October Twenty First...

Here is a series of images I took on Oct. 21st. @ 7:10 AM. With smoke from the fires and a little inland valley smog blow out to sea by light Diablo wind, we get a incredible sunrise.

USS Unknown is now the former USS Tripoli (LPH-10)

USS Unknown is now the former USS Tripoli (LPH-10), originally uploaded by Kirk Howard.

Can anyone identify this old surplus Navy Vessel? It looks like they are pushing it back to the Benicia Mothball Fleet.

Post a comment if you can identify this vessel.
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Udated 10/21/08:

I found out what this ship is or was. It is the USS Tripoli. She was towed into San Francisco from Hawaii on Friday 10/17. I owe thanks to the San Francisco Citizen bolg for the identification.

LPH-10 an Iwo Jima class amphibious assault ship. Launched on 31 July 1965, commissioned on 6 August 1966. Following three months fitting out at Philadelphia, the amphibious assault ship put to sea on 6 November 1966, bound for the west coast. She transited the Panama Canal at mid-month and arrived at her home port, San Diego, on 22 November 1966.

She was decommissioned in 1995 and as of 2004, she was on loan to the Army, but remained laid up at Mare Island Naval Shipyard. In December 2006, the ship was towed to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, where it now has a high-tech role as a launch platform with the nation's developing ballistic missile defense program. Three times the ship was towed some 100 miles off shore and used to launch small ballistic missiles, which are then intercepted by Terminal High Altitude Area Defense Missiles, test-fired from the Pacific Missile Range Facility. The last test in the series was performed October 26, when the ship fired a "scud-like" missile, which was successfully intercepted.

The ship will be towed back to the San Francisco Bay Area for the winter. Kaua'i lacks a suitable land-based launch site, and the costs of building one would far exceed the approximately $600,000 per year it costs to use the old warship, so the vessel will return to Pearl Harbor for a second series of tests in late spring 2008

Morning Tower...

Morning Tower, originally uploaded by Kirk Howard.

Oakland Bay Bridge Tower and Reflection in the calm morning water.

Another beautiful morning on the Bay (7:03 AM). Couldn’t resist taking a picture of the “Magic Hour” just before the sun crest the East Bay Hills.

Bonhomme Goes Home...

Bonhomme Goes Home, originally uploaded by Kirk Howard.

USS Bonhomme Richard departs to her home port in San Diego. Taken yesterday as the USS Binhomme Richard passed unde the Oakland Bay Bridges western span.

Black, White & Blue Angels

Black & White & Blue Angels, originally uploaded by Kirk Howard.

Blue Angels are back in San Francisco for Fleet week. Yesterday they spent two hours running survey flights from 1:00 PM until 3:00 PM.

This is a shot I took from my office window yesterday, as flights BA-1, 2, 3, 4 headed back to San Francisco International Airport after practice. It was a lucky shot. I took this image with my Panasonic DMC-TZ3 camera, through a tinted plate glass office window, and the Blue Angels cruising at 450 knots.

Blue Angels shows Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 3:00 to 4:00 PM. The rest of the air show will start at 11:00 AM including the Canadian Snowbirds.

Here is the link: www.military.com/fleetweek

Notes: Converted the JPEG to Grayscale in Lightroom. The painted with light in CS3 using a little of Scott Kelbys seven point system.