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Wandering father of
Emma, former C.O. of Jack
Waller, often promoted and often demoted officer in
the U.S. Navy, and definitely dead resident of Poco Cabesa.
At least, we think he is.
Cap'n Roy, despite his
many positions of authority, was a man who never quite grew
up. Brilliant but erratic, he graduated from the Naval Academy
and went directly to the Korean "police action"
in 1951.
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Roy's
father at son's Academy graduation.
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(Above)
CV-47 U.S.S. Philippine Sea, upon which Cap'n Roy served.
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three years off the Korean peninsula sending Corsairs off
of carriers and staying in harm's way. Outspoken about tactics
and strategy, real promotions consistently passed him by.
But the men on the flight-deck worshipped his name. |
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Kicked upstairs to Navy
operations HQ in Tokyo, he vainly campaigned for the quick
introduction of jets and greater coordination between Air
Force and Navy planning. All this made him about as welcome
as a nonbeliever at a Baptists' convention in Tulsa.
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Cap'n
Roy was aboard the carrier that fished out Virgil
"Gus" Grissom.
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So they shoved him off
to the nuclear Navy and once again he thrived. The rush
and effort to bring the super-carriers to life appealed
to his sense of adventure and challenge. To get the job
done they could expand upon the rules and push the envelope.
But, like always, success
brought new oversight and Cap'n Roy found himself writing
reports instead of specifications. Not one to keep his own
counsel, he soon irritated people above him who are best
left unirritated.
Due to these circumstances,
his superiors generously granted him early retirement and
he went home. Or thought he went home.
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Unfortunately, Emma's
mom threw him out of her life shortly thereafter, much to
his relief. It seems they both discovered the mistake that
was their marriage whenever they were together for more
than two weeks.
By this time, daughter
Emma was awash in post-adolescence and thoroughly resented
her absent father. He would find no solace in her attitude.
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Young
Cap'n Roy at jujitsu championships, 1951.
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Adrift, Cap'n Roy sort
of bobbed around the oceans of life until he washed ashore
on Poco Cabesa. The atmosphere of hopeless possibilities
appealed to his pugnacious side. The price of rum delighted
his thirst.
Still full of dreams
and big plans, Cap'n Roy sweet-talked (he thought) Her
Majesty Gertrude into leasing him a stretch of beach
on the edge of Medillo
Grande. There he planned to build the kind of resort
that would attract the world's rich and famous.
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Typically, dreams and
reality committed murder-suicide in Cap'n Roy's world and
what he wound up with were a simple collection of shacks
by the water, a bleeding ulcer, and a distressingly distended
liver.
When Jack arrived, aging
Roy took heart and his dreams expanded once again, but his
and Jack's dreams far outpaced their ability to pay. They
eventually took to soothing their entrepreneurial spirits
with some of the island's distilled spirits.
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| Her Majesty
Gert built Cap'n Roy this house inside her palace
grounds. |
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While Cap'n Roy is, indeed,
legally dead, there is some debate on the island as to just
how dead he really is, since many island residents claim
to have seen his ghost wandering the island with a Waring
blender under one arm and a bag of ice and a bottle of rum
under the other.
Of course, that fits
the description of a lot of folks on Poco Cabesa after dark.
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The trouble isn't
that there are too many fools, but that the lightning isn't
distributed right.
-- Mr. Twain |
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