Tuesday, September 11, 2012

The USS De Wert Leaves Detroit

This is another ship that I wanted to catch and fortunately, I was able to do so.  I love ships but I love Navy ships more.  I am glad that the Navy decided to visit the Great Lakes again.  I hope that they continue doing these cruises.  There are not too many ways that us folks in the middle of the country can connect with our Navy.  So to the Navy and the folks that acted as hosts through this event, I say thank you.
 As I was watching the Niagara go further down river, I thought that I heard the De Wert on the radio.  So I turned to look upriver and sure enough, there she was getting pulled out of Nicholson dock.
 She inches out of the dock a little more.
 As she was all the way out of the dock, I tightened my lens in to get a better shot of her.
 And then I pulled it out to get a sense of place.  It has been 12 years since someone has been able to get this sort of shot.
 Another tightened shot.
 A slightly looser shot to get the Detroit skyline in the background.  This is the part of the skyline that I really like.
 And she starts to head down the Detroit River.
 She makes her final turns.
 And gave me the chance to have Detroit's more famous building in the background.
 A background with less clutter.
 And even less clutter.
 I kind of wish the Coast Guard hadn't snuck into this shot becasue I like the side shot.
 And she starts to head towards Buffalo.
 A more oblique angle of her.  You can see her helicopter bays.
 Slightly more so that you can see her stern.
And one last shot of her.  And so I bid farewell to the USS De Wert.  And one more time, I would like to thank her crew for being gracious hosts on my tour on Sunday.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Beautiful and awesome photos of DE WERT leaving port. I served aboard her for 2.5 fantastic years from '07-'09, and she was a great ship. I was proud to say I was a crewmember (E-6 at the time) on DE WERT, and in my 11.5 years of Naval service, she's still the best ship I ever had the privilege of sailing on. We had a great, tight-knit crew, excellent commanding officers, and we put a lot of blood, sweat, tears and manhours to keep her up and running and well-maintained (FFG's are pretty old, so they need a lot of TLC), and as a whole I think we were proud to say that she was in fine fighting shape (I can't speak for anyone else, of course...I'm just giving my opinion). What a great ship she was. I love this photoset...wonderful tribute to one of the Navy's finest warships.

Unknown said...
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