Contributor Posts

I went on active duty, in the Navy,
in October 1954. I was 19 years old,
a small-town boy looking to get away,
in search of adventure.

Inducted in Seattle, physical, inoculations,
while only wearing your socks, shoes and
of course, holding a clipboard, with your
records. The issue of being unclothed,
naked soon passed.

We stayed a few nights in Naval Barracks,
in Seattle. The next day we caught a Naval
Air, transport, flying from Whidbey Island
Naval Air Station, to Moffett Field, in California.
I believe it was just outside of San Francisco.
It was on a Saturday.

Being young, away from home, we pooled our
resources and took a Cab into San Francisco.
We were able to buy a bottle from the driver.
Our destination, "Coffee Dan's" which was a
bottle club or bring your own bottle and buy,
the mix of your choice.

We spent several hours there and returned to
base as we had a scheduled flight from Moffett,
to North Island Naval Air Station, in San Diego.

I had transportation to a dock where there was
a water taxi. It took me to my new home,
the USS Marsh, DE699. I was deposited to a
temporary bunk in the forward mess hall,
until the next when I was assigned to my
permanent bunk, below deck, in the fantail,
next to the laundry. This would be my home,
for the next two years.

Of all the days,
which have passed us by,
the one which stays,
with me the most,
are those when we,
laughed and played,
holding each other,
until the end of the day.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

In a photo from the early hours of July 29 (UTC), a Redstone rocket and Mercury capsule are on display at Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 5. Beyond the Redstone, the 8 minute long exposure has captured the arcing launch streak of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. The Falcon's heavy communications satellite payload, at a record setting 9 metric tons, is bound for geosynchronous orbit some 22,000 miles above planet Earth. The historic launch of a Redstone rocket carried astronaut Alan Shepard on a suborbital spaceflight in May 1961 to an altitude of about 116 miles. Near the top of the frame, this Falcon rocket's two reusable side boosters separate and execute brief entry burns. They returned to land side by side at Canaveral's Landing Zone 1 and 2 in the distance.

Photo by Launch Complex 5

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When your life,
flashes before your eyes,
remembering the memories,
of love and sighs,

it brings to us,
those who worry,
start enjoying your life,
squelching the hurry.

When the life you share,
for many a year,
is disrupted by illness,
ongoing fear

of losing your wife,
to a terrible disease,
finding the change
a failed breeze.

I love I have,
for her today,
will still remain.
For this I pray.

What cost is love,
when you cry,
from the hurt,
you only sigh.

What great loss,
what will it be,
when I look
and cannot, see?

If you left
and stayed away,
my heart would ache,
night and day.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Why is the Cigar Galaxy billowing red smoke? M82, as this starburst galaxy is also known, was stirred up by a recent pass near large spiral galaxy M81. This doesn't fully explain the source of the red-glowing outwardly expanding gas and dust, however. Evidence indicates that this gas and dust is being driven out by the combined emerging particle winds of many stars, together creating a galactic superwind. The dust particles are thought to originate in M82's interstellar medium and are actually similar in size to particles in cigar smoke. The featured photographic mosaic highlights a specific color of red light strongly emitted by ionized hydrogen gas, showing detailed filaments of this gas and dust. The filaments extend for over 10,000 light years. The 12-million light-year distant Cigar Galaxy is the brightest galaxy in the sky in infrared light and can be seen in visible light with a small telescope towards the constellation of the Great Bear (Ursa Major). APOD in world languages: Arabic, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (Beijing), Chinese (Taiwan), Croatian, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Hebrew, Indonesian, Japanese, Montenegrin, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Slovenian, Spanish, Taiwanese, Turkish, and Ukrainian