USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park

[tinman0]

Here we go, visited the USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park today just outside Mobile, and got some pictures. The museum obviously has the retired USS Alabama weighing in at 36,000 tons, and the USS Drum, which as far as I can tell is a random old submarine that they are letting rot.

They also have a few planes in a nice hanger, and some rusting pieces outside. Didn't get many of the outside pictures as they were cordoned off.

Tomorrow we're off to the Naval Aviation Museum on Pensacola NAS (Naval Air Station) which apparently is the largest collection of US Navy planes.






















Ok, this one is interesting. Its an archive picture of all the A12s when they were retired from active duty.

[skip_1]

Man, those some big ass guns on that boat

[tinman0]

skip_1 said:

Man, those some big ass guns on that boat

Rednecks with proper guns!

[skip_1]

Those bunks, were they behind bars as it's the brig, or just to prevent tourists from touching?

[tinman0]

skip_1 said:

Those bunks, were they behind bars as it's the brig, or just to prevent tourists from touching?

tourists and touching. there were loads of rooms that were open but barred if you see what I mean.

[skip_1]

That's a bit of a shame.

Thanks for sharing the pics, i'll be back tomorrow to see the others

[BLUETHUNDER]

A very rare chopper(Kamen Seasprite) in the pics.Ilove that nicely restored M38 Jeep as well.

[Olf]

I love the picture of the mothballed SR71s

[Eric Mc]

Nice pics. Nice to see one of the older "tall tailed" B-52s in "Nam" colours.

[Incredible Sulk]

tinman0 said:

skip_1 said:

Man, those some big ass guns on that boat

Rednecks with proper guns!

Puts the only British floating 'Big Gun Ship' museum into the shade. We have the Belfast, a 6" Cruiser. That from the nation that had the biggest Battleship Fleet in the world during the Great War.

[Eric Mc]

HMS Vanguard's big guns survive outside the Imperial War Museum.

[JVaughan]

Incredible Sulk said:

tinman0 said:

skip_1 said:

Man, those some big ass guns on that boat

Rednecks with proper guns!

Puts the only British floating 'Big Gun Ship' museum into the shade. We have the Belfast, a 6" Cruiser. That from the nation that had the biggest Battleship Fleet in the world during the Great War.

Very nice pix ... Shame though, Britains Big guns are on the ocean floor thanks to the Bismark.
and the King George V was decommissioned and scrapped in the 50's

[Eric Mc]

Haven't all the US Navy's battleships been decommissioned now as well?

[JVaughan]

thing is the Americans tend to use them as museums ... we just sell ours for scrap metal or target practice.

Edited by JVaughan on Tuesday 30th December 11:03

[Kaelic]

Eric Mc said:

Haven't all the US Navy's battleships been decommissioned now as well?

Iowa is meant to become another museum ship but I think congress wants it also kept in a state which she can be returned to active service if needed.

Apparently the Americans want to keep at least one BB useable if ever the need arises So they have to keep a stock of spare barrels for the 16 inchers and lots of other spare parts.



Edit:
Apparently Wisconsin is also to be kept in a return to service state!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Iowa_(BB-61)

Edited by Kaelic on Tuesday 30th December 10:52

[Danger_Mouse]

JVaughan said:

thing is the Americans tend to use them as museums ... we just sell ours for scrap metal or target practice.

Edited by JVaughan on Tuesday 30th December 11:03

Well it's great the American's can preserve their military history and I personally think it's fascinating.

However, do you really want something else to burden the tax system?

And besides that was had great fun sinking leander class ships in the Navy (or at least trying too!)

[FourWheelDrift]

Danger_Mouse said:

Well it's great the American's can preserve their military history and I personally think it's fascinating.

However, do you really want something else to burden the tax system?

All of them are trust/charity run so no burden on the tax system.



And USS Drum is still in a state after being damaged in recent Hurricanes, as was Alabama.

[Eric Mc]

Unfortunately, there is limited support in the UK for keeping large ships is a preserved state. A couple of years ago there was a fantastic opportunity for an old 1940s ex-Royal Navy aircrft carrier to come back to the UK for preservation. Not enough funds could be raised so she was towed off to India for scrapping.

[FourWheelDrift]

tinman0 said:

the USS Drum, which as far as I can tell is a random old submarine that they are letting rot.

Summary of War Patrols
14 April 1942 Sank Japanese seaplane tender Mizuho and 3 cargo ships.
10 July 1942 Damaged one Japanese freighter.
23 September 1942 Sank 3 Japanese freighters and damaged 2 other cargo ships.
29 November 1942 Damaged the Japanese aircraft carrier Ryuho and a tanker.
24 March 1943 Carried out photo reconnaissance of the island of Nauru and sank two freighters.
7 June 1943 Sank one Japanese cargo-passenger ship.
16 August 1943 Sank one Japanese cargo ship.
2 November 1943 Sank one Japanese cargo ship and received heavy damage under depth charge attack from enemy escort ships.
9 April 1944 Carried out photo reconnaissance of the island of Chichi Jima.
24 June 1944 Sank one Japanese sampan.
9 September 1944 Sank three Japanese cargo ships.
7 December 1944 Could not detect any enemy shipping.
11 February 1945 Provided pilot rescue and reconnaissance for the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

Of Drum's 13 war patrols, all save the second, ninth, and last two were designated "successful". She received a total of 12 battle stars for World War II service. She is credited with sinking 15 ships, a total of 80,580 tons of enemy shipping, eighth highest of all U.S. submarines in total Japanese tonnage sunk.

Granted nothing like the tonnage sank by U Boats in the Atlantic, but the Pacific is a bigger place and to get anything and survive the war is a great result.

[mybrainhurts]

USS Bradford...?

Blimey, innit....