Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Flashback to 1967

Pictured below is my uncle Bob (everybody has an uncle Bob, don't they?) and my brothers and I.


That's me with a missing sock.

A lot has changed since this photo was taken. Bob doesn't smoke anymore, and I no longer sit on his lap. One thing that hasn't changed is that Bob is still one of the kindest people I've ever known.

It's an honor to be Bob's nephew.

Monday, December 28, 2015

Flashback to 2003

Alex and Nick anchor themselves to the sand of the Jersey Shore to keep the surf from sucking them back into the Atlantic Ocean:

















They spent the better part of the day playing tag with the ever growing surf:


A rope anchored to the shore allowed them to stand toe to toe with the biggest of the waves:


But, every once in a while, the surf would get the upper hand and rise up victoriously:


At the end of the day, we drove home with two very tired boys.

Sunday, December 27, 2015

Peep Invasion Redux

Christmas break brought about a veritable peep explosion, which translated into a peep invasion. Fun was had by all:



Monday, December 07, 2015

Underway Replenishment

While underway, aircraft carriers travel with an armada of support ships. Some of those ships serve as protectors, and some serve as suppliers of food, fuel, and anything else you can possibly imagine. When supplies are transferred from a supply ship to the carrier, the two ships get up close and personal which makes the operation risky, but also provides for great photographic opportunities for guys like me who like to take pictures.



This photograph was taken in 1983 somewhere in the vastness of the  Indian Ocean. That's the USS Coral Sea on the right, and on the left is one of her support partners, the USS Mars.

This operation of transferring supplies from one ship to the other is called underway replenishment, or UNREP. This particular UNREP was done using Chinook helicopters to move the goods from the Mars to the Coral Sea, but sometimes the transfer is done using cables and pulleys. Both are amazing things to watch.

Sunday, December 06, 2015

Good Thing This Picture Doesn't Have Sound

I can't sing now, nor could I sing when this picture was taken in 1985:


I still liked to play though, and I was fortunate that my fellow shipmates were tolerant of obnoxious noise.

The poor souls that were present to witness this horrible travesty played out over many nights have my deepest sympathies,