Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: Chuck Dye on May 27, 2012, 01:45:37 PM
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Tomorrow brings another trip past the mothball fleet at Benicia CA. I'll miss the brief glimpse of that grand old lady (http://www.armedpolitesociety.com/index.php?topic=28411.msg556012#msg556012) that trip has provided in the past.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2012/05/27/uss_iowa_on_way_to_new_home_in_southern_california/
Maybe when she is open to the public, I'll manage a visit.
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What a grand old gal. Here is (http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Final-voyage-USS-Iowa-on-way-to-S-Calif-home-3588477.php) a decent slideshow of her departure at the Seattle PI website. Nine images from different perspectives.
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I was at the Coast Guard Sector LA/LB Change of Command on Friday. The original hope was that had weather cooperated, the Iowa might have been towed into the harbor in the background during the ceremony. That would have been a cool sight.
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Man... What an amazing piece of history, and an amazing bit of machinery....
And dangit, I knew those 16" guns were big... But the picture where the tugboat is pushing her out and you can see the two forward batteries.... Holy crap. Give you a perspective that you can't really grasp when you see pictures of the ship alone.
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Man... What an amazing piece of history, and an amazing bit of machinery....
And dangit, I knew those 16" guns were big... But the picture where the tugboat is pushing her out and you can see the two forward batteries.... Holy crap. Give you a perspective that you can't really grasp when you see pictures of the ship alone.
887 feet. Three football fields long ...
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Man... What an amazing piece of history, and an amazing bit of machinery....
And dangit, I knew those 16" guns were big... But the picture where the tugboat is pushing her out and you can see the two forward batteries.... Holy crap. Give you a perspective that you can't really grasp when you see pictures of the ship alone.
A round as big as a Volkwagen, and just a tad bit heavier. Thank you, but No, I would not like to be underneath that when it came back down. I was able to see some of the sand sculpturing that was done by the New Jersey from off the coast of Vietnam. Those were big holes.
It's a sad day when there are no big guns to lead the ships of the line. There was much to be said for the shock and awe such a ship could project not just over the horizon but around the world.
stay safe.
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887 feet. Three football fields long ...
Just a foot shorter than the Essex-class fleet carrier of the same era. Man, I love the history of the Pacific Campaign. Just glad I wasn't there.
Edited to add: In some alternate history, admiral Lee (TF 34) would have stayed with Taffy Three off Samar, and theIowas and the Yamato would have duked it out.
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The NJ came into San Diego Bay when I was there. Standing on the stern of the submarine using a 50mm lens it too 4 frames to get the whole thing in.
The definition of Warship if ever there was one.
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Just a foot shorter than the Essex-class fleet carrier of the same era. Man, I love the history of the Pacific Campaign. Just glad I wasn't there.
Edited to add: In some alternate history, admiral Lee (TF 34) would have stayed with Taffy Three off Samar, and theIowas and the Yamato would have duked it out.
Did someone say "Essex class?" I just spent the weekend on one with my cub scout pack. The USS Lexington, BTW...and FTW.
USS Lexington+Memorial Day on Monday = (asst) cubmaster minute that stitched together the following:
1775--Battles of Lexinton & Concord
1865--End & commemoration of Civil War (Decoration Day---->Memorial Day)
1944--Battle of Leyte Gulf (where Lex was present)
2012--On the hangar deck of the Lex with the cub scout pack.
Good stuff worthy of a post of its own.
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I took a tour of the Lexington when it was still AD ported at Pensacola.
I was an E-3 stationed a Cory field for A school.
At the end of the tour a crusty old BMC standing watch at the brow made us show our IDs and was just about to have us confined because we were in civvies and didn't have our liberty cards. I don't know if we actually convinced h we weren't ships company or if he was just jerking us around to start with.
Either way the "Lady Lexington" was an impressive ship as well.
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I really do believe we should keep at least one battleship on active duty. Elsewise the wogs will act up. [popcorn]
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A round as big as a Volkwagen, and just a tad bit heavier. Thank you, but No, I would not like to be underneath that when it came back down. I was able to see some of the sand sculpturing that was done by the New Jersey from off the coast of Vietnam. Those were big holes.
It's a sad day when there are no big guns to lead the ships of the line. There was much to be said for the shock and awe such a ship could project not just over the horizon but around the world.
stay safe.
Yeah. Anything that can drop a volkswagen on your head from over 20 miles away is definitely deserving of respect.... :-)
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I really do believe we should keep at least one battleship on active duty. Elsewise the wogs will act up. [popcorn]
THIS!!!
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"A round as big as a Volkwagen, and just a tad bit heavier."
As BIG as a VW? Uhm... not really. A 16" projectile won't seat 4.
At 2,700 pounds, though, it is as heavy as a Beetle.
The original USS Lexington, CV-2, was in her final form 888 feet long.
IIRC the Lexington and Saratoga were the longest US ships until the Midway class was commissioned near the end of the war.
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You know, anything can be sunk (Where are Bismarck and Yamato today?) but a lot of modern anti-ship weaponry is intended for use against ships with thin steel structure. When the HMS Sheffield was struck by an Exocet missile during the Falklands war, someone asked a battleship captain how he would have reacted had his ship been hit by the same weapon. His response was something along the lines of "Sweepers, man your brooms!"
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"A round as big as a Volkwagen, and just a tad bit heavier."
As BIG as a VW? Uhm... not really. A 16" projectile won't seat 4.
Neither will a VW Beetle. :P I jest, I had up to 5 in my Beetle more than once, but we were all skinny HS students back then.
At 2,700 pounds, though, it is as heavy as a Beetle.
Almost 1000lbs heavier.
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You know, anything can be sunk (Where are Bismarck and Yamato today?) but a lot of modern anti-ship weaponry is intended for use against ships with thin steel structure. When the HMS Sheffield was struck by an Exocet missile during the Falklands war, someone asked a battleship captain how he would have reacted had his ship been hit by the same weapon. His response was something along the lines of "Sweepers, man your brooms!"
I really did laugh out loud at that.
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Wanna stop the pirates in Somalia? Send in a battleship and small support fleet. Bet they stop pretty darned quick.
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Wanna stop the pirates in Somalia? Send in a battleship and small support fleet. Bet they stop pretty darned quick.
Be like shooting flies with a .45 ACP. In other words, awesome.
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Wanna stop the pirates in Somalia? Send in a battleship and small support fleet. Bet they stop pretty darned quick.
Assuming they're allowed to be used.
We deployed a battleship (New Jersey?) off the coast of Lebanon in the 1980s . . . IIRC, a news story at the time claimed that the guns were placed under the control of an Army general in Europe. And when ordered to fire on certain targets, the aimpoint was to be offset so the gunfire would be a "warning" . . . although apparently they did manage to do some damage to a *expletive deleted*it command post, the guns were not employed as effectively as they might have been.
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My friend Pete managed 7 in his Beetle once.
Him driving, me in the passenger seat, Bob and Tom in the back, and Tammy, Ellen, and some other girl sitting on laps.
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Neither will a VW Beetle. :P I jest, I had up to 5 in my Beetle more than once, but we were all skinny HS students back then.
Almost 1000lbs heavier.
Shoot, back in the day, we had 5 people on a Bridgestone 350 motorcycle!