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USS A. W. Radford, DD-968 was the sixth Spruance (DD-963) class destroyer, built by Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, MS. I was a member of the crew from Dec. '80 through Nov. '83.
   
      
   
     
Launch sequence of a NATO Sea Sparrow anti aircraft missile. This was my day
job with the Navy. I was a Fire Control Technician (Missiles) Second Class with Enlisted Surface Warfare Specialist certification.
Shorthand for this is FTM2 (SW).
I worked with the Sea Sparrow and Harpoon missiles. The commercial is true -
rocket science really is more fun when you have real rockets!
   
  Interior view of the Sparrow launcher.
   
If we did our job correctly, this is the result.      
   
Harpoon anti-ship missile. Very effective.
   
US Embassy, Beirut, Lebanon. This picture was taken in May, '83, shortly after it was bombed. Miles Buggs and myself (on right) at our Sea Sparrow launcher.