26 Dec 2018 - USS ALABAMA

26 Dec 2018
We hope everyone had a great Christmas!  This morning we headed for Mobile Alabama and the USS ALABAMA Battleship Memorial Park.  I've seen the battleship and the USS Drum submarine before but it's been years, and I don't recall there being a memorial park here at that time, plus Doreen has never seen it.

It was about an hour drive from the campground to the Memorial Park. We arrived to a mostly-empty parking lot, but it got much busier the longer we were there.

The memorial park is amazing. They have many static display aircraft, tanks, artillery and various ground military vehicles. There is a Korean War Memorial, a Vietnam Memorial, a Service Dog War Memorial, a 9/11 Memorial and memorial to fallen Coast Guardsmen.  The feature is the USS ALABAMA battleship and then you migrate through the Medal of Honor Aircraft Pavilion and finally the USS DRUM submarine tour.

B-52 Bomber

Aircraft, tanks and artillery

Various Coast Guard vessels

You start the tour in the gift shop paying admission, and then transition to the USS ALABAMA.  The ship began her life on February 1, 1942  at the Norfolk Navy Yard in Portsmouth, Virginia.  Battleship USS ALABAMA (BB-60) and was commissioned August 16, 1942.  She served during World War II in the North Atlantic in 1943, then later that year, went to the South Pacific to fight the Japanese. A crew of 2,500 manned the 45,000-ton ship and it led the American Fleet into Tokyo Bay on September 5, 1945, the day after the Surrender documents were signed. She earned nine Battle Stars for meritorious service and shot down 22 enemy aircraft during her three-year tour of duty as the “Heroine of the Pacific.”  It is 680 ft long with a beam width of over 108 ft and weighs 35,000 tons but equipped for battle weighs over 45,000 tons.  The battleship's claim to fame is her 16"/45 caliber guns accurate to 21 miles!!  She also has many other 5"38 caliber, 40mm and 20mm guns.

In 1947 the USS Alabama was decommissioned iand was scheduled to be scrapped in the early 1960s. A group from Alabama saved the ship from the scrap yard and created the Memorial Park in Mobile. On January 9, 1965 the USS ALABAMA Battleship Memorial Park opened to the public.

Touring the USS ALABAMA is a challenge.  The spaces are not large and there is a lot of climbing ship's ladders to see the various levels.  Here are just a few of the Battleship pictures we took.

The USS ALABAMA

Many levels and compartments to tour.

Diving air pump

Navy diving display 

Chief Schellhase at the trigger.

The breach of a 16' gun.  Tight quarters

The big guns!  Accurate to 21 miles.

A view the 20mm cannon operator would have.

Thick walls protect the Captain

The Captain's berth.

The navigation bridge

The ship's bell

Fire control radar, used to direct fire of the main guns

A 'Mark 8' 2700 lb armor piercing projectile shot from one of the 16" guns.  

 

The USS ALABAMA routes and battles she fought

After touring the battleship we made our way to the Medal of Honor Aircraft Pavilion building.  In there they have many Navy and Air Force aircraft on display, including an F-16 from the Alabama Air National Guard.  Some of the aircraft are on loan from the museum at Pensacola.  Here are a few pictures:

Douglas AD-4 Sky Raider

Alabama Air National Guard F-16 could use some TLC and a new canopy.

President George H.W. Bush Presidential helicopter on display.

Coast Guard rescue helicopter

Grumman A-6 Intruder, flown by Rear Admiral Jeremiah Denton Jr, POW (see below)

Rear Admiral Jeremiah Denton Jr was imprisoned in Vietnam from 18 Jul 1965 to 13 Feb 1973 and there is a very nice display honoring him and all POW's here. 

A Christmas tree made out of socks

Straw mats and other items depicting how POW's lived

We then left the museum and made our way to the USS DRUM submarine.  On the way we passed a memorial for submariners.

A memorial to the submariners

Navy PB Mark 3 - Used by the Navy SEAL Teams

 The USS DRUM was commissioned on 1 Nov 1941 and earned 12 Battle Stars during World War II.  She is over 311 ft long, over 27 ft wide, and is staffed with 72 seamen.

On the deck of the USS DRUM

The conning tower, periscopes, radar, etc

The ship's bell

Doreen's knee would likely not tolerate the additional climbing involved and I have seen the inside of the sub before, so we dispensed with the interior tour and headed out.

We stopped at Felix's Fish Camp Grill on the way back and had lunch.  I tried three different types of baked oysters along with some seafood gumbo and some jalapeno cheddar hush puppies.  Doreen had a huge chicken sandwich and half of that came home with us.

On the way back to the RV park we passed many cotton fields.  We want to stop and pick up some of the cotton that has blown near the road, but we will do that another day.

We have heavy rains and storms predicted for the next few days, the same storm system that is bringing rain and snow to the upper Midwest.  We will focus on some inside touring tomorrow.