Posted on April 28, 2021
| 8:01 p.m.
Source: McDermott-Crockett Mortuary
Garrett Michael Van Wyk
Garrett Michael Van Wyk, 85, passed away of natural causes on April 24, 2021, at his home in Santa Barbara. Magnanimity, or greatness of soul, reflects well the 85 larger-than-life years Garrett Michael Van Wyk graced this earth.
Born Aug. 4, 1935 in Bismarck, North Dakota, Garry would soon be hurling fastballs at Roger Maris in Fargo with the American Legion, pushing the aerobatic limits of the T-28 Trojan in Naval flight training over the Florida coast, and assembling the Pacific fleet at sea from inside the USS Hancock.
His eyes would sometimes glisten as he’d describe the reward for his all-night navigational work: witnessing the convergence of the planet’s greatest nuclear task force, the U.S. Pacific fleet, silhouetted against the morning dawn. “The call-sign was ‘Rampage.’ ” he would recall. “I loved our call-sign.”