Product Details

A Sailor's Son Goes to Sea — USS Constellation, 1966 A Vietnam-era grouping from a young sailor's service aboard the carrier USS Constellation (CVA-64) during her 1966 workups for Western Pacific deployment — with a family story few groupings can match. Included: the USS Constellation "Familygram," March 1966 — the newsletter sent by Captain W. D. Houser to families of Constellation and Carrier Air Wing 15, describing the ship's modernization at Puget Sound, the all-jet air wing coming aboard (F-4 Phantom II, A-4 Skyhawk, A-6 Intruder, RA-5C Vigilante, E-2A Hawkeye, A-3 Skywarrior), and closing with a plea for mail on the long cruise ahead. Also: a ship's newspaper clipping (July 12, 1966), a division photo of "the A-2 gang" annotated in period ink with his buddies' names — "good friends"; and an 8x10 photo of the sailor and shipmates before a Navy jet, identified "Everett" in a period hand. The sailor was Everett Pollard Jr., whose father, FC3/c Everett Henry Pollard, was killed aboard the destroyer USS Drexler (DD-741), sunk by kamikazes off Okinawa in May 1945. The son went to sea in his father's Navy two decades later. From the same family estate as the father's wartime archive (since sold). Condition: Familygram with mailing folds and light toning; clipping toned with edge wear; photo with minor corner wear. See photos.