Memories of long ago

           I do not think I have ever sent this picture before. It is me pondering the mysteries of life while on board the USS Kitty Hawk in 1966 operating off of the coast of Vietnam. I have no idea of who took the picture nor do I ever remember being this young. There has been a lot of water under the bridge since then. For those non-navy folks, the sign on the wall indicates the placement of our Avionics shop on the Kitty Hawk. The 03 indicates it was on the 03 level, just below the flight deck at frame 220, which was quite a way from frame 1 at the pointy end of the ship. The CVW stood for carrier air wing embarked aboard the Kitty Hawk. RVAH-13 was the designation for reconnaissance heavy attack squadron 13 who shared the miniscule space with us and the VAW 11 was our squadron, fixed-wing airborne early warning squadron 11. I remember sitting in this chair later during the cruise and rolling from one end of the shop to the other during a typhoon, we passed through. The sea was so rough that waves broke over the top of the flight deck, which was 85 feet above the waterline. Those are good memories of good times when I was just a youth.

           This is the mighty USS Kitty Hawk in 1965

            The mighty Kitty Hawk is, like me, a bygone entity. She was decommissioned in 1998. The Kitty Hawk was a great ship among many great aircraft carriers of the time. It seems we both fell to old age and became relegated to the past about the same time.