Read the USS Enterprise is being dismantled, another piece of my youthful memories being mothballed. My brother was on this ship during the Vietnam War. 5,000 people lived on this boat. It was truly a floating city. It will take five years to take her apart. 

I wrote about my brother when he passed, but he didn't get much attention in his own sad life, so I will repeat a few things here. The USA was gearing up for Vietnam and my brother joined the Navy before he got drafted into the Army. He always laughed that they must be 'scrapping the bottom of the barrel' for cannon fodder to let him join the military at all. He just wanted to hide out and be a cook, but aptitude tests sent him to photography school in Pensacola, FL. This was a man who had never held a camera before in his life falling into one of the best gigs in the Navy. On the Enterprise he took photos of LBJ, Chiang Kai-shek, Bob Hope, Ann Margret, and a bevy of other politicians and entertainers and became the captain's favorite photographer. And Mark could not care less.

One great story that illustrates him perfectly. There was a big photo contest where all the Navy photographers would enter a photo for competition to be judged by some famous, fancy civilian photographers. It would be a nice feather in your hat and pretty much secure a foothold in the world of photography after you got out of the Navy. Everyone in the photography unit was excited and snapping pictures like crazy. Except my brother. His commanding officer demanded he show some enthusiasm and go out and take some photos. They were in Hong Kong at the time and Mark went out and shot one photo, an old Chinese woman digging through the trash in an alley. He won the contest with that one shot.

After the Navy Mark never picked up a camera seriously again. He lived in a fleabag apartment in downtown LA for years, became a hoarder, and had a series of menial jobs until he was burned out of town by the Rodney King riots and moved back home with my folks in his 50's to live out the rest of his life. I lived a very short distance from him in LA and I only saw him a couple of times. His apartment was not a pleasant sight or environment.  In retrospect I am sure Mark landed somewhere on the autism spectrum. I will always remember 'Family Day' on the Enterprise almost 60 years ago when she was docked at Alameda for repairs and retrofitting. We all got to go out for a day cruise, going out under the Golden Gate Bridge to open ocean, and it was exciting. I am glad I have that one happy memory of my brother.