Hi Sheila. Yes, that's my vintage image. Someone must have lifted it for their auction.

Best regards,
Greg

Hi Sheila. Do you have a link to where you bought the holder. I have been trying to find one for the longest time.
Thanks in advance.

This is the watch I used the 22 years I was in the US Navy a Seiko Quartz Diver 7548-700 it took a beating and kept on ticking I had watches that lasted one week then I got this in guam and it lasted I just got it relumed new bezel ring and crystal and I used a rubber strap for years so I put a braclet on it not bad for a 28 year old watch.

Hi,
I have read this with great interest. What a fantastic salute to military timepieces and the brave wearers who fought for our cause. heres one that I owned and sold. Unfortunately the photo is small, but according to what I was told, the watch was been worn by the guy on the far right. The pic was taken in the African campaign. There was also a letter describing how the man was captured and escaped from the Germans. Fantastic!. The watch speaks for itself and was in excellent operating condition. have a look...

Oops, got the pics the wrong way around. This pic is resized, so half of the watch is cut off... shame.

Thanks guys.

Mike: Cool watch and 12ga. Don't mess with the Navy!

Greg: It must have been hard to let that watch go!

Greg check out this web site it's on my old unit that I was with when in the navy a lot of photo's of fast boat's and better weapon's than the 12 ga.
http://www.warboats.org/SBU11.htm
Here are some of the fast boat's I got to use.

Thanks for the link. Wonderful pictures.

Great website about a less well known aspect of Navy fighting ability. Thank you.

A pic of my mom's 3 brothers, Ted, Bill, Fritz, sometime in 1941 I believe.
Ted on the left has on a rectangle shaped watch with what looks like a leather band. Bill in the center appears to have a watch on his left wrist.

Here is a photo of me at the beginning of my first tour in RVN, July 1966. The watch is a Glycine I picked up in the PX.

This is the Glycine after Chris Abell brought it back to life this past winter.

Well, this is for all the Swabies among us and those that wished they were....

Please enjoy this....

All the BEST to our "FIGHTING MEN & WOMEN - PAST & PRESENT...."

Jerry


I Was a Sailor Once


Sharing a glimpse of the life I so dearly loved...


I liked standing on the bridge wing at sunrise with salt spray in my face and clean ocean winds whipping in from the four quarters of the globe I liked the sounds of the Navy - the piercing trill of the boatswains pipe, the syncopated clangor of the ship's bell on the quarterdeck, harsh, and the strong language and laughter of sailors at work.


I liked Navy vessels -- plodding fleet auxiliaries and amphibs, sleek submarines and steady solid aircraft carriers.


I liked the proud names of Navy ships: Midway, Lexington, Saratoga, Coral Sea, Antietam, Valley Forge - - memorials of great battles won and tribulations overcome.

I liked the lean angular names of Navy "tin-cans" and escorts, mementos of heroes who went before us.


And the others - - San Jose, San Diego, Los Angeles, St.Paul, Chicago, Oklahoma City, named for our cities.


I liked the tempo of a Navy band.


I liked liberty call and the spicy scent of a foreign port.


I even liked the never ending paperwork and all hands working parties as my ship filled herself with the multitude of supplies, and to cut ties to the land and carry out her mission anywhere on the globe where there was water to float her.

I liked sailors, officers and enlisted men from all parts of the land, farms of the Midwest, small towns of New England, from the big cities, the mountains and the prairies, from all walks of life. I trusted and depended on them as they trusted and depended on me -- for professional competence, for comradeship, for strength and courage. In a word, they were "shipmates"; then and forever.


I liked the surge of adventure in my heart, when the word was passed: ''Now Hear This'' "Now station the special sea and anchor detail - all hands to quarters for leaving port," and I liked the infectious thrill of sighting home again, with the waving hands of welcome from family and friends waiting pier side.

The work was hard and dangerous; the going 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 was ever present.


I liked the fierce and dangerous activity on the flight deck of aircraft carriers, earlier named for battles won but sadly now named for politicians. Enterprise, Independence, Boxer, Princeton and oh so many more, some lost in battle, and sadly many scrapped.


I liked the names of the aircraft and helicopters; Skyraider, Intruder, Sea King, Phantom, Skyhawk, Demon, Skywarrior, Corsair, and many more that bring to mind offensive and defensive orders of battle.


I liked the excitement of an alongside replenishment as my ship slid in alongside an oiler and the cry of "Standby to receive shot lines" prefaced the hard work of rigging span wires and fuel hoses echoed across the narrow gap of water between the ships and welcomed the mail and fresh milk, fruit and vegetables that sometimes accompanied the fuel.

I liked the serenity of the sea after a day of hard ship's work, as flying fish flitted across the wave tops and sunset gave way to night.


I liked the feel of the Navy in darkness - the masthead and range lights, the red and green navigation lights and stern light, the pulsating phosphorescence of radar repeaters - they cut through the dusk and joined with the mirror of stars overhead.

I liked drifting off to sleep lulled by the myriad noises large and small that told me that my ship was alive and well, and that my shipmates on watch would keep me safe.

I liked quiet mid-watches with the aroma of strong coffee -- the lifeblood of the Navy permeating everywhere.


I liked hectic watches when the exacting minuet of haze-gray shapes racing at flank speed kept all hands on a razor edge of alertness.


I liked 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 transformed herself in a few brief seconds from a peaceful workplace to a weapon of war -- ready for anything.


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


I liked the traditions of the Navy and the men and now women who made them.

I liked the proud names of Navy heroes: Halsey, Nimitz, Perry, Farragut, John Paul Jones and Burke.


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

In years to come, when sailors are home from the sea, we will still remember with fondness and respect the ocean in all its moods - the impossible shimmering mirror calm and 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 and chief's quarters and mess decks.


Gone ashore for good we grow humble about our Navy days, when the seas were a part of us and a new port of call was ever over the horizon.


Remembering this, WE stand taller and say, " I WAS A SAILOR ONCE."

I didn't have much salt water spray in my hair. But I had plenty of red clay on my boots.

Edward Kitner EOC SCW Retired

Edward I all ways liked working with seabee's when I worked with special warefare unit 4 I worked with two seabee's doing maintenance in the seal compound there was a officer that was giving us a hard time so they super glued his desk draw's shut I would of loved to see him try to open that desk.I hope those two CB's are OK that was about the time the war started.Now I am retired just like you.

Mike,
Seabees have a reputation of doing unorthodox things. They love to have fun! But no one can compare when their is work to be done.

Ed - I didn't know you were a poet!

My nephew is a seabee. He is somewhere in Afghanistan, I suppose getting things ready for the influx of troops coming from Iraq. He has e-mailed him mom, my sister, a couple of times but won't, or can't, say where he is. He was a wild child when he first went in, but is now a fine, level-headed young man. Enlisting in the Navy was the best thing he did. Just like his Grandpa!

Here is a picture of my Dad, Bill Wray, from 1951. He is wearing his Lord Elgin (which is engraved 1951). It's not a military watch, but it he did wear it during Korea. He was a gunners mate, 3rd class, on the USS Helena. He was on the USS Tingey during WWII.

Here's the Lord Elgin...

Mary Anne one of my friends neighbors was on the USS Helena about the same time as your dad I think he said it was a cruiser I remember him telling me he was on it durring the Korean war.It was named for the state capital of Montana.

Mike - it was a heavy cruiser - CA75. I posted some additional pictures and a story involving my Dad in the Private Conversations section. Your friend's neighbor may recall the
story. It would be wonderful if they knew of each other!

wwi German pilot proudly displaying his wristwatch