EMC(SW) Thomas Bates - In Memorium - 1975-2005
Tom was one of the best sailors I ever had the pleasure to serve with, an outstanding electrician and one hell of a nuke. We reported to the Reagan around the same time, my class fresh from Prototype, him just finishing a staff pickup instructor tour there. Before he’d joined the Navy, he’d spent a couple of years playing Fullback for NC State, and he still had the size, speed, and strength of a football player. Those traits, combined with piercing blue eyes, shaggy blond hair, and coastal NC easygoing manner and drawl, but it made him popular with the ladies- needless to say, a lot of our shenanigans revolved around that fact.
During the precommissioning days of rotating shiftwork, he’d been on my crew, and while we were all friends, he really turned us into a family; whether it was barbecues at his apartment, karaoke nights at one of our watering holes in Hampton or Newport News, or fishing trips (where the only thing we’d catch would be a buzz), if there was a something going on, Tom was most likely to be either either leading it, or dead center in the middle of the action; he was the one who introduced us to Jaeger Bombs, IPA’s, and (for the non-NC natives on our crew) proper moonshine, and the best stories can’t be repeated- ever. Even after commissioning and moving the ship from Norfolk to San Diego, as our old family drifted apart with transfers, marriages, births, etc, he happily took our new arrivals under his wing, both personally and professionally, and was an older brother and mentor to most of us junior sailors in RE Division.
We were beginning an abbreviated workup cycle in the summer and fall of 2005 (that’s another story altogether- sorry again, USS Nimitz), and were trying to fit 8 months of exercises into 5 months of time left before leaving on our maiden deployment. Right before leaving for one of our composite workups with our battle group, Tom and his roommates had hosted another one of their massive parties at their house in Chula Vista. This time, the drink of the night was Flaming Doctor Pepper, and this was where things started going wrong. At some point during the party, he missed his mouth while doing one of the shots, and suffered some pretty ugly burns. He was officially placed SIQ (sick in quarters) for the underway, and came with us (I STILL don’t know why the department insist he come with us for that one), with painkillers that were prescribed by Medical aboard the ship.
The morning of 12 July 2005 I had the 0200-0700 watch as the 2 plant propulsion electrician. When I went aft to do my inspection of the aft switchboard spaces (accessible through our division’s berthing spaces), I noticed Tom’s rack light on. This wasn’t unusual, as he was always a night owl, and I toyed with the idea of dropping in and checking on him, especially as I knew he wasn’t in the best of moods after the whole party incident. In the end however, I decided to let him get his rest, and I’d talk to him in the morning.
I’ve regretted that decision for the last fifteen years.
A medical emergency was called away to our berthing compartment during XO’s cleaning hour about four hours later, and word spread quickly that Tom had been found in his rack, dead. We all knew that he already had heart problems (he was on medication for murmur), and after a suspiciously brief “investigation” by our afloat NCIS agent, it was ruled an accidental death due to a bad reaction to the painkillers he’d gotten from Medical- they claimed they hadn’t known about his heart medication.
As an epilogue to the story, when Chief results were announced two weeks later, we found that he’d made Chief, and the initiation group aboard the Reagan that year carried his book among themselves, with “never forget” as their slogan.
So here’s to you, old friend. I miss you, and not a day goes by that I don’t wish I’d stopped in to check on you- maybe, just maybe you’d still be with us if I had. I’m sorry. Rest easy, shipmate.