Dennis Hollingsworth

Veteran's Day

This is a pic sent in from an old friend, Dale Olsen via a network of crew mates maintained by Steve "Strawdogs" Strassman on the USS Truxtun. This pic documents a picnic on the fantail on a WestPac deployment in '76.

In this shot, we were on liberty in Subic Bay (Dale is reclining on the left, Strassman is in the yellow shirt, I'm standing on the left), there was an island in the middle of the bay that was used for r&r. We rented scuba gear and swam in the effluvia of Olongapo's "Shit River" (well named), for lack of a proper place to dive at the time. Better dive spots were in places like the Seychelles. We worked in C.I.C. (Combat Information Center, the squawk boxes would ring: "COMBAT, BRIDGE... COMBAT AYE!"), the dark room behind the bridge, full of radars and edge lit plotter boards.

Good times.