Pride in the Navy

vintagemen17
Originally uploaded by justinwstephens.

original caption:
"...handsome, shy sailor he met during World War II. Frank was a gentle soul and a loner. He was awkward around people but loved animals, especially birds.

Every time he got a shore leave in California, he stayed with my uncle. The two had a great relationship and when the war was over, Frank wanted to live with him, tend his huge garden and have lots of pets. Sadly, Frank never made it home from the Navy...

Until his last day on earth, my uncle always kept a birdbath in his garden with a statue of St. Francis on it, for Frank. As little kids in uncle's garden, we always called it St. Franks birdbath."


I'm having a bit of a naval moment. I found the above on Flickr and it choked me up. The pathos of that poor bereaved soul - not able in those days probably even to attend a military funeral for his partner to commemorate his life and sacrifice; having to be content with that private memorial in his garden (but what a beautiful one).

So we can be very proud of how far we have come, as the Royal Navy's contingent at EuroPride demonstrated. Of course, our military still has a way to go (as evidenced by the RAF and Army's behaviour over Pride) but still, the Americans are virtually back in WW2 days in terms of attitudes.

I posted my pic of our proud sailors below, but again on Flickr, Lewishamdreamer took this amazing portrait of a Naval officer at Pride. His photostream is well worth checking out.

Royal Naval Pride
Originally uploaded by lewishamdreamer.