Maple Island Log Homes

Son's search for his father's plane wreck strengthens family bonds

Early on the morning of Oct. 2, 1957, an Army propeller plane took off from Governor's Island in New York City, headed to Burlington, Vt. On board were three officers and pilot Eual Arthur Cathey, 33, who had at home in Brooklyn four young sons and a wife pregnant with twin girls. Somewhere south of its destination, the plane encountered a ragged band of unexpected weather, and disappeared.

In 1958, Eual Cathey's family moved to Tampa, starting over.

The kids grew up in Palma Ceia. They knew their father had died in a plane crash. They knew those were his golf clubs in the corner of the garage. Their mother told them she had loved him very much and that he had loved them very much. They didn't ask too many questions because they saw how it hurt her. And what difference do details make when one thing mattered more than any other: They grew up with no father.

They all graduated from Plant High School, the six Cathey kids, and they all graduated from college. They got jobs. They had kids. Their mother remarried. Their mother passed away. The family's central story remained mostly a mystery.

Jeff Cathey, who was 3 when his father was killed, flew fighter jets for 25 years. He finished his career in the Navy in an office in the Pentagon. It was 2005. With age came greater reflection, and time, and so he gave himself a new mission. He wanted to know more about his father. He wanted to know how he had died. He wanted to touch the only thing he could still touch. He wanted to find his father's plane.

• • •

Jeff Cathey is 57 and tall and fit. He's a military man, in training and temperament, all proud posture, protocol and check-listed completion of tasks. On the top of the bar near the rear of his South Tampa house is a thick blue log book of his approximately 4,000 flights. In the book is the time over the Mediterranean west of Beirut in 1984 when he had to eject from his plane, elbows in, thighs flat, spine straight. In the book are the four near midair collisions in 1992, over Georgia, over Dubai, over Kuwait, over the Persian Gulf. Not in the book are his screams in the cockpit. So close.

His post at the Pentagon put him not far from his oldest brother. Joe Cathey lives in Maryland. Back in 1957, in Brooklyn, a man from the Army took Joe to his room and said, "Okay, you're the man of the house." He was 10.

In Tampa, he signed up his brothers for youth football, and he took them to see the Beach Boys. He helped his mother raise them. Up until 15 years ago or so, he says, he had dreams about his father, and in his dreams his father would just walk through the door, and Joe would get angry. "Where have you been? Why would you do that?" Now, for the first time in their lives, Jeff and Joe got to know each other as brothers, and talking as brothers let them talk about their father.

Maple Island Log Homes - The Log Home Neighborhood

Does anyone have any comments on Maple Island Log Homes located in Michigan?  We are in the "homework" stage of seeing our log home dream come true.  We are gathering all the information that we can and we were wondering if anyone out there has a Maple Island log home and if so, how do you like it and was it a positive experience for you to work with this company?  Does anyone have any recommendations for a log home company?  We live in Michigan and probably will build our log home here. 

Thank you!

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