THE UNITED STATES NAVY

This page is dedicated to those who serve or who have served in the United States Navy

As we said in the Corps, "Be kind to your web footed friends, cause a duck may be somebody's mother."

All Corps humor aside, I have always had a great deal of admiration and respect for those who go down to the sea in warships. Most of the military books in my library are not about Marines but are about Naval history and the stories written about it.

As a Marine and later in civilian life I have had many friends who served on those ships.

I especially remember those who spent those long weeks on 'Yankee Station' off Vietnam.

The first United States man-of-war flying the flag of thirteen stripes and thirteen stars was the eighteen-gun ship Ranger, under the comand of Captain John Paul Jones. The flag was hoisted by him on June 14, 1777, the date of Congress' resolution adopting the present national emblem, and the first nation to salute "Old Glory" was France, when an Admiral in the French Navy returned the salute from the Ranger in Quiberon Bay. The Ranger had a crew of one hundred and twenty three. The Ranger's first battle of any conseqences was with the HMS Drake. This occured on, April 24, 1778, off the coast of Ireland. The result was an American victory and an English defeat.

Of all the branches of the military, no one has shown the flag and projected the power of the United States around the world, as has the United States Navy.