-A memorial service will be held at Naval Station Norfolk starting at 1pm on Friday, November 16th. The location will be building U40. Doors will open at noon. For those without Naval clearance to enter the base, the meeting point for the shuttles with be at the Navy Exchange's Phoenix Movie Theater, which is located at 1500 Mall Drive, Norfolk, VA 23505. The first shuttle will be at 11:00 am and the last shuttle will be at 12:40 pm. A reception will be held after at 3pm at the Vista Point Restaurant on base, 1754 Massey Hughes Dr, Norfolk, VA 23511.
-Flowers may be ordered from Colony Beach Florist in Virginia Beach, 757-490-3533 or colonybeachflorist.com (orders no later than Thursday early afternoon). Please have them delivered to the Altmeyer Funeral Home, Southside Chapel located at 5033 Rouse Drive, Virginia Beach, VA 23462.
-In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation to the VAW-VRC (Navy Hawkeyes and Greyhounds) Memorial Scholarship Fund. The mission of the VAW/VRC Memorial Scholarship Fund is to provide for the Navy family in the education of its children, and in particular, those of active duty or reserve service members, in the VAW (Hawkeyes) and VRC (Greyhounds) communities who are lost as a result of a combat aircraft loss or as a result of a military aviation-related mishap, or U.S. Navy enlisted personnel who are lost as a result of a combat aircraft loss or as a result of a military aviation-related mishap while assigned to a VAW or VRC squadron.http://vaw-vrc-memorialfund.org/
Carr's Memorial Service Program
Commander Kratovil is a native of New York, NY and has earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Bucknell University.He was commissioned through Officer Candidate School in January 2003 and earned his wings of gold as a Naval Flight Officer in December 2004.
CDR Kratovil’s operational assignments include the Bear Aces of VAW-124, as a junior officer, where he participated in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom onboard USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71); and the Screwtops of VAW-123 while assigned to Commander Air Group One (CVW-1) onboard USS Enterprise (CVN 65) as the Assistant Operations Officer. As a Department head he served with the Seahawks of VAW-126 as the Safety and Maintenance Department Head onboard USS Harry Truman (CVN 75).
Ashore, CDR Kratovil was as an Instructor Combat Information Center Officer (ICICO) and Assistant Operations Officer at the Greyhawks ofVAW-120, the Fleet Replacement Squadron (FRS), where he was responsible for training the next generation of E-2C Hawkeye Pilots and Naval Flight Officers as well as the Flag Aide to Admiral Phillip Davidson in U.S. Naval Fleet Forces Command.
CDR Kratovil has flown over 200 combat missions and logged over 2200 hours in various aircraft and accumulated over 750 arrested landings. His personal decorations include the Navy Commendation (2 Awards), the Navy Achievement Medal (2 awards) and various other medals, unit and campaign awards.
In 2014 we celebrated my oldest daughter's 10th birthday by throwing an elaborate Harry Potter party. Most of the family joined in as a character. My favorite transformation was Carr. Naturally, I cast him as the spectacularly handsome blonde teacher that all the girls were in love with. He wasn't as theatrical as the rest of the family, and wasn't familiar with the story. So, in true Carr form, he did background research beforehand and invested in the right tools for the job. While most of us were wearing old curtains and repurposed Halloween costumes, Carr dazzled in the most spectacular tailored costume, complete with purple cloak and a garish wig.
The children were divided into the 4 Hogwarts "Houses" and rotated 15 minutes at each of 4 classes. Carr was the "Defense Against the Dark Arts" teacher, but because he had done his research, knew his character would be spending most of the time talking about himself. The best sport of the day, Carr spent an hour entertaining children with tales of his greatness while forcing them to pose with autographed pictures of himself.
We decorated his classroom with pictures I took of Carr earlier in the day. I will always treasure that photo shoot with Carr. It was a silly idea - Gilderoy Lockhart was a vain character, so we just filled the room with different over-the-top poses of himself. Carr was a sweet combination of embarrassed and serious all the while making the perfect poses for the character. One of the frames we used still holds the picture of Carr - I was never able to reuse the frame because it was just too perfect. It makes me giggle whenever I see it. It was a perfect day and he was such a big part of it.
Carr was an amazing brother-in-law and Uncle. I have some great memories of events and moments with him, but it's his general presence that I will treasure the most as I hold on to who he was. I will miss the way he moved his hands and rocked from foot to foot. I will miss him poking the fire and fetching drinks from the fridge. I'll miss the way he stood tall and leaned back when he opened a bottle and how he cracked a lobster claw with such intentionality . I'll miss him calling the kids "germ sacks" while spoiling them on the side. I'll miss the way he always reached over to his right shoulder to straighten or pull some invisible thing down. Just being around Carr being Carr was enough. I will never stop missing the little things his presence brought to our family when were all together. I thank God for the time we had and trust in the promise of the resurrection and the day we will all be reunited.
