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Above are some photos sent in by Rich May. Rich writes.

Sarj:

I found a couple of old navy photos that I wanted to send along to you. You may use them on your website. The first is one of me giving Ron Dickens a haircut before inspection in Pensacola. As you might be able to tell, we were both pretty well "skunked," from Spring of 1959.

The second is one of me operating a TV studio camera for Armed Forces Radio and TV Station in Keflavik, Iceland, Navy Station 568, from late 1961.

More as I find them.

Rich

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Long time friend and classmate (shipmate) Richard J. May wrote me more details about his service and how we were classmates at Pensacola. Like a lot of others we seemed to be intertwined in our training and duty stations.
Rich also has a web site and I added a link for you to visit his place. He is quite accomplished.
Here is what Rich wrote to me:

Hi Sarj,

What a nice surprise to hear from you! And what a coincidence, too. I just spoke last night by telephone with an old buddy from NPC in Anacostia, Eugene "Charlie" Gawracz. And I am in constant contact with Bob McKinley, whom I was stationed with in Keflavik, Iceland. You and he were at PIC in Suitland, MD together before Iceland.

Bob and I are both life members of NANP (National Association of Naval Photographers) and we are going to be at the annual meeting in Pensacola in October of this year. We certainly hope that you are there too.... especially since you already live in Florida. Go to www.navyphoto.org for details.

I joined the Navy on 2 November 1958 and did my boot camp at Great Lakes, Company 491. After boot camp, I was sent to Norman for "P" School, and I'm pretty sure that Norman is where we (you and I) first met. From there, I went to Pensacola, and I'm positive that we were in the same "A" school class together. (Don't ask me my Class #, because I don't remember it.) I left there in August of 1959 for NPC. Chuck Swassing and Bill Newby were also in the class with me and both went to NPC also. Swassing still lives in DC and in fact, he went to high school in Council Bluffs, Iowa with Bob McKinley. Bill Newby retired from the navy as a PHC and lives in Pensacola now. We hope to see him at the meeting.

I am forwarding this to Bob McKinley because he will want to get in touch with you also. By the way, my website is: www.richauthor.com . And I really like your website!

Stay in touch,

Rich

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Here are 2 of photomates taken in winter 1958. Top photo shows L-R Stan "Crow" Ballenger, Donald "Abe" Lincoln and I don't know the one on the right but both Ballenger and Lincoln went to the FDR shortly before I did and I'm still in touch with them. Stan is in #2 as well. All are admiring those wonderful old Speeds we used. Either no one had their name in the film holder or it was cropped out. Lincoln sent these to me several years ago.
Larry B.

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More photos from Larry B.
Top photo: Left to Right, is James T. Hardee, Scot Cary and myself in the lab aboard the Forrestal, I went over to visit thus all in undress blues, while she was visiting in Mayport around the time you were in Photo School. The 3 of us were in the same class and trained as PHA but were assigned to ships as were all the aerial trainees while all the PHG trainees went to squadrons.....go figure. Cary and Hardee went to the Forrestal and I went to the FDR.

Bottom photo: Our class marching at photo school. Only names I can pick out besides the 3 of us is Howard McDonald who I was in Norman with and who also went to the FDR.

David Posey

OK ,Here is one more of our friend David Posey. He now has his 15 minutes of fame.

I believe I took this picture while we were stationed at NPIC together.

Photo Classmates

Sarj,

Here are a couple more Pensacola scenes.

At top is the pool just up the hill from our barracks.

Below we have Richard? Moll and Roger Olds polishing the floor in our barracks.

Stev

Photo Classmates

Sarj,

If you look closely at these, you might be able to recognize your buddy and my Pensacola classmate. These are of Dave clambering around Fort Barrancas. If I remember right, we ignored some signs that said to stay out of the fort.

Stev

Above are some more pictures sent in by my buddy Stev of his classmates and my life long friend David Posey who was stationed with me at Navy Photo Interpretation Center in Suitland, MD.
The day Stev sent these in I was on the phone with Dave and he was thinking of calling me to ride along with him to MD. We both lived in the Washington D.C. area for a long time before he moved to the Clearwater FL area and I moved to Jacksonville area.

Photo Classmates

I made a mistake on the name of the guy in the middle picture that Stev sent in of his classmates in photo school. See my comment. I thought his name was Richard Atkins but it was actually Ed Atchison from Tacoma Washington.
ED wrote his name on the back of this washed out color photo I guess so I would remember. After blowing the print up I am convinced that it his him in the center photo getting his hair cut by Roger Olds. This photo was taken in "The Bad Lands" of South Dakota on our way to CA where Ed took a tain norht to home and I went on to San Fran to ship out to Taiwan.

photo classmates

Stev wrote: Sarj here are some pictures of guys in the same barracks as me. The first guy is Roger Olds, who you thought maybe you knew. The next picture is of Roger cutting someone's hair. I can't remember his name.
The last picture is a guy we called our chauffeur because he was the one with the car. I think his last name was Moll and his first name might have been Richard.

This is me cruising into the Big Lagoon from the base rec center.

Stev

Stev Pitchford a fellow PH sent this in today.

I came to Pensacola in February, 1959, from Aviation Prep School in Norman, OK. I spent my first three months in Pensacola as a mess cook, so while I don’t remember you there Sarj, I probably dished out some food to you in the mess hall.

After mess cook duty, Pensacola was a pretty good duty station. The Photo School was in a nice setting. Our barracks was just down the hill from the base swimming pool. On the weekends, a couple of us would rent a boat from the base rec center, cruise up the Big Lagoon, and land somewhere on Perdido Key. We’d cross to the Gulf side of the Key and swim a little and get sun burnt. When we got hungry, we’d go back the boat and ride across the Lagoon to one of the boat-in hamburger stands on the mainland. Cruising up and down the Lagoon, we’d almost always have a few dolphins swimming along beside us.

I left Pensacola and the Photo School in July, 1959, for a little leave at home, then proceeded to Taiwan Defense Command.

This is me cruising into the Big Lagoon from the base rec center.

Stev