Farewell to Connie

Directed by Gary Robbins & Cody Long

Local Film Showcase Selection / USA / 2014 / documentary / 21 mins / English

The island of the USS Constellation, the brains of the entire ship. Every day sailors and officers would fill the bridges to command operations throughout the ship. Photo courtesy of Cody Long.

The USS Constellation pulls into San Diego Bay on Monday, June 2, 2003. Dennis St. Onge drives his Woody boatcar in the bay. Photo courtesy of K.C. Alfred U-T

The aircraft carrier Constellation spent most of its life operating out of San Diego. Photo courtesy of Cody Long.

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Plays In:

Salute to the Navy

UltraStar Cinemas Mission Valley at Hazard Center
September 17, 2016 1:00 pm

Description

It was a city within a city. For 41 years, the carrier Constellation- home to as many as 5,500 sailors- operated out of San Diego Bay, where its island became a part of the city’s skyline. More than 160,000 men and women served on “Connie” during a period that stretched from the Vietnam War to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The short film recounts the history of the ship through the eyes of San Diegans who served on its decks.

Director's Bio

Gary Robbins covers science and defense for the San Diego Union-Tribune. He has been a journalist for 38 years, and has spent a lot of time writing about naval technology, particularly surface ships like the carrier Constellation. He grew up in a Navy family; his father served on a cruiser during the Korean War, and his oldest brother was a sonar officer on a submarine. His education includes studying defense at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow.

Cody Long is a San Diego native and has made his career creating videos in the area, for San Diegans. Before Farewell to Connie, Cody worked with brands like the San Diego Union-Tribune to create and facilitate local-based journalistic video projects. In 2013, Cody, joined by U-T science and defense reporter, Gary Robbins, traveled to the Seattle Puget Sound to document the USS Constellation in her final state before being towed to a scrap facility in Texas. Since Farewell, Cody has produced several short-form documentaries, including Balboa Park: The Jewel of San Diego for the San Diego Historical Society and San Diego Tourism Authority.

Precedes

Watch Trailer Watch Trailer

Heroes on Deck: World War II on Lake Michigan

John Davies / History, Navy, aviation, WWII / USA / 2016 / documentary / 57 mins
“Heroes on Deck” is the story behind 100 World War II warbirds and their pilots who went through an ingenious training program in Chicago that changed the course of history.
Preceded by: Farewell to Connie, Frogman