Here is a piece JIM sent. He doesn't remember where he got it, but I think it typifies the spirit of the guys in the Navy during the war years, no matter what Navy.

I like the Navy. I like standing on the bridge wing with salt spray in my face & clean ocean winds whipping in from the four quarters of the globe - the ship beneath me feeling like a living thing as her engines drive her thru the sea.

I like the sounds of the Navy - the piercing trill of the boatswain's pipe, the syncopated clangor of the ship's bell on the quarterdeck, the harsh squawk of the IMC and the strong language and laughter of sailors at work.

I like Navy vessels - nervous darting destroyers, plodding Fleet Auxiliaries, sleek submarines and steady solid carriers.

I like the proud names of Navy ships - MIDWAY, LEXINGTON, SARATOGA, CORAL SEA - memorials of great battles won. And the lean angular names of Navy 'tin cans'- BARNEY, McCLOY, DAHLGREN, MULLINIX - mementoes of heroes who went before us. I like as we pull from the oiler after refueling at sea.

I like liberty call and the spicy scent of a foreign port. I like multitudes of supplies both mundane and exotic which she needs to cut her ties to the land and carry out her mission anywhere on the globe where there is water to float her. I like sailors, men from all parts of the land - farms of the Midwest, small towns of New England, from the cities, the mountains and the prairies, from all walks of life. I trust and depend on them as they trust and depend on me - for professional competence, for comradeship, for courage.

In a word, they are 'shipmates'. I like the surge of adventure in my heart when the word is passed: "Now station the special sea and anchor detail - all hands to quarter for leaving port." And I like the infectious thrill of sighting home again, with the waving hands of welcome from family and friends waiting pier side.

The work is hard and dangerous, the going is rough at times, the parting from loved ones painful but the companionship of robust Navy laughter, the 'all for one and one for all' philosophy of the sea is ever present.

I like the serenity of the sea after a day of hard ship's work, a flying fish flits across the wave tops and sunset gives way to night. I like the feel of the Navy in the darkness - the masthead lights, the red and green navigation lights and the stem fight, the pulsating phosphorescence of radar repeaters - they cut through the dusk. I like drifting off to sleep lulled by the myriad noises large and small that tell me that my ship is alive and well, and that my shipmates on watch will keep me safe.

I like quiet midwatches with the aroma of strong coffee - the life blood of the Navy, permeating everywhere. And I like hectic watches when the exacting minuet of haze gray shapes racing at flank speed keeps a hands on a razor edge of alertness. I like the sudden electricity of 'General quarters, general quarters. All hands man your battle stations!' followed by the hurried clamor of running feet on ladders and the resounding thump of watertight doors as the ship transforms herself in a few brief seconds from a peaceful workplace to a weapon of war, ready for anything.

And I like the sight of space-age equipment manned by youngsters clad in dungarees and sound-powered phones that their grandfathers would still recognize.

I like the traditions of the Navy and the men and women who made them. I like the proud names of Navy heroes - Halsey, Nimitz, Lockwood, Farragut and John Paul Jones.

A sailor can find much in the Navy: comrades-in-arms, pride in self and country mastery of the seaman's trade an adolescent can find adulthood.

In years to come, when sailors are home from the sea, they will still remember with fondness & respect the ocean in all its moods - the impossible shimmering mirror calm & the storm-tossed green water surging over the bow. Then there will come again a faint whiff of stack gas, a faint echo of engine and rudder orders, a vision of the bright bunting of signal flags snapping at the yardarm, a refrain of hearty laughter in the wardroom & chiefs quarters and mess decks.

Gone ashore for good they will grow wistful about their Navy days when the seas belonged to them and a new port of call was ever over the horizon. Remembering this, they will stand taller and say: "I was a sailor once. I was part of the Navy, and the Navy will always be part of me. "