The thought occurs to me that I intercepted the comet above the elliptic plane, if that is the correct term, that the planets orbit around the sun. My brain gets real fuzzy as I try to read on that topic about elliptic orbits. That drawing of the polar view of the solar system could be something I have actually seen. I must have intercepted the comet above the elliptic and beyond Saturn. I have symbolic memories that would suggest that is how it happened.
Another train of thought was to review details associated with a class of U.S. Navy ships that begin with the commissioning of the lead ship USS Brooke DEG/FFG-1. According to information I found on the internet, the USS Brooke was originally commission as DEG-1. The U.S. Navy doesn’t use that designation anymore, as far as I know, and I can’t remember precisely what that designation indicates. I read somewhere that it represents Destroyer Escort Guided, or maybe Destroyer Escort Group. As far as I know in the modern U.S. Navy, the “G” at the end of the designation, such as DDG or CG, indicates the ship is a guided-missile platform. As for the Destroyer Escort, I can’t remember if that means this particular class of ship was designed to escort Destroyer-class ships or that it was a Destroyer and its purpose was to escort troop and supply transports, as when they are part of convoys across the ocean. That class was later re-designated as FFG, or guided-missile frigates, so their purpose was probably for convoy duty and maybe to escort aircraft carriers.
As I examine details associated with that Brooke-class of DEG/FFG, I see details associated with my activities. I see connections to Princeton University, my first flight into space, and my first solo flight of a jet aircraft, among others.
The second ship of that Brooke-class was USS Ramsey DEG-2/FFG-2 and Ramsey was the last name of that girlfriend with the initials R.R.R.
That ship USS Ramsey DEG-2/FFG-2 was commissioned 33 days after 5/1/67, which I recognized as the day I first flew a jet by myself. The date 5/1/1967 was 67 months, 3 weeks, 3 days, after the death of the namesake for the USS Ramsey DEG-2/FFG-2. That date 5/1/1967 was also 59 days after my 8th birthday on 3/3/1967.
From 5/1/1967 to 6/3/1967 is: 33 days
From 9/7/61 to 5/1/67 was 67 months, 3 weeks, 3 days.
From 3/3/1967 to 5/1/1967 is: 59 days
USS Ramsey (DEG/FFG-2) was a Brooke-class frigate in the United States Navy. She was named for Admiral DeWitt Clinton Ramsey.
Ramsey was laid down 4 February 1963 by Lockheed Shipbuilding & Construction Company, Seattle, Washington; launched 15 October 1963; sponsored by Mrs. DeWitt Clinton Ramsey; and commissioned 3 June 1967, Comdr. William D. Robertson, Jr., in command.
Admiral DeWitt Clinton Ramsey (2 October 1888 - 7 September 1961) was a U.S. Navy officer and pioneer Naval aviator who served as an aircraft-carrier commander during World War II, notably at the Battles of the Coral Sea and Midway.
The launch of Gemini 12 was 59 years, 331 days, after the death of the namesake of USS Brooke DEG-1/FFG-1. The spaceflight Gemini 12 was the last of the Gemini series and the flight that I recognize as my first launch into space when I was 7.69 years old.
The launch of Gemini 12 must have been planned specifically to make that connection with John Mercer Brooke. I believe the reason was to symbolize that I was attending college at Princeton University at the time I launched into space on Gemini 12. Listed below are some details about his ancestor Hugh Mercer, who was killed at the Battle of Princeton during the American Revolution.
Another interesting detail that I noticed is that the USS Brooke DEG-1/FFG-1 was commissioned 59 weeks, 2 days, before 5/1/1967. That suggests to me that I was in training for my first solo jet flight at the time USS Brooke was commissioned.
From 3/12/1966 to 5/1/1967 is: 415 days, or 59 weeks and 2 days
USS Brooke (DEG-1/FFG-1) was the lead ship of her class of guided missile frigates in the United States Navy from 1962-1988. She was named for John Mercer Brooke.
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Commissioned: 12 March 1966
John Mercer Brooke (18 December 1826 – 14 December 1906) was an American sailor, engineer, scientist, and educator.
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John Mercer Brooke was born in Florida on December 18, 1826. He died, on the 14th of December, 1906 in Virginia. Mercer is a descendent from General Hugh Mercer of the American Revolutionary War.
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Lieutenant Brooke worked for many years with Commander Matthew Fontaine Maury in the United States Naval Observatory (USNO), charting the stars as well as assisting in taking soundings of the ocean's bottom to determine the shape of the bottom.
