by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
In recognition of this week’s Veterans Day holiday, the Downtown Council of the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce invited Chief Assistant State Attorney Dan McCarthy to address the group at its meeting Friday.
McCarthy is a retired U.S. Navy captain who was a member of the Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps.
He’s also a former director of Military Affairs and chief of the Veterans and Disabled Services Division for the City of Jacksonville.
The 1977 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy’s first duty station was aboard a ship at Mayport. When he retired from the service in 2002, McCarthy and his family settled in Jacksonville and a year later, he signed on with the City, where he served until joining the State Attorney’s Office for the Fourth Judicial Circuit in 2009.
McCarthy said the first question he was asked by Mayor John Peyton was why the military is so important to the community.
“Then I spent six years helping to show him why,” said McCarthy.
He said while many people consider the highlights of Jacksonville’s history to be tied to sports like the Florida-Georgia game, the Gator Bowl and the Super Bowl, the city has a richer history based around the U.S. Navy. Many retirees choose to live in North Florida.
“Jacksonville has evolved into the most military-friendly city,” said McCarthy.
In 1993, when the federal government was closing military bases, Jacksonville gained an even greater armed forces presence. McCarthy said the aircraft maintenance facility at Naval Air Station Jacksonville not only survived the downsizing, it added 2,000 jobs to its payroll, a 50 percent expansion. When the Navy decided to close a base in Maine, its squadron of aircraft and personnel relocated to Jacksonville.
McCarthy also pointed to more public displays of local military pride, including the “Lone Sailor” statue on the Southbank Riverwalk and the Memorial Wall at the Sports Complex.
“It has the names of 2,000 men and women from this community who died to preserve the blessings of freedom and liberty. I go there for inspiration and it makes me wonder if we are worthy of their company,” he said. “Everywhere you look, we are surrounded by the military.”
McCarthy said Downtown was evolving into a center of military heritage and that it makes sense to bring the USS Charles F. Adams to a berth on the Southbank to serve as a military museum.
McCarthy said the Navy has consolidated its East Coast fleet presence to Norfolk, Va., and Jacksonville and its West Coast presence to San Diego and Seattle. Of the four cities, only Jacksonville lacks a retired ship, he added.
McCarthy also said he’s confident that a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier will call Mayport home, an effort that began years ago
“The day I see that carrier pull in, I’ll hear (the late U.S. Rep.) Tillie Fowler in my mind saying, ‘That’s what we needed to evolve into.’ She had a vision and that will be the culmination of her vision,” said McCarthy.
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