I was going to do something different today- had drinks with the actual, physical Lutt-man you have been reading about. Jon-Without showed up, since we broke with tradition and ventured to one of the sites on the Bucket List, since Lutt-man was staying down by Union Station for a conference and the famed Dubliner Bar and restaurant was nearby. That in and of itself is worth a story, since over the years the place has been the Original Irish Bar in town, a place where Speaker Tip O’Neal would meet Ronald Reagan for a Guinness on St. Patrick’s Day, and put aside the petty partisanship that now infects each and every thing we do here in the Nation’s Capital. And it was rumored that there were RPGs stored in the basement for potential use in The Troubles, and the friendly Boy-os behind the bar might just be cooling off for a bit in the states before rejoining the fight.

It is a grand bar, and it was so good to talk fighter stuff again, I can’t tell you. And to see Lutt in the flesh after all these years- well, it was breath-taking. The memories flooded back like a compartment on FID left open to the sea. We raised a glass to the memory of Avery Glize-Kane, and wandered down the passageways of a Navy that no longer exists.

Anyway, there was much fun and merriment had before we left the bar, much earlier than we would have a quarter century ago, but we are still shipmates and still going strong. Maybe not “Zone Five” afterburner, but you know what I mean.

I will save some of the best of it for tomorrow, since I will have to have a story in the can to transmit early bright due to the impending Virginia Gold Cup out at Great Meadow’s steeplechase course. It is probably going to be cold and rainy, but the meteorologists are predicting “open bar,” so I think it will be another outstanding adventure. Alas, it will preclude participation in another most excellent adventure before we get back to the intrepid sailors of that long ago Med Cruise. If you have a chance, you might want to take note of the following event that is going to happen early tomorrow.

A piece of U.S. Naval history is leaving the District.

It’s “anchor’s away!” to ex-USS Barry (DD-933), which has been a museum ship at the Washington Navy Yard since the early 1980s and site of many promotions and retirements from her berth adjacent to the Navy Museum.

Navy Lieutenant Luke Adams with Navy Support Activity in Washington says tug boats will tow the Barry to Philadelphia. He says all the ships’ internal systems have been in layup and out of commission, so the ship cannot move on its own power.

The ship will begin its journey around 7 a.m. Saturday.

It will pass Yards Park, and the best place to see it will be west of the entrance to the Washington Navy Yard Riverwalk.

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Barry will be dismantled and sold for scrap. There has been no official announcement about a future replacement museum ship.

The destroyer earned two battle stars in Vietnam and was deployed in the LANTCOM AOR during the Cuban missile crisis. She is departing the Navy Yard due to improvement to bridges across the Anacostia River which will not permit her future departure.