atomic_dog
Since Jul 26, 2004

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The Dawg. USS Los Angeles - Naples, Italy - Summer 1977.

Ten years later
1987 - North Arabian Sea photo mo-01_zps9c622706.jpg
LTjg Dawg. USS Harold E. Holt (FF-1074) - North Arabian Sea - Summer 1987
Yes that is USS Missouri (BB-63) in the background.

I served from 1974 to 1993 thinking we were keeping the world safe for democracy only to discover that by letting the Europeans shift what they should have spent on defense to social programs we were only making the world safe for socialism. I prided myself on doing my part to keep the red horde out of the USA until I entered civilian life and discovered they had gained a toehold by infiltrating the democrat party.

… Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses

(Juvenal, Satire 10.77–81)

A note on the top photo of the USS Los Angeles. That vertical structure behind me is called the "sail." Those two things that look like "wings" are called the "fairwater planes" or "diving planes" or simply "planes." So here we are 40+ years on and when the LA was decommissioned and scrapped I followed what became of them. It turns out that they were given to the city of Los Angeles to be part of a museum or memorial that hasn't been built and are quietly rusting on the waterfront in San Pedro.