Jim is on vacation in the Florida Panhandle, he doesn't know what a grit is, but he sure likes them. Especially with bacon, but that just goes without sayin'
________________________________________________________________
My son and I are off to Mobile, Alabama this morning to visit the Battleship USS Alabama Museum.
I'll take pictures and as soon I get somewhere with enough bandwidth I'll show you those and the ones from the National Museum of Naval Aviation.
Enjoy your day.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
5 comments:
Comments on this blog are moderated. Each will be reviewed before being allowed to post. This may take a while. I don't allow personal attacks, trolling, or obnoxious stupidity. If you post anonymously and hide behind an IP blocker, I'm a lot more likely to consider you a troll. Be sure to read the commenting rules before you start typing. Really.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Been there, an impressive visit. I've also been to the USS New Jersey in New Jersey.
ReplyDeleteI've been told that neither the Wisconsin nor the Iowa can be gotten to their name states and I don't remember the name of the last of that class.
The Alabama was a different and slightly smaller class.
Iowa (which is the name ship of the class). New Jersey. Missouri. and Wisconsin.
ReplyDeleteI served TAD two weeks on the Missouri when she was still on active duty. Sadly she didn't fire her main battery while I was on board.
These were the only four Iowas built, the next class was the super battleship Tennessee, but they were never completed before the end of the war and the hulls were later converted to Aircraft Carriers.
Alabama is a South Dakota class battle wagon. Slightly smaller than the Iowa.
I love that my question was answered even before I asked it. :-)
ReplyDeleteMy father in law was a close friend of Paul Stillwell, the naval historian who wrote the books on both the New Jersey and the Arizona.
ReplyDeleteThe Illinois, I think BB-72, was broken up as I recall. Only those Tennessee's more than about 40% complete were turned in carriers.
I should have remembered Missouri, she is in Hawaii now and I think the only one not permenantly disabled. In a way it was just too bad when they were struck from the list. While one was re-comissioned during Vietnam, the AF fought to keep those things out of the struggle, made their bombing efforts look random.
What did you think of the horizontal passage in to the turret? Creating that was an impressive piece of workmanship.
Yeah, cutting through 16" of armored barbette to make a passage for tourists was seriously impressive. Amazing that they could do it at all with the budget they had.
ReplyDeleteThe ship is not aging well. Without some major efforts I doubt that portions of the weather deck and superstructure will be safe for tourist passage much longer.
Maybe it's because I was a Sailor, but I hate to see a navy ship in such a state topside.
The hurricane destroyed much of the military park - they've done an impressive bit of repair, but it's obvious that they've got a long way to go and not enough money.
I'll have a post up on it and the Naval Aviation Museum as soon as I can access some bandwidth - which will not be today mostly likely.