Hugh Mercer (January 17, 1726 – January 12, 1777) was a physician, a brigadier general in the Continental Army and a close friend to George Washington. Mercer died as a result of his wounds received at the Battle of Princeton and became a fallen hero and rallying symbol of the American Revolution.
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Just before the Battle of Manhattan, Washington ordered two forts built to repel the British Navy. On the New York side of the Hudson River, Fort Washington was constructed, and Mercer himself oversaw the building of the earthen fortification on the New Jersey side, named Fort Lee. Though bravely defended, the British captured Fort Washington on November 16, 1776, and the Americans abandoned Fort Lee four days later. The retreat to New Jersey became known as “the Crisis of the Revolution", because the enlistments of most of Washington's beaten and down-trodden soldiers ended on New Year's Day 1777.
There are rumors that Mercer exclusively originated Washington's daring plan to cross the Delaware River and surprise the Hessians at the Battle of Trenton on December 26, 1776, and he was certainly a major contributor to its execution. Because of the win at Trenton (and a small monetary bonus), Washington's men agreed to a ten-day extension to their enlistment. When Washington decided to face off with Cornwallis during the Second Battle of Trenton on January 2, 1777, Mercer was given a major role in the defense of the city.
The next day, January 3, Washington's army was en route to Princeton, New Jersey. While leading a vanguard of 350 soldiers, Mercer's brigade encountered two British regiments and a mounted unit. A fight broke out at an orchard grove and Mercer’s horse was shot from under him. Getting to his feet, he was quickly surrounded by British officers who mistook him for George Washington and ordered him to surrender. Outnumbered, he drew his saber and began an unequal contest. He was finally beaten to the ground by saber, muskets and bayonet thrusts.
When he learned of the British attack and saw some of Mercer's men in retreat, Washington himself entered the fray. Washington rallied Mercer's men and pushed back the British regiments, but Mercer had been left on the field to die with multiple bayonet wounds to his body and blows to his head. (Legend has it that a beaten Mercer, with a bayonet still impaled in him, did not want to leave his men and the battle and was given a place to rest on a white oak tree's trunk, while those who remained with him stood their ground. The tree became known as “the Mercer Oak” and is the key element of the seal of Mercer County, New Jersey.)
When he was discovered, Mercer was carried to the field hospital in the Thomas Clarke House (now a museum) at the eastern end of the battlefield. In spite of medical efforts by Benjamin Rush, Mercer was mortally wounded and died nine agonizing days later on January 12, 1777.
Because of Mercer’s courage and sacrifice, Washington was able to proceed into Princeton and rout the British forces there. He then moved and quartered his forces to Morristown in victory. Because of those victories, Washington's army reenlisted, the French finally approved arms and supplies to the Americans and a stunned Cornwallis pulled his forces back to New York to reassess the surprising American successes. The "crisis" had ended, America had the means to fight, and British public support for the war slowly began to wane.
The Battle of Princeton was a battle of the American Revolutionary War, fought near Princeton, New Jersey, on January 3, 1777.
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In the night after the Second Battle of Trenton, General Washington's army silently slipped away from Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis and his troops. Washington left behind several soldiers to tend to large campfires, to disguise the departure of the American troops.
Throughout the night, the army marched over a back road toward Princeton and reached the Quaker Bridge over Stony Brook, about six miles south of town. The Quaker Bridge was not strong enough to support the army’s cannon and ammunition carts, so another bridge had to be built quickly. While the bridge was being constructed, Washington reformed his army, and then split it into two parts—the smaller left wing under General Nathaniel Greene and the larger right wing under General John Sullivan. Washington had intended to attack Princeton before dawn, but the sun was rising.
Greene’s assignment was to advance to the Princeton-Trenton highway to stop its traffic and destroy its bridge over Stony Brook. Sullivan’s division, the main attack force, moved toward the rear of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University). The British were known to have outposts on the roads to the north, east and west, but an abandoned road went into town from the west, which Sullivan took.
The USS Brooke FFG-1 was decommissioned 333 weeks after 4/30/1982. That is the date I recognize as my commissioning day from the U.S. Naval Academy.
From 4/30/1982 to 9/16/1988 is: 2331 days, 333 weeks
The USS Ramsey FFG-2 was decommissioned 2316 days after my 4/30/1982 commissioning from the U.S. Naval Academy. I was 2316 days old on 7/5/1965, which was 59 days before 9/2/1965. The day 9/2/1965 is the day I recognize as my first day of college at Princeton University.
From 4/30/1982 to 9/1/1988 is: 2316 days
From 3/3/1959 to 7/5/1965 is: 2316 days
From 7/5/1965 to 9/2/1965 is: 59 days
