I really like seeing big guns, The USS New Jersey

[Brian Williams]

I took my father and my son to see the "Big Guns" of the USS New Jersey today.

I have not heard my father say in a long time "that was a lot of fun", had a good time as the 3 generations of us went on the guided tour.

My dad was the Boatswains mate in charge of a small boat like this and often tells me about doing Mail runs with a 45 and a few extra mags of ammo for plinking.

 

[Brian Williams]

more pics
me and the Armor piercing shell

A couple of old Salts

The Foredeck fro the bridge

 

[SigfanUSAF]

Thanks for sharing! I love the Iowa class battleships! Nothing like 9 16"-50s to light up your day. Very impressive

 

[flatdog]

Brian,

Your dad looks good in "the catbirds seat".

flatdog

 

[moewadle]

Battleship trivia

Brian, thanks so much for sharing. I really enjoyed your entry. I am a Navy Vet (1960-67) and I was on an aircraft carrier. In any event I love ships and I love the battle ships. Their main battery consisted of 9 16 inch, 50 calibre guns. Trivia: Navy guns nomenclature, 16" 50 means that the barrels are 16 inch calibre but the barrels are 50 calibres long. So the barrels are 800 inches or 66.7 feet. To further explain, a 5" 38 Naval gun is 5" caliber and 190 inch long barrel or 38 calibres long. The 16" Naval gun could hurl a 2000 pound shell about 25 miles. Sounds terribly powerful and was at a certain time in history. But, obviously, is now obsolete. There is a common belief that when a battle ship fired the 16 inch guns the recoil would jolt the ship back in water several feet. However, I read a scientific article about this belief once, or maybe it was on TV, and it was stated that the air is displaced by the muzzle blast and causes an optical illusion, that the ship is not displaced in the water any significant amount. For those that may not know, the New Jersey's sister ship, the USS Missouri is a museum at Pearl Harbor.

 

[Brian Williams]

Yeah, He had fun considering he was on a Fleet oiler for the last half of the Pacific theater and at one time did refuel the Jersey, over in the Phillipines and near Okinawa.
He has been telling me about when his ship was hit by a Kamakazi, the bombs did not get armed and the plane crashed on the afterdeck and one of the bombs came loose and was rolling around over the AvGas compartment. A few of them just tossed it over the side. I was looking at the USN Ships damage reports for WWII and found his ship and the story was in there, Kind of neat to know your dad's sea stories are true.
If you have somebody to share time with do it now, They or you are not around here too long.

 

[moewadle]

Amen to your last two sentences....The saying I heard and was impressed by, "IF YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY TO SOMEONE SAY IT NOW BECAUSE YOU MAY NEVER GET ANOTHER CHANCE."

 

[the 22 junkie]

Jeez kid, get a haircut already.

Just kidding, I need one just as bad.

 

[lionking]

thanks for sharing.I look forward to when I can visit my father again.

My dad lives in D.C,he took me to all the momuments and Abereen proving ground,they have awesome weapons display there.

Thats about all I can say good about D.C though,as a city it sucks!

To see the capitol though is inspiring,the government section anyway.

 

[sm]

Thanks for sharing!!

 

[lionking]

22 junkie *sigh*....if you saw me well.....never mind


sure hope I can see a battleship up close someday

 

[zoom6zoom]

the USS Missouri is a museum at Pearl Harbor.

Yes, I visited her last month. Very impressive. Also got to the Arizona and Utah memorials.

lionking, here's a link to a listing of historic naval vessels and their current locations. You might be surprised to find one near you. I've been to all but three of the U.S. battleships listed.
http://www.hnsa.org/index.htm

 

[oneshooter]

If you ever get a chance to visit the great state of Texas, then stop by and see Jerseys Great-Grandfather. The USS Texas!

Oneshooter
Livin in Texas

 

[moewadle]

Ship museums

Okay, let me share those ship museums I am aware of and others can share.....I know the USS New Jersey, Battleship is listed here, then the USS Missouri, Battleship, is at Pearl Harbor, USS Lexington, Aircraft Carrier is at Corpus Christi, Texas. The USS Hornet,Aircraft Carrier, is at Alameda, (Bay Area), California. The USS Intrepid, Aircarft Carrier, is in New City. The USS Alabama, Battleship, is at some Gulf City in Alabama. The USS Laffey, Destroyer, and the USS Yorktown, Aircraft Carrier, are both at Patriot's Point in South Carolina.
I invite others to let us know about ship's museums not yet mentioned.

And, while I am thinking of it I will repeat something you gun nuts might be interested in seeing. 60 miles east of where I live is the Rock Island, Illinois,Arsenal which has been around a long time and has a great history of involvement int he manufacture of famous firearms, such as the 1903 Springfield. Anyway, there is a musuem there full of historic US firearm models. There must be thousands of handguns and rifles and a few pieces of artillery. There are rifles there used by the Indians against Custer. The firearms are cataloged and on display in glass cases with binders sitting available with detailed information on each firearm for viewers to read. Also, after going through the museum drive around the Arsenal grounds a bit and enjoy the nice looking limestone buildings and the view of the Mississippi
River on which the Arsenal sits. Also, there is a graveyard there with graves of Confederate soldiers who died while in the prison camp that was here during the Civil War. All of this is free. You have to pass through a guard shack and show some ID for security purposes but it is not a big hassle.

