Farewell Message from Sammy Solt

Shipmates, The sun has finally set on my tenure as President of the NANP. It has been one of the most rewarding positions I have ever held. It kept me in close contact with the many friends I have made over the years. I joined the Navy in 1961, and through my travels have met many wonderful people and created many precious memories. I have served with and made lifetime friends with many of you and was able to cultivate new and lasting relationships with many that I met after my retirement. These are relationships that I will cherish forever. Over the past two years, I was blessed with a Board of Directors (BOD) whose primary focus was keeping the […]

2021 Reunion An Overwhelming Success

Everyone, All I can say is the folks that attended the reunion in Pensacola had a great time. The weekend was wonderful including the two Blue Angel Air Shows we were able to see from our hospitality suite balcony. NAS was closed for the air show and the Blues flew their show on the beach, incidentally the Blue Angels 75th Anniversary party was in an adjoining suite and our shared balcony was center stage. Absolutely awesome! Since returning home many accolades about the event have been received. It was an absolute success. My personal thanks go out to some very key people that worked together as a team to ensure it ran smoothly: Jim Russel, our man on the ground […]

Easter Message from the President

Shipmates, Members and Friends of Naval Photography, As we enter the Easter and Passover holidays, I would like to take time to wish everyone peace during this very blessed Holy season. It looks like we are getting past this Covid nightmare. By the time the reunion rolls around I expect everyone should have had all of their shots and hopefully ready to travel. As everyone knows this is the 100th year of the Navy Photographer. Time to celebrate this notable milestone and our service to the US NAVY! 100 years of our work, some of which I imagine will be on display. We are fortunate to have Jim Russell’s boots on the ground in Pensacola, he has outdone himself by scoring another […]

A Holiday Message from our President

All, On behalf of Wes Gibson, myself and the Board of the National Association of Naval Photography we would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and a Happy Kwanzaa.  2020 was a very hard year for a lot of us. Some of us have lost family members and friends to Covid, endured some personal and possibly some financial hardships but hopefully the New Year will bring some changes for the good.  No matter what your political persuasion is, now is the time to bring America back together again.  I would like to see us go back to being the country I was raised in.  At my age I have no idea how much longer I will be […]

NANP President Remembers USS Forrestal Fire 53 Years Ago Today

All, 53 years ago today I was aboard the USS FORRESTAL on Yankee Station in the Tonkin Gulf.  At 1051 a horrific fire engulfed the flight deck killing 134 of my Shipmates and injuring many more.  Of course many years have passed and many more heroes of that fateful day have died.  I would ask that anyone reading this to please take a moment to remember the souls of our departed Shipmates. Sammy

Message From 2020/2021 NANP President – Sammy Solt

NANP Members, Shipmates and Friends of Naval Photography, As we move forward with the NANP into the new decade I appreciate the opportunity to serve as the President of our fine organization for the next two years (2020/2021).  I would like to thank our outgoing President, Nora, for the time and effort she has put into our organization for the past two years (2018/2019).  She did an outstanding job and will be an asset to our Executive Board. We also welcome Jerry Billings as our new Database Manager and Steven Van Der Werff as our Membership Chairman.  Both have many years of experience and will be absolute assets to our organization as we move forward with organizing the NANP database […]