For those interested in HMS Cardiff (D108), I originally came across her article after a request for help from one of her former crew, Griffiths911. He has some amazing photos of her service during the Falklands War that you should check out. It took me just over three months to achieve FA, involving lots of research.
After taking another article up to FA (against my previous advice), I can confirm that you shouldn't push past the GA mark. The FA process's strict guidelines boil down to nitpicking that hurts an article's content. Improve your articles to educate, not win glossy awards. Having an article on the main page is pretty unpleasant too. A lot of anons edit the article's lead, in the hope that their bad grammar will show up on the main.
AFD
I hate the large amount of unsourced trivial crap there is on Wikipedia, I do not believe that it "doesn't do any harm". If something is rubbish then it's mere existence drags the encyclopedia down. Articles about "Knuckles the Echidna"[1][2] should not be longer William Shakespeare, The Internet and Echidnas!
Congratulations on getting your article up to GA! Keep up the good work! Justin(Gmail?)(u) 17:54, 6 April 2008 (UTC)
The Special Barnstar
About time someone decorated your user page with a barnstar, expecially with all your work on HMS Cardiff (D108). Well done mate. Justintalk 15:36, 29 April 2008 (UTC)
For working on HMS Cardiff and promoting what I believe to be the first destroyer ever to achieve Featured Article status I herby award you with the WikiChevrons. Congratulations, and keep up the good work. TomStar81 (Talk) 04:37, 23 May 2008 (UTC)
The Content Review Medal of Merit
In recognition of your contribution in improving Military history articles through A-Class and Peer Reviews, during the period March-May 2008, please accept this Content Review Medal of Merit, --ROGER DAVIEStalk 02:11, 1 July 2008 (UTC)