The United States Navy Memorial Stories of Service Program is honored to announce the September 2018 story of the month has been selected to recognize the service of United States Navy Veteran, Airman Edwin Colon. The United States Navy Memorial Stories of Service Program was privileged to interview Airman Edwin Colon at the USS America reunion at Buffalo New York in the fall of 2015.

Edwin Colon began his Naval career at Recruit Training Command, Great Lakes, in February of 1967. He shared, "boot camp was not that hard, it was fun, even though it was cold because it was February." From boot camp Colon was sent directly to the USS America which was on a Mediterranean Cruise. He recalled, "on the ship... most all of the boot campers go straight to mess cooking, well someone took a liking to me and I went straight up to the flight deck and I never left, for the four years, I was in V-1 Division."  On the flight deck he would participate in a unique duty. He shared, “I did a job that is not well known, in 1967 there was a plane called the A-3...that plane does not have noise wheel steering... someone came up with a brilliant idea to have members of the crew run up when the plane lands and jump on the wing. We are called wing riders." Airman Colon shared vivid details of his first Mediterranean Cruise as if it was yesterday.

One of those memories was the attack on the USS Liberty. He recalled, "I must have been on the ship a few months when the USS Liberty got hit, we lost quite a few sailors. I heard something that in four years, I never heard in my life again, and that was general quarters, general quarters, this is not a drill." He continued by sharing, “we launched two Phantoms that did not have average bombs on them, as far as I was concerned, World War Three had erupted in front of my boot camp eyes.” Events quickly unfolded in front of his eyes and the immediate response of the carrier. His incredible story focused on pivotal moments in the Mediterranean during the Cold War.

The United States Navy Memorial honors United States Navy Veteran, Airman Edwin Colon, featured within this series titled, Stories of Service, Story of the Month. Each month, this series honors a Veteran’s story recorded by the Stories of Service Program at the Navy Memorial. To learn more about this story and to explore the Navy Memorial archive, visit the Navy Memorial Stories of Service site at https://www.navymemorial.org/stories-of-service.