Twilight Deployment

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First, fotos I didn’t take include ones of a half dozen sailors riding the Staten Island ferry this past  Sunday.  These days that’s not a common sight. Should I have said . . . Can I take your picture?  I usually don’t take close-ups of people, at least not strangers.  Of course, if USS Iowa had been homeported here, seeing sailors on the ferry would have been routine.   Bitterness persists in some circles about the Navy pulling out of Homeport Staten Island.  Here’s what’s happening on that space . . . although as of Sunday, the federal buildings are still standing.

Now a foto I did take.  Can you see the rest from this?

FFG-28 USS Boone was in town this past weekend after its last deployment before decommissioning, scheduled for February 2012.  Anyone fill me in on what chain of events that sets into motion?  Do all personnel get reassignment?  Will it be mothballed?  Is sale to another country a possibility?

Since this is a “thin-ice” post . . . I’m parading my unfamiliarity, here’s a vessel I saw over in Newark Bay Sunday.  Pilot boat?

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.