single photos A tribute to Jay Taylor, AW-2, U.S.N.

I have held off on uploading this one for awhile. It has a lot of personal significance to me. This photo was made in 1987 on the U.S.S. Ranger in the middle of the Indian Ocean. I worked on the powerplants and related systems on the SH-3 Sea King for three years. At 18, I joined the service to shoot on a carrier,I knew it would be better to have an excuse to be near the birds than try to be a photographer, so I was a "Nose Picker".I became great friends with an Anti-Submarine Warfare Search and Rescue swimmer named Jay Taylor. AW-2 Taylor was a fun loving guy who was an avidphotographerand a really good friend. We would sometimes fly together and work as a team photographing when the squadron would let us. We had great fun and learned lots. I taught Jay how to shoot chrome since I had started learning when I was 14.A few years after I had met Jay, he was flying with a crew in this helicopter, 614 toBe exact. We had a 613 (Superstition) , but it was never as much trouble as this one. They were on a check flight after the thing had been "Hangar Queen" for most of a cruise with a cracked frame junction. Well the flight went fine and Jay got a great shot with the same sunset through an open hanger bay door and I got this one. We were stoked! I got out of the Navy in April of 1988. Two months later while out on a night op flight,The misinformed crew plunged straight into the water with little warning to the crew.The crew of 4 that included my good friend AW-2, Jay Taylor, U.S.N. A radar alitimeter had failed to warn them.Olympus OM-1, Kiron 80-200mm 4.5 zoom, @ 80ish, Kodachrome 64.