We stayed at Submarine Base New London and got to tour the USS Nautilus, the first nuclear powered submarine. It was pretty cool. My second ship was a submarine tender so I had some connection. In 1967, I volunteered for submarine duty. Fortunately I didn't proceed with that because I wouldn't have met and married Ann.
Then we went to the Navy Training base at Newport, RI.
The next day we were at Hanscom Air Force Base near Boston and visited the Lexington Green where the very first shots of what would become the revolution were fired. I am standing next to a rock that demarks the end of the line of 77 colonial militiamen.
The forth photo is of me standing next to the statue that marks the spot where the American militiamen first fired upon the red coats at the north bridge at Concord, MA.
The third photo is of Ann standing in the place where Captain Parker's militiamen got some revenge for the massacre at the Lexington Green earlier that morning. The red coats marched from Boston under the cover of darkness hoping to gather up and destroy military stores at Concord. But, the two lanterns in the Old North Church steeple announced their departure route, Paul Revere and two others carried the message to the militias. There was a skirmish at the Lexington Green that was more of a massacre of colonial militiamen. The red coats marched on to Concord where the militiamen fought back and drove the red coats all the way back to Boston along what came to be known as the "battle road" - the very route they had used to march to Concord. Thus, on April 19, 1775 the fight went from philosophical to actual battle for freedom.
The final photo is of my good friend Dave Cashman who was the 62nd Commanding Officer of the USS Constitution. When we sailed the USS Constitution for the first time in 116 years we did so from Marblehead, MA and I stayed in his home the evening before the historic event. Ann and I have been sailing with Dave and his wife, Bobbie.