First Married Christmas

By John E. O’Neil Jr., Captain, USN (Ret.)

Carol and I were wed on Saturday, Feb. 13, 1971, at the US Navy Hospital Chapel in Newport, R.I., where I was stationed on a Navy warship.

On Wednesday, Dec. 1, 1971, Carol came down to the pier to see the ship depart. It was very windy and cold, as winter had arrived. The ship left at 4 p.m., and we began a six-month cruise to the Mediterranean Sea.

Christmas 1971 found me in Rome, Italy, on a USO-sponsored three-day tour up from Naples, Italy. I had a ticket to attend the Papal Mass. I was seated in a long pew behind the pope’s altar—about 100 feet away—but could see fine. I wondered how Carol was doing back in frosty Newport with her Siamese cat as I watched Pope Paul VI say Mass. The music was tremendous—very emotional as the pope broadly smiled and blessed the entire congregation.

I had tossed some Italian lira into the Trevi Fountain in hopes of “financing” a return to Rome someday with Carol. Unbeknownst to me then, we would return many times over the next 45 years, both while I was a Navy officer and as retirees.

At 2 p.m., the bus departed Rome on a four-hour trek back to the ship. I had a great mail call waiting from Carol, to include a box of her holiday cookies!

Rome was incredible, but I missed my Carol so much! Little did we know we would have nine more such holiday deployments!