USS Intrepid

NEW YORK - Ed Coyne, 92, remembers his childhood in upper Manhattan vividly, and the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 passionately.

"We were attacked. And I love this country," said Coyne. "I don't want to get a soap box, but I really love this country."

Coyne says after Pearl Harbor, he couldn't wait to join the service. But at age 15, all he could do was wait.

"My mother and father wouldn't sign me in, so I went on a hunger strike to get them to sign me in," Coyne said.

Eventually, his parents relented, and at age 17 the Navy stationed Coyne on its newest aircraft carrier, the USS Intrepid. He was part of its first crew.

"It was a tremendous ship," Coyne recalled.

Nearly three football fields long, the Intrepid entered service in the Pacific, hunting enemy warships and taking part in the invasion of the Marshall Islands. Coyne was stationed on the flight deck, manning the fuel pumps and the phones.

"When you're under attack and everything, Coyne said. "you could see what's happening, you could see the ships around us, shooting at the planes.

"We were hit a total of five kamikazes. One had a bomb in it. We were torpedoed once. But they could never sink us," Coyne said.

He says there was no time for fear, even as he lost friends — it was all happening so fast.

"You're fighting like hell," Coyne said. "to get those flames out because you want to stay where its dry."

"You did what you had to do," Coyne added.

After the war, Coyne continued to serve the country as a federal narcotics agent, and a special Customs agent.

The Intrepid continued its service, too, tracking Soviet submarines in the Cold War, retrieving returning astronauts and their capsules, and sending attack jets into the Vietnam War.

Now both are retired — Coyne on Long Island and the Intrepid on the West Side of Manhattan, where for 36 years it has been is a popular tourist attraction.

Coyne says he thinks often of his service and what he calls a simpler time.

"You went to parades when they were there," the veteran said. "You saluted the flag. You sung 'God Bless America' and our national anthem with respect."

He helped in the effort to create the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, eager to celebrate the 75th anniversary with the few other original crew members who are able to make the journey.

"Of course, it's going to bring back memories, but I go to see the people that served on it," Coyne said.

At the ceremony, Coyne was among one of three original crew members and more than 340 people who were stationed onboard during the Intrepid's 31 years of service.

Events are scheduled all weekend, many of them open to the public.