US Navy

Following Vietnam, US public perception of the military was at a low point. Maroon, a US Navy veteran, and Ned Beach decided the country needed something to humanize and pay tribute to the US Navy. Read more.

 

The USS Nimitz with a squadron of 16 of her "birds" in formation. This picture won gold medal at the 1982 White House News Photographers' competition.

The guided missile frigate USS McInerney patrols with her main weapon system in operational status.

A Corsair, bellowing at full power; carrying five practice bombs and an extra fuel tank, is being hurled off the cat at 120-150 knots. USS Eisenhower.

Looking up the heat wave as an F-4 Phantom is hurled aloft. The scorching blast of its jets at full power drives particles of loose grit from the nonskid deck surface hundreds of feet aft with painful force. USS Eisenhower.

Early morning sun in The Gulf of Mexico shines brightly on the USS Eisenhower and three nuclear cruiser escorts. An entire battle group comprises dozens of ships scattered over many thousands of square miles. Seldom, nowadays, are any of its units this close together.

The USS Eisenhower, USS Virginia, USS South Carolina and USS California in close formation. The planes on the USS Eisenhower’s deck are carefully “spotted” for the morning’s flight operations. One is on a waist catapult ready for launching.

Looking aft (and into the tremendous tailpipe of an A-7 Corsair) from the catwalk along the forward starboard side of the USS Independence’s flight deck. Under the feet of the sailor on the right is No. 1 catapult, not in use at the moment. 

A deck tractor is parking a Phantom, one of the navy's most successful all-weather multipurpose fighters. Beneath the plane’s fuselage is a streamlined extra fuel tank. An F-4 can carry various missiles and bombs, including nuclear ones. The plane captain is in the pilot’s seat, ready to apply the brakes. USS Independence.

In a high-threat environment, two older destroyers will team up to double the firing rate.  The Standard missile now has a range of about 25 miles - with booster, nearly 100. USS Charles F. Adams DDG 2 firing surface to air missiles.  USS Barney DDG 6 is in the foreground.

An aircraft maintenance man, in green shirt, white helmet and white checkered vest, makes a final check just before this A-7 Corsair is catapulted from the USS Independence. Visible are two extra fuel tanks, secured to wing pylons.   

All work and no play makes jack a dull boy. However, keeping up his game probably costs this sailor a few dollars, for aboard ship there is nothing analogous to “man overboard” for lost tennis balls. Exercise at sea is always a problem which many modern ships try to solve by improvising gyms in empty compartments. This “tennis court” on the USS Rickard K. Turner is a helicopter landing area.  

The handsome USS Charles F. Adams. 4,600 tons, launched in the fall of 1959, has given her name to her class of twenty-three guided-missile destroyers. It is dawn, the day’s exercises are about to begin, and the profession of the sea continues. 

A frigate of the Knox class, supporting amphibious exercises off Coronado, California, is silhouetted against the sunset. Forty-six Knox-class ships were built in the sixties and seventies. Designed for ASW, they carry a variety of weapons and a crew pf 220 and, until the completion of the more numerous Perry-class, were the largest post-war class of U.S. Surface combatants.

A time shot at night of a ghostly bow. Moving lights appear as streaks. The Corsair dips as it is fired off No. 1 cat of USS Independence  CV62, then rises as flying speed increases. To its left, crewmen wait for the aircraft moving up to No. 2. The pulsating red light in the upper left is from a plane going around again.

These dramatic shots, taken with a high-speed motor-driven camera, show the launching of a Trident I missile. First the missile, ejected from its tube by steam, pierces the water. For a moment it hangs in mid-air, awaiting ignition of the main motor. Then the missile immediately begins to accelerate into the stratosphere.

At maximum elevation one of the USS New Jersey’s guns can speak with authority in support of an amphibious landing 20 miles away. A properly equipped battleship, possessed of sufficient speed and able to withstand heavy punishment, is the best escort an aircraft carrier can have.  

The return of the battleship does not herald the return of the battle line, but the recommissioned USS New Jersey’s rapier-like 16-inch guns still have the old bravura of brute power as she steams westward into the Pacific.

A little plaque on the teak deck planks reads “Over this spot on 2 September 1945 the Instrument of Surrender of Japan to the Allied Powers was signed, thus bringing to a close the Second World War.” The USS Missouri may return to service, for no non-nuclear missile can penetrate her armor.

Personnel transfer at sea between the USS Turner and the USS Farragut. The ”breeches buoy”, originally a lifebuoy with a canvas seat, is now an aluminum chair with flotation gear. Despite stories about unpopular officers being dunked midway, the transfer is more dramatic than dangerous.

