Website of Donald L. Safer

My Navy stuff page including my account of the USS Kitty Hawk 65-66 deployment, updated May 2014.

Boy Scout Troop 601 San Lorenzo Ca. page update July 2014

Trainz page updated March 2014

Transmitter hunts page updated August 2017

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I am Don Safer and this is my site, containing some of what interests me. Some day "soon" I hope to add more to the "My Navy stuff" page. It contains some of my experiences in the US Navy including my cruise on the USS Kitty Hawk 1965-66.

Here you will find many of my aircraft photo collection taken by myself or friends.

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"Whenever anyone preaches disunity, tries to pit one of us against the other, through class warfare, race hatred or religious intolerance, you know that person seeks to rob us of our freedom and destroy our very lives...and we know what to do about it. Working together to produce an ever greater abundance of material and spiritual values for all. That is the secret of American prosperity."

From "Make Mine Fredom" (1948)

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The longer I live the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.
Attitude, to me is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company..a church..a home.
The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.
We cannot change our past...we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable.
The only thing we can do is play on the string we have, and that is our attitude...I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.

And so it is with you...we are in charge of our Attitudes.

- Charles Swindoll

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As a child, perhaps age 8, I had a scrap book. I am not now sure why but it may have had something to do with Cub Scouts. All I remember of it is a poem I had cut out of a now unknown publication and pasted into the scrap book. All I could remember of it other than the subject was the last line "the gunner minus pants". It was about the suprise attack on and sinking of the USS Panay on December 12th, 1937 by the Empire of Japan.

The internet is indeed a wonderful thing. I did a search of the phrase and found the poem in a copy of a 1942 edition of a USS Washington news letter. Here it is.

THE PANTLESS GUNNER OF PANAY
Commend me to that noble soul
Who, in the battle's heat,
Rushed to his post without his pants,
The bomber's dive to meet;
Who stood upon the rocking deck
In careless disattire,
With shirt tail flaunting in the breeze,
To deal out fire for fire.
Old Glory's color deepened
As she floated o'er this son--
The man who had no time for pants
But plenty for his gun.
Come, name a million heroes,
But to me there'll never be
A finer show of nerve and grit
On any land or sea--
Then dwell upon your epics
Should you feel an urge for chants,
Recall the sinking Panay
And the gunner minus pants.

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DLSAFER at JUNO dot COM