Happy New Year, gentlemen!
From the January 1969 deck log of the Cleveland-class gun cruiser/converted to Galveston-class guided missile cruiser USS Little Rock (CLG-4), a traditional New Year’s Day poem, in true bluejacket style:
Commissioned just 10 weeks before VJ Day, Little Rock was still on her shakedown cruise when the Big Show ended. Nonetheless, after her missile-slinger conversion, she was configured as a fleet flagship and served as one for the next two decades.
It should be pointed out she was the Sixth Fleet flag at Gaeta in the above deck log entry.
USS Little Rock (CLG-4) photographed circa mid-1960s. USN 1109531
Only decommissioned in 1976, she was one of the last two (with sister Oklahoma City) active 6-inch gunned cruisers in the U.S. fleet.
USS Little Rock (CLG-4) fires her 6″/47 Mk 16 guns during exercises on the Salto di Guirra missile range, off Sardinia, 23 April 1975. K-108728
She is preserved at the Buffalo and Erie County Naval and Military Park, one of just three American cruisers who linger as museum ships, and the sole light cruiser.