NAVY PHOTOS

.50-Caliber machine gun manned and ready.

USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG-81) makes a high-speed run in the English Channel.  The Churchill is the only U.S. Navy vessel in active service named after a foreign dignitary.

USS Anzio (CG-68) cruises the Baltic Sea.

USS Paul F. Foster (DD-964) encounters rough seas.

USS Chafee (DDG-90) underway from Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine, for shipbuilder's trials.

USS McCampbell (DDG-85) underway during sea trials.

USS Fife (DD-991) conducts operations during her final deployment.

USS Mason (DDG-87) is launched at Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine.

USS Lassen (DDG-82) steams toward the Pacific Rim Missile Firing Range.

Your favorite* novelist fresh out of Boot Camp.  Was I ever really that young?

(Photo by:  The Anchor, RTC San Diego, USN)

USS Towers (DDG-9) at her 25th Anniversary Celebration.  For months afterwards, the crew ran around in ball caps with the words '25 and Still Alive!' stitched across the back.

Here's an oldie of MM3 E. B. Hudson, looking sharp in his Cracker Jacks.  Photos like this are a gentle reminder that America owes its freedom to generations of men and women whose names will never make it into the History books.

Another photo of Machinists Mate E. B. Hudson (bottom), and an unnamed shipmate (top).  If you can identify the Sailor on top, please drop an email to the Webmaster.

A photo of F. C. Reed in his dress whites.  I had the pleasure and honor of knowing this man personally, long after his Navy days were over.  The recipient of at least two Purple Hearts, he was the quietest hero I ever met.  I never heard him mention his decorations, but he won nearly every medal short of the Congressional Medal of Honor.