Anyone else collect militaria? (including watches)

The "Gun Room" was the mess deck for junior officers, the Ward Room was for officers of Lieutenant and above.
As it was presented to "SubLt and Mrs Orris" I'd venture to say it was a wedding gift from his fellow officers.

Here is something I added to the collection this week. It's a wooden plaque for the HMS Sheffield. I got a few in my collection two from ships I served on. But this one is special to me is why I bought it off eBay some weeks ago. Dam somehow it got through someone's dumb tariffs. When I was in the US Navy I was on the USS Proteus AS-19 a submarine tender. It's a ship that does repairs to submarines and surface ships. We were in Diego Garcia a island in the Indian Ocean we were at anchor a sub tender has anchors fore and aft, so the ship doesn't swing with ships tied to her. Well, the HMS Sheffield came along side she needed some repairs this was when the USA acted like allies Ronald Regan knew how to treat allies someone needs some training from Regan badly. They used our liberty boats to get to shore and we got to check our each other's ships. Was surprised they had carpets in there berthing spaces we had cold tile on our decks in our berthing space and they had a bar on board. We got to know the crew. When they left Diego Garcia, we lease our base at Diego Garcia from England if none of you knew allies help each other. They headed for the Falklands war. It was hit by a Exocet missile read that it took out the loop system that supplies water to fight fires it did not make it. Our ship felt for the crew of the Sheffield. I saw this plaque for sell on eBay and had to have it to remember the ship I once saw in my youth.


This is out of my cruise book from the USS Proteus AS-19 this ship was in Toyko Harbor for the surrender of Japan in WW2 we use to keep ships around for a very long time and get our monies worth out of them maybe because they were less complicated if the simple stuff works like old style elevators or catapults for aircraft and other stuff that can be repaired fast at sea from battle damage keep it the complected stuff they put on new ships seem to break down a lot from what I read and I bet they can't be repaired at sea and need to come in port. I can understand new weapon and radar systems and better engines for speed dam in WW2 they could built a destroyer maybe in 6 months compared to 5-6 years now. There a saying keep it simple stupid.

When in special boat unit eleven if you got a promotion or SWCC qualification they would grab you give you a pink belly leaving welts on your stomach carry you down to the pier and throw you in the water uniform and all.