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.
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.