"Mac" with his wife Denise with the Prime Minister of Australia John Howard and the President of the United States George W Bush

As A Sub-Lieutenant RAN, I was the OOW on the Bridge of HMAS Canberra when the Battle of Savo Island commenced on August 9 1942, and then of course we were sunk as well as USS cruisers Quincy, Astoria & Vincennes. In 1943 President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered a US 8 inch cruiser then building to be named USS Canberra, after our lost cruiser. This was the only US Naval vessel ever to be named in honour of a foreign warship, and Lady Dixon, the wife of our then Australian Minister in Washington was invited to launch and name this ship.

Onwards to 1967, and USS Canberra, came to Melbourne on her only Australian visit, she had converted to a missile cruiser, and had just come from Vietnam. My only son was christened Raymond Edwin Gregory, on board, using the ship's bell, struck from the mainmast, as the baptisimal font, Commander Zeller, the Ship's chaplain performing this ceremony, and Lady Dixon, and her Captain Edwin Rosenberg USN, became Raymond's God Mother and God Father. The ship had been broken up by 1994 when I visited the States and tracked the bell to a Naval Store in Williamsburg, Virginia, I went there had the bell uncrated and viewed it again, any attempt to get this bell for Australia was thwarted with remarks: " Under US law, foreigners may not own US Navy artifacts."

Then on July 5 2001, I called on the US Ambassador in Canberra on another matter, then told him my USS Canberra bell story and asked if he might try and get the bell presented to the Australian Government, he promised to try.

On September 7, a call from the Australian Embassy in Washington informed me that on the 10th. of September 2001, at the Washington Navy Yard, the US President would present this bell to our Prime Minister, and my wife and I were invited to fly to Washington the next day to be guests of our Embassy to be present for this presentation. This we quickly did, and on that Monday at a wonderful Naval ceremony it all happened, both the President and our PM were gracious enough to mention me in their speeces. Then, quite unscheduled the President and Prime Minister came down to meet and greet us, the President took Denise's camera, gave it to a three star US Marine General, ordering him to "Take a photograph of us."

All quite wonderful, the next day it all hit the fan. We then found out we were originally booked to come home on American Airlines flight 77 from Dulles to LA, at the last moment we were rebooked so we could join the PM and Mrs Howard on their visit to Arlington.

We got out of Washington on the first flight from Dulles to LA on the next Saturday, very happy to be home.

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