A U.S. cruiser, outward-bound into the sunset. Events half the world away may affect her. A radio message can send her anywhere. The navy was once known as our first line of defense, and it still is just that: a ship at sea is capable of graduated degrees of force that men on the ground or planes in the air cannot compass.

A new flying boat, waterborne instead of airborne. The USS Pegasus is driven by 26,000 horsepower gas turbines while on her foils and by two hull borne. She has water-jet pumps instead of propellers and can make more than 50 knots on her foils. Her principal weapon is the Harpoon missile, mounted aft.

The panel in the side of this LAMPS III helo is loaded with sonobuoys ready for ejection. These devices transmit acoustic data via radio to ships or planes nearby. Some sonobuoys listen passively for submarine sounds; they emit neither noise nor signal and thus escape detection by submarines. 

Operational aircraft are nearly always flown off carriers prior to entry into port.  These F-14s from the USS Eisenhower are making a high-speed pass over home base, Norfolk, Virginia, after a long deployment. Their top speed is above mach 2, ceiling 60,000 feet.  

Rolling onto No. 1 cat of the USS Independence, launch bar raised.  Visible under the A-7’s wing are a Sidewinder missile and a forward-looking infrared device.  No. 2 cat’s jet blast deflector is raised, indicating it has a plane ready.

Helicopters are useful in many ways. An SH-3 Sea King is in plane-guard station during flight ops, ready for a water rescue in case of a mishap. Designed for ASW, the Sea King can carry electronic sensors, dipping sonar (a sonar it can “dunk” for submarine search) and other devices. USS Eisenhower.

The F-14 Tomcat will soon be launched. On the cat the pilot, his face mask in place and engines at full power, indicates readiness by saluting - at night - by turning on lights.

The chief of naval operations (CNO) is a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and by law, the president’s principal adviser on naval matters. Since he must be able to reach any part of the navy on a moment’s notice, communications requirement are enormous. Admiral T. B. Hayward, Chief of Naval Operations.

A simultaneous launch from bow and waist cats on the USS Kitty Hawk. The carrier is not working to capacity, however, for No. 2 cat is obstructed

A clandestine landing during darkness by SEALS, special forces personnel who have received the toughest navy training possible. With no support other than their wits and stamina, they will steal into enemy territory in small groups to carry out unconventional warfare missions.  

Finding these marines can be a little difficult. On occasion they will live for weeks unaided behind enemy lines. Quantico, Virginia.

The SEAL teams are the elite of navy forces, the most highly trained, the most disciplined. Formed to cope with terrorism and guerrilla warfare, they can function successfully and ruthlessly under the most hazardous conditions.

The USS Bates riding the surface.

The nuclear-powered attack submarine USS William H. Bates under way. The ship carries a crew of a dozen officers and ninety enlisted men. Her endurance at sea is limited only by provisions. Mr. Bates, a congressman from Massachusetts from 1950-1969, was a popular and influential member of the Armed Services Committee. Naming the William H. Bates terminated the practice of reusing the fish names of wartime fleet submarines.

Nuclear submarines so seldom surface that being on the bridge in pleasant weather is a privilege. Here the surface lookout, left, the OOD, right, and the skipper are enjoying their freedom. USS Billfish SSN 676, an attack, nuclear-powered, Sturgeon class submarine.

Graduation day parade after completion of eight weeks of boot camp at Orlando, Florida. Recruit training has been described as severe culture shock. At its end, these young men have their feet firmly planted on the ladder to advanced rate and responsibility. 

 

To capture the drama of life in the Navy of the early 1980s, Fred J. Maroon spent four years virtually living with his subject. He braved the high seas in a small motor launch, dropped from helicopters and waded in the surf during amphibious exercises to ensure that his pictures would show the Navy exactly as it is, "with the running rust showing." Having served in the Navy in World War II, it was a reunion of sorts as he captured the service of his youth through the profession he had since mastered.

For the book Keepers of the Sea, he partnered with author and former submariner Edward L. Beach to create a tribute to the then modern Navy. 218 full-color photographs were accompanied by Beach's expertise and thoughtful words. The book offers a spectacular view of the Navy's unprecedented developments in nuclear, aeronautical and electronic technologies. It brought to life the Navy's air, surface and submarine forces, as well as seagoing logistics, training and practice, and the projection of sea power to the land. It also paid tribute to a service that had done so much for the country at a time when the country was still healing from the Vietnam War. It was love of both country and service that inspired the two authors.