Today I watched the complete ceremony for putting the new aircraft carrier (USS Gerald Ford, 78) into service and really enjoyed the proceeding. It appears the Navy still has a fondness for lots of ceremony and historical procedure.
I guess it is a little more enjoyable when one isn't wearing starched whites and standing at attention in the heat for the speeches. My TV, A/C and easy chair added to the enjoyment.
Still it was a viewing that prompted me to go back down to the enlistment office and sign up for another twenty years. Sadly, the recruiter's building has been torn down sometime since 1956 and I need wait till Monday.
In 1966 we were puttering around off the coast of Rhodesia when the British Navy carrier (HMS Ark Royal) appeared over the horizon. That thing looked huge! By today's carrier norm it would be a rowboat size.
We were kind of expecting them as we had been low level buzzed by a pair of jets a little earlier. I could hardly believe how large that ship looked. Perhaps it had to do with there being nothing else in sight.
(They were checking the integrity of their Rhodesia blockade.) The carrier blinker signaled: "Are you the missile tracker Valdez?"
Our resident wiseazz blinked back: "Yes, are you the carrier?"
Their answer "Yes."
(For today's fact checkers: "missile tracker" was our ship's cover ID)
This should be almost safe after fifty years -- or I could do 20 in a federal pen.
The Valdez is long gone and cut up for scrap metal.
I guess it is a little more enjoyable when one isn't wearing starched whites and standing at attention in the heat for the speeches. My TV, A/C and easy chair added to the enjoyment.
Still it was a viewing that prompted me to go back down to the enlistment office and sign up for another twenty years. Sadly, the recruiter's building has been torn down sometime since 1956 and I need wait till Monday.
In 1966 we were puttering around off the coast of Rhodesia when the British Navy carrier (HMS Ark Royal) appeared over the horizon. That thing looked huge! By today's carrier norm it would be a rowboat size.
We were kind of expecting them as we had been low level buzzed by a pair of jets a little earlier. I could hardly believe how large that ship looked. Perhaps it had to do with there being nothing else in sight.
(They were checking the integrity of their Rhodesia blockade.) The carrier blinker signaled: "Are you the missile tracker Valdez?"
Our resident wiseazz blinked back: "Yes, are you the carrier?"
Their answer "Yes."
(For today's fact checkers: "missile tracker" was our ship's cover ID)
This should be almost safe after fifty years -- or I could do 20 in a federal pen.
The Valdez is long gone and cut up for scrap metal.
In fact I just Googled nit.
YUCK!!!!
You "Nitpickers" can keep 'em.
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