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'Patrol' in Russia and Ukraine - 1995

The military welcomes our group aboard the cruiser SMOLNIY.  Yep, Putin came to meet us.		Our host in St. Petersburg, RADM Grishanov with Harry Cooper.

St. Petersburg – we go on board the tall ships including CUTTY SARK, in harbor for the festivities.  We tour Russian warships and submarines, palaces and museums aplenty.  We are guests of honor aboard the Flagship of the Fleet, heavy cruiser SMOLNIY where we watch the festivities of Navy Day – paratroopers, fighter and bomber planes, and ships up and down the Neva River.  We spend an evening with a Russian family in their home and at dinner........and when we were Guests of Honor at City Hall, the former Marinski Palace, the Russian orchestra played the Star Spangled Banner for us!
 

When we toured the Russian submarine school,  it was the Commandant's birthday!  (in white shirt)		We toured through this WW II Soviet submarine and its museum, in company with many Soviet submarine sailors from World War II.

Off to the Crimean Peninsula where we visit the ‘Valley of Death’ where the British light cavalry were virtually wiped out at the town of Balaclava in the Crimean Wars.
 

We are welcomed at our hotel by Ukrainian folk music and dancing.		One of the many palaces we visited.

We enjoyed a reception aboard the heavy cruiser KERTSCH.		We stood in a centuries-old Phoenician watch tower to see the entrance to the secret Soviet submarine bunkers.

We go on to the Russian Navy Base at Sevastopol where we are welcomed aboard the Flagship of that fleet, the heavy cruiser KERTSCH - we tour more ships and submarines - our cameras were welcome.
 

Can you believe that this is really a helicopter? It's the size of a 747!		There were warbirds, transports etc.from the beginning of aviation through the most modern.  Some were so strange, we wondered how they actually flew.

In Moscow, we visited the Admiralty – headquarters of the Russian Navy, and we met the admirals who run the Russian Navy.  We visited Monina Air Force Base and toured the huge air museum there.  We toured Kubinka Armored Training Center, visited their museum - the world's largest armor museum, and we RODE ON A T-34 TANK that participated in the battle at Kursk!  As usual, a fantastic 'Patrol'.

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