On July 4, hours before fireworks filled the night sky over the USS Kidd, there were quieter sounds that would have been familiar to those who served aboard the old Navy destroyer. Morse code.

(Editor’s Note: Dr. Wayne Shearer, 94, is a retired optometrist and retired colonel from the U.S. Air Force Reserve now living in Hixson. In his early 90s, he decided to sit down and write from memory ...