"Don, I don't know how to express my appreciation for this. For what it is worth, I am not particularly prone to emotion, but when I see this I have to hold back the tears.

Yes, I do believe it is important to you as I do recall my father's bond with fellow sailors & particularly you submariners. My dad was a quiet man but I recall his grief when the Thresher went down in the early '60s. Even though he didn't say a lot, you could tell part of him went down with the guys on that boat. Another time, we were on vacation some where & there was a sailor in uniform hitch hiking, again in the '60s. Despite my mother's objections to picking up ANY hitchhiker, dad turned around & went back & got him. He rode with us for hours. I recall stories of how while stateside, dad traveled home by hitchhiking during the war & how some people even took him into their homes, fed him & put him up for the night. He never forgot this kindness."