the flight deck illuminated by the headlights of flight deck tractors, following a total engineering casualty on the ship.
Subsequent to these accomplishments, when events began heating up in the Middle East in 1990, CDR Roach volunteered his services as CAG LSO yet again and deployed with CVW-2 to the war zone. It was on this cruise that he made his 1,000th arrested landing.
In more than 25 years of Naval service, CDR Roach never had a non-flying tour.
On 2 October 1991 while on an adversary flight in an A-4E off the coast of Southern California, CDR Roach was killed when his aircraft lost power and he was unable to successfully eject from the stricken aircraft.
When my sons are old enough ask me what a hero means, I will point them to Bug’s example. — Jetman
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