MYSTERY PHOTO: Interesting skyscape

Here’s a photo of a skyscape somewhere in South Carolina.  Just what is it and where is it?  Send your guess to editor@charlestoncurrents.com with “Mystery Photo” in the subject line.   Please make sure to include your name and contact information.

Last issue’s mystery

Several readers correctly identified the ship in the March 26 as the newly-christened USS Ralph Johnson, named for a local Marine hero who died in Vietnam.  But the question wasn’t to name the ship, but to identify who named the ship.

That honor goes to the U.S. secretary of the Navy.   Ray Mabus, who held the office in the Obama administration, named the ship for Johnson.  He told us that he was honored to do so.

Hats off to several readers who correctly identified Mabus as the ship-namer:  Chris Brooks of Mount Pleasant; Bruce Hawker of Sydney, Australia (who wins the award for the successful guesser who lives the most miles from Charleston); reliable George Graf of Palmyra, Va.; and Rick Saunders of Charleston.

Graf sent along this additional information:  “On 15 February 2012, Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus announced the ship’s named to be Ralph Johnson.  Mabus named three destroyers after Navy and Marine Corps heroes whose actions occurred during different conflicts which spanned several decades, but were united in their uncommon valor.

“I researched that ship names are recommended to the Secretary of the Navy, who then choses the name.  … Friends and family remember Johnson as a religious young man who knew at an early age he wanted to become a Marine. Johnson enlisted in March 1967 and was sent to fight in Vietnam in early 1968. While on his last patrol, a friend remembers Johnson finding enemy mines near where American helicopters were set to land. Early on March 5 when his team came under attack and a grenade landed in the hole where Johnson and two other Marines were positioned, Johnson is said to have jumped on the explosive, shielding his colleagues from the blast. Johnson is buried at Beaufort National Cemetery.”

Send us a mystery:  If you have a photo that you believe will stump readers, send it along (but make sure to tell us what it is because it may stump us too!)   Send it along to  editor@charlestoncurrents.com.