home.earthlink.net/~rbar64/images/misslelaunch.jpg

I personally took this picture from the foc'sle, yeah I know a snipe on the foc'sle, but this was a rare occasion, The Towers (DDG-9) had just launched hers and a tail fin came off and it spiraled out of control <font size="1">(have pics of that)</font id="size1"> , but our bird came off the rail beautifully. (Circa 1986)

I have tons of pictures of the old girl, e-mail if you have an area of interest, I just might have it. <font color="red">BT's need not reply, never went down in that damn hole unless I had to, much less, with valuble item such as a camera.</font id="red"> I also can scan a 7th fleet patch, ships patch or the coveted ships plaque on request.

Hi There Russ! outstanding pic! I remember ET2 Fred Dick caught a pic of an ASROC we launched to stbd side that was just perfect too! I still have his pic framed Oddly it survived my house burning down that consumed 99% of all my other Nav suveniers. What camera did ya use for this pic? ( really a moot point now I guess with just about nothing but digital stuff available these days... Thanks for sharing! Marc Tuton 70's sonar snipe

I used just a <i>run of the mill </i>Minolta 35mm that I picked up at the exchange in Yokosuka, it was my first real camera, I wore that thing out during the 2 year stint. I had all sorts of telephoto lenses and filters, I <b>really</b> supported the film development industries in 3 countries before I was done.

Not to nitpick, but that picture looks like it was taken from the signal bridge, not the foc'sle (the sig bridge was my main location for goofing off). Of course, to a snipe maybe anything FORWARD of the forward stack is considered the foc'sle!

See....thats the difference between snipes and twidgets, snipes only know the Hole and the Rack ! I coulda called the skivvy waver platform[]

Russ, I just looked at the picture you posted. It's awesome! I wish I would have had the photography bug back in '69 and '70 when I was aboard. I have some great memories (but no photos) of the '69 Westpac and the '70 eruption of Kilauea that we got to see when we visited the Big Island in October of that year. You could feel the heat coming through the soles of your shoes. What we were standing on had been molten just a few days before. The lava flowing into the ocean and the steam it produced were impressive. If you have a personal website where you have any more photos posted that you took during your tour please share!