Copyright Lewiston Morning Tribune
From jamming enemy radar in the Persian Gulf to running chili feeds at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post in Lewiston, Navy veteran Rockey A. Davis stays busier than a deckhand on swabbing duty. Much of his life’s work always kept him close to the ocean, even nowadays living near this nation’s farthest inland seaport. “When I was a service officer, the St. Maries veterans all said they moved there because they wanted to get away from the water,” says the 73-year-old Davis with a laugh. He doesn’t mind the ocean one way or the other, but he doesn’t miss it after being deployed five times on five different aircraft carriers: the USS Kitty Hawk, the USS Forrestal, the USS Nimitz, the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and the USS Abraham Lincoln. He retired in 1995 with the rank of aviation electrician’s mate senior chief, after seeing action during conflicts across the world. While most Americans watched the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis play out on the nightly news, Davis was a young sailor on the USS Kitty Hawk, which was sent to the North Arabian Sea to support air operations. The crisis began after Iranian students overran the U.S. embassy, taking 66 U.S. citizens hostage and holding 52 of them for 444 days. To Davis and his crewmates, the situation felt tense. “All of the sudden there were T-shirts saying, ‘Nuke ’em till they glow,’ ” Davis recalls. Davis had other deployments in that part of the world during times of conflict. He was also there to help enforce the no-fly zone in the Persian Gulf after Gulf War One. During that time, he worked with radar-jamming missions that ended up with the bombing of surface-to-air missile sites. He says he didn’t feel threatened despite the deadly warfare. “I felt safe,” Davis says. “We had fighters and aggressive aircraft, bombers.” Comfort with weapons has translated to his community service work. Davis volunteers at the Lewis-Clark Wildlife Club’s public shooting range east of Lapwai on Tom Beall Road. He works as a range officer there, helping take care of the facility. He also volunteers on his church’s security team, carrying a weapon and creating plans in case the church is attacked. “Everyone on our security team is armed,” he says. Davis and his wife have two kids, who also served in the military. He had a second career as a veterans service officer for the state of Idaho for 10 years. Today he is in his second year as commander of VFW Post 10043, which has 359 members, making it the state’s second-largest post behind Boise. Recently, he started partnering with Serengeti Care of Lewiston to help raise money for people who need home health services. The first fundraiser was a chili cookoff in October. The VFW will host a bakeoff this month. Ferguson can be reached at dferguson@lmtribune.com.
