A South Dakota Moderate

Warning if you have sensitive ears, salty words appear below
Just finished watching day 1 of 5 of the latest PBS documentary Carrier, and would recommend it to anyone that wants a taste of what it’s like to spend 6 months of your life deployed on a floating city. It actually brings back a few [...]

Considering the world we live in and the sacrifices our military members are making on a daily basis, Veterans Day has special meaning for most including myself. So in honor of those that have served and who still serve, I thank you!

And carrying on this blog’s on again off again tradition of photo blogging on [...]

The one thing in the military that is as constant as death and taxes is preventative maintenance. Not only do you receive many hours of training on the maintenance itself, you also receive almost as much training on documenting and scheduling the maintenance which at times seems almost as complex.
The picture above was taken on [...]

One thing that the Navy loves is to take photos. Quite often when battle groups are on their way home after a long deployment, the ships that are part of the battle group form up so that aerial photographs can be taken. I took this from the USS Kitty Hawk during one such operation as [...]

Besides being an excellent Rush tune from the 70’s it also describes this photo from 1985.

I took this on the Kitty Hawk during one of our regular evening flight operations and it shows an F14 Tomcat doing a flyover before either going off on whatever mission it was tasked with or as it was entering [...]

I cannot say for sure where this was taken but I thought it looked pretty cool so here you go.

The mountain to the right of the setting sun and behind the supply ship leads me to believe it is Subic Bay in the Philippines but don’t quote me on it. If anyone recognizes the location [...]

In keeping with the ship theme I started with my last military travels post, here is a shot of the USS Iowa BB-61 taken from the flight deck of the USS Kitty Hawk as we were pulling into Norfolk after our 1987 world cruise.

Believe it or not even after decommissioning the Iowa has continued [...]

It’s been quite awhile since I’ve posted pictures from my Navy days and while we wait to see if any other MSM outlet other than the Rapid City Journal reports on the Hildebrand Tewes embezzlement I figured it was time to get back into the habit so to speak.

This is a shot of the now [...]

You’ve got to be amazed by the way they are able to park and move the numerous planes sitting on deck and still be able to launch and recover, I am and I watched it happen almost daily while at sea for over 5 years.
I took this from a RADAR platform on the USS Kitty [...]

If you look hard enough you can see the Kitty Hawk floating offshore way off in the distance. This was taken from the beach of the hotel I was stay at during our port call in Mombasa, Kenya in 1985.
Technorati Tags: USS Kitty Hawk, Mombasa, Kenya

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This is from late 1985 taken right after the Kitty Hawk returned to NAS North Island after a 6 month deployment to the Indian Ocean and Western Pacific.
Technorati Tags: USS Kitty Hawk, WEST PAC, North Island

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Often times on the return trip after a long deployment, the ships in the carrier battle group will form up in close proximity to allow for an aerial photograph. This picture was taken from the Kitty Hawk during such an exercise at the conclusion of our 1985 West PAC deployment.
Technorati Tags: Military Travels, USS Kitty [...]