Webmaster Note: The following e-mail from Pat Taylor has been edited slightly to allow use as this web page you are viewing. Links have been added to view the picture of the sunset in the Indian Ocean and the entire Power Point Presentation. The PPT presentation was converted to HTML to reduce the space used by 68% and to allow downloading only portions of the presentation rather than the entire presentation. This accomodates those using slow connections and those who just want to see what this is.

To: Hartley Holte
From: Pat Taylor  
Subject: Sharing CG55 Lete Gulf
Date: 2 Sep 2006

Hartley...spoke with Ray Hine last evening re our continuing efforts to
"stay connected" to today's fleet thru our annual Junior Officer Leadership
Award made with USS Leyte Gulf (CG55) -our "Class Cruiser".

I mentioned that the present skipper, Captain Mike Turner, has been keeping
me posted on the current deployment of the ship and crew while serving in
the mid-east, and that I thought the class might enjoy a taste of the Leyte
Gulf's doings ... (the skipper's family grams to the dependents and friends
left behind, crossing the equator and port visit snapshots, etc.) Ray seemed
to think the class might enjoy such "sea stories" ... so I'll forward same on
to you - for your possible email distribution to the class.

With that in mind, I'm forwarding a snapshot of the latest "message home", a
snapshot from the bridge - Sunset in the Indian Ocean - and a picture story
of the ship's recent port visit to Kuala Lumpur. This latter attachment is
folded into a PowerPoint presentation, and it's some 3.72 MB ...
which may be deemed "too much" of a memory hog for some with
dial-up internet connections. I leave it up to you as to whether you think
it either of interest to our classmates on-line - or whether it could be
displayed for a spell on our web site ... Norm Palladino might know if it
would be possible to post.

In any case, as the ship's newsgrams and pics reach me - I'll pass on for
your consideration to share with the rest of '55.

Best regards,
Pat