First came the picture. In 1999, when retired Capt. Bob Rasmussen’s son, then-Lt. Cmdr. Eric Rasmussen, came home from a deployment, someone snapped a picture of the family reunion: Two young daughters rushing to meet Dad, with Mom holding an even younger son. “That would be something to preserve forever,” Bob Rasmussen remembers thinking. And if you need something preserved forever, there are few better people to ask than Rasmussen: Noted sculptor and director of the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Fla. He filed the idea away for years. About 18 months ago, he started sculpting “Homecoming,” a life-sized…
Browsing: Homecoming
Long deployments away from loved ones are part of a sailor’s job. And despite any number of technological advancements — email, Facebook, Skype, even the suddenly old-fashioned phone call — nothing can substitute for that moment of face-to-face reunion. Most sailors and their families have felt it. But if you haven’t seen it up close, it looks something like that picture on the right. The back story, courtesy of The Daily Times of Farmington, N.M.: Chief Yeoman (SW) Juanette Martin was heading home on leave from her deployment aboard the aircraft carrier George Washington in Japan to see her three…