Leadership, at its most basic level, means to serve others. A good leader knows that the objective is to get the job done – not to make sure that you receive the glory. I thought about this as I put together a web site containing the photos of the USS Cumberland Sound (AV-17) where my father served as an officer during World War II.
The Cumberland Sound was commissioned in 1944, the war ended in 1945, and the ship was decommissioned in 1947. What a short life for a ship with a crew of over a thousand. The Cumberland Sound was a sea plane tender. She was one of those unheralded service ships that kept the fleet going. You don’t see sea plane tenders in the war movies, and the men who served on them don’t have tales of glory to tell. They simply did their job and they did it well.
I hope you’ll take a few minutes to take a glimpse into the past to see how men served. More than that, I hope you can come away with a greater appreciation for the importance of the unseen work that must be done. A leader understands that leadership means service to others.
My Father, Richard Dunnette Link, was a Naval Aviator pilot during WWII. He and his crew served in the South Pacific and flew a PBM. They were based on the Cumberland Sound. My Father will be 91 years old on September 3rd. He lives with me, his daughter, plus 4 dogs. Thank you!
That’s great!! I love hearing from those that my father served with. I hope you will be able to show him the photos at http://adjutant.com/cumberlandsound/ so that he may enjoy them. Please keep in touch!
I have been researching my heritage. Unfortunately I never had the privilege of knowing my grandfather, William T. Williams, who served on the USS Cumberland Sound while serving in WWII but with sites life this it paints a picture of a period in my grandfather’s life that he was so very proud of…thank you!
Thanks for the reply, Amy. Going back to this post made me realize that I had not updated the link for the Cumberland Sound site. Since the post was first written, I have gotten the cumberlandsound.org domain name. I just added some new photos yesterday that were sent to me from the son of the ship’s gunnery officer. I hope to send out a mailing to the men listed on a veteran’s association roster that my dad had. It would be great to find that some of them are still alive.