DIEGO GARCIA, British Indian Ocean Territory (Dec. 27, 2020) – Service members and civilians attended a memorial service for an island resident Dec. 27, 2020 onboard U.S. Navy Support Facility Diego Garcia at the base gym.
Michael ‘Mickey’ Spillane was the director of the United Seaman’s Service on Diego Garcia and passed away at his home on the island Dec. 22.
During the ceremony, service members and civilians sat 6 feet apart.
There were 60 chairs in the gym, and every chair was occupied. The color guard presented a U.S. flag that had been flown aboard one of the Maritime Prepositioning Ships in honor of Mickey, and several guest speakers told stories about how much Mickey meant to the residents of Diego Garcia.
Mickey managed many liberty establishments before becoming the United Seaman’s Service Center Director. Patrons of the Seaman’s restaurant could find Mickey checking in on people and making sure they were having a good time.
“That would always brighten up my day,” said Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Yannick Moise, a preventative medicine technician assigned to Navy Medicine Readiness Unit Diego Garcia. “He always showed that he cared. He’d always make sure that people are okay. He’d give me a lot of life advice. He was always there to listen. It meant a lot more to me than maybe he knew. There’s a lot of lessons in life that he taught me that I’m going to carry on.”
Mickey was a U.S. Army veteran and continued his dedicated service through his work in multiple Morale Welfare and Recreation programs.
“He had a wide-range influence,” said Lt. Cmdr. Jason Arant, the chaplain on NSF Diego Garcia. “I don’t know that there’s anybody who knew people at the granular level like he did. He’d come alongside of people very intentionally. He didn’t just work somewhere. He came alongside everyone and invested in people and relationships, and that’s critical. Everyone knew and loved Mickey.”
| Date Taken: | 12.28.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 12.28.2020 04:12 |
| Story ID: | 385853 |
| Location: | IO |
| Web Views: | 73 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, In Memoriam: Honoring Michael ‘Mickey’ Spillane, by PO3 Mariterese Merrique, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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