 

[SigfanUSAF]

USS Mass in Fall River MA, USS NC is in Wilmington,

 

[browningguy]

They are quite the ship, I still have my mug from 1984 when I was on the recommissioning team for the Iowa (BB-61). I was out of the Navy then and working for Mcdonnell Douglas Missile Systems Co., me and another engineer went over to install the Tomahawk and Harpoon systems on board at Ingels in Mississippi.

I spent most of my Navy time riding DDG's and FF's, so it was pretty amazing to be up close to the firepower these things had. They also installed a couple of the minigun systems on board.

 

[Limeyfellow]

We have the USS North Carolina at the coast. Its pretty awesome sight to see. Up there with the HMS Victory at Portsmouth.

 

[tincat2]

Very Nice Post

Nice pix, nice theme. You're fortunate to have your dad still w/you. Mine passed away some time ago, and I still miss him and respect him more each day. He was in the Army Air Corps on an island watching the sky lit by the guns in the battle of Midway. He always respected the Navy guys(minus the officers) because he said he and his buddies knew that if those guys hadn't won that fight he and his buddies would have been overrun by the Japanese(who were a valiant and tough foe). Later, he was fished out of the water by a Navy guy after a Kamikaze attack on the LST which was transporting him to another island. There are so many personal accounts of the incidents of WWll that are at risk of being lost that I hope we will all respect the effort to record as much as we can about the men and women who struggled in so many different ways through history's greatest conflict, friend and foe alike.

 

[Mk VII]

I took this photo of the USS Iowa in 1986 when it docked in Portsmouth, England.
The tin device on the mooring line has a large cat's mouth painted on it. In the spotting top, though most people didn't notice it, was a Marine with an M16.

 

[moewadle]

The tin device on the mooring line

The cone shaped tin device on the mooring line is always present when ships, at least US ships, are at the pier because these are put on to keep rodents, that is , RATS, from coming aboard without crossing the quarterdeck and saluting the colors and asking for permission from the the Officer of the Deck to come aboard. The idea of painting a cat on them is a neat bit of humor. US Navy 1960-67

 

[280PLUS]

Yup, that tin cone is called a "rat guard". When we were on our way to WESPAC the FFG-1 broke down and we (USS BUCHANAN DDG-14) had to lay out the hawser and tow her along. At one point one of our guys put a sign on the back of our ship that said "Buchanan tows the BIG ONE" or something like that just to bust their chops. They responded by putting a rat guard on the hawser. Joke was on them though, they put the rat guard on backwards.

Thanks for the pics too. My son and I visited "Old Ironsides" at Boston Naval Shipyard a few years back. Moored across the pier was an old WWII destroyer that we took a "tour" on. While wandering the main deck I found a ladder to the upper levels that had no rope across it so we went up. At about the time he was sitting on the AA gun we hear, "What're you guys doing up there!?!" and proceeded to get a butt chewing for going up the roped off ladder. I tried to explain to the Ranger that there WAS no rope across it but he wasn't believing me. First time I set foot on a US NAvy ship in 25 years and within 5 minutes I'm in trouble.

I like to think the ghosts of the old sailors on there recognized another old destroyer sailor and took the rope down themselves so we could take the grand tour.

I've actually had an invite to go back and tour the engine room for a while now but I've never taken up on it.

 

[Kentak]

That's neat, Brian. Thanks for sharing.

K

 

[oneshooter]

The USS Texas in Deer Park Texas, USS Kidd in Baton Rouge La., USS Cavalla and USS Seawolf in Galveston Texas, USS Drum in Mobile ALabama, USS Ling in New Jersey, USS Little Rock, USS Croaker, USS The Sullivans in Buffalo New York, and a LOT of others in the US and overseas.

Oneshooter
Livin in Texas

List of museums at this site.

http://www.fleetairarmarchive.net/Museums/Museums_ships2000A-Z.htm

 

[ORAG]

War Story

My dad was in the Navy in WWII. He repaired airplanes at Barber's Point, Hawaii. When he would get to telling stories about his duties there he would get a tear in the corner of his eye. When I got an R&R during Vietnam, I met my wife there. We went out to Barber's point on a trip and now I know why he got that damned tear. He had to come home at the end of the war. I miss my dad and salute all those veterans of WWII out there still doing fun things in life. PS, my son has a pony tail and I'm almost OK with it.

 

[Brian Williams]

Hey, Hair, Clothes, "normal piercings" I have no problem with, The Kid is attending the local Career and Technology center(VOtech) starting to talk College, He argues and fights about stupid stuff like why does he have to take out the trash or wash the dishes, but he is starting his own value transference and coming up with some good straight forward morals and values. So who cares what he looks like we need some straight forward upright WEIRDOS around here.
Semper FI



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