.....back in '74,the first cruise after the 'Nam one for the Saratoga was in the Mediterranean....carriers main defenses against attack(besides its airwing) were the accompanying destroyers,cruisers,etc.....for closer in trouble,the Sara originally had 5" guns-which were later considered obsolete-they switched to a missle defense system(pre Patriot)...sat in ugly boxes where the guns used to be..."top of the line high tech stuff-no worries...will take down anything incoming that might slip thru..."....yeah,right....I dont recall after all these years what they were called-but I DO clearly recall an excersize we were to have that turned into embarrasing mess....there was to be a drone sent out-and we were gonna shoot it down......simple,eh???...wel it was to be a show.....everyone went up onto the flight deck to watch.....announcements were being piped over the speakers so all could hear......suddenly there was a hold-here came a friggin' Civilian Cruise Ship thru the fireing zone.....of course it had to slow down and look at BIG AMERICAN WARSHIP....all passengers out on deck looking and waving and snapping pics as they slowly passed and we were on the radio telling them to get the hell outa here.....
....finally they were gone and outa site.....reports of drone incoming.....top speed-90 MPH-....wow....what a threat ....I could clearly see the "box" with the missles zigging zagging ...moving up and down and sideways as it locked in on the 'bad guy......I fixed my camera with telephoto lens on it,hoping to get a pic as it exited.......suddenly there was a WHOOOOOSH and my finger hit the shutter-more out of being suprised by the noise than timing......I looked up and saw the smoke trail weaving and climbing up toward the drone which was now visible..................the missle missed it by a very wide margin...........so much for confidence-and the show......here's the pic of it as it went off.....anyone ID the missle...???
......by the way....I hear after I got out of the service,they replaced those peashooters with those Gatling gun type things....
