by David D. Hambleton

“Only rich men and sailors have done like I've done and gone where I've gone.” —Capt. McKinley, USS Steven W. Groves, 1993. “Old Salt” is a term for a sailor who knows the ropes, has sailed the seven seas, and comes home to tell the stories. These are tales of US Navy warships and the amazing patriots who worked them. I was still wet behind the ears for flight operations in the Aleutian Islands, a bit more savvy for killer whales in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and had my thirteenth sea under the keel by the time I sailed into Russia on the Black. Join me in remembering the life of a sailor touring and protecting the globe, admiring the power, personality, and poetry of Davy Jones' wonderful, wet world. I wondered as a young man what life must be like at sea. Here is a glimpse.