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Posted on 02/01/2017 10:49:59 AM PST by TermLimitsforAll
The sun is setting on one of the most famous warships to ever serve in the U.S. Naval Fleet.
On Feb. 3, the USS Enterprise (CVN 65) will be officially decommissioned at the Newport News Shipyard, the same place where the ship was built decades ago.
On December 1, 2012, the USS Enterprise was inactivated at Naval Station Norfolk less than a month after returning from her final deployment, marking her 25th and final homecoming after 51 years of service.
In June 2013, the USS Enterprise made her final voyage, transiting from Naval Station Norfolk to the Newport News Shipyard where the ship has spent the past several years having nuclear fuel removed from its eight nuclear reactors.
(Excerpt) Read more at wtkr.com ...
Hmmm...wasn’t the Archerfish the one that sank the IJN Shinano?
I read an interesting story about the USS Archerfish being one of the first US Navy ships to go into the huge drydocks at Yokosuka, and the japanese shipworkers were all eyeing her with a palpable air of hostility...many of them had likely built the IJN Shinano in that very same drydock, and knew quite well it had been the Archerfish that sunk her.
The captain of the Archerfish decided to take the bull by the horns, and made it known that anyone who wanted a tour of the sub was welcome. That proved irresistible to the workers, and the ice was broken.
Those drydocks are huge.
Funny...isn't that the way it always is?
Hmmm...wasn’t the Archerfish the one that sank the IJN Shinano?
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Yes, USS Archerfish (SS-311)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Archerfish_(SS-311)
Also a USS Archerfish (SSN-678) 1971-1998
This Grunt appreciated the insight.
5.56mm
I was just reading the Wikipedia linked documents from the US damage control and design assessment done by the USA shortly after the war, and it is fascinating.
Good ships with some significant design flaws, but...we had our own issues with that (Essex class carriers had a single ventilation trunk that could distribute asphyxiating and toxic gasses throughout the ships ventilation system in the event of a fire...I believe they discovered that when the USS Franklin took a couple of bombs in her flight deck, setting the ship afire...
The feeling is most mutual, I assure you!
Your statement about your ashes, and that really aligns with my way of thinking about these things. I am a traditionalist, and a sentimental one. I think symbolic things have real meaning.
So I could only contrast your thoughts on this, with those evidenced by Michelle Obama’s “all this for a flag” comment, and it makes me realize the cultural and moral gulf between us and them.
..I always made sure to sign up for roller skating!
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FROM the Publication ‘So you are coming to Japan’ by
US Fleet Activities, Yokosuka Japan
“Skateland” Roller Rink is in Building B-29, behind the Fleet Gym. The rink has a large floor, skating music, soda fountain and approximately 250 pair of clamp-on skates and 250 pairs of shoe skates available.
Also on base was Barracks C which housed the base library, all sorts of hobby shops, music listening room, 16 bowling alleys and many other assorted activities including the ‘Benny Decker Theater’.
Don’t forget Club Alliance, a Navy EM Club, located outside the main gate (about 3 blocks).
I ‘lived’ in Yokosuka (home ported) 1960-62 and was in and out between 1957-60 and looking at this map there are places I never ‘heard’ of.
Library, hobby shops etc etc.. and all other kinds of ‘normal’ things....didn’t sell booze, I really wasn’t interested...<: <: <:
It is really a shame, all the time in and Cities in the Far East and about all I ever saw of any of them was the waterfront and bars withing walking/crawling/short cab ride.
Hit Bangkok in 1959 & 1961, Hong Kong several times and never took a ‘tour’....oh well...
Dad was a purchasing officer for the Army at something called “the Japan Procurement Agency.” A lodge buddy observed the US footprint in Asia ran on triplicate and quadruplicate paper documents. He theorized there would be room and financial opportunity for a paper mill and he had a connection to the royal family in Laos. In early ‘61, we took crash courses in French, the second language in SE Asia, got visas and made plans to leave Japan for Laos.
A pack a day of Camels brought a halt to this new Asian adventure. Dad suffered a heart attack and instead of Laos, we came home.
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I remember that place well. When our destroyer was in port several of us would go over there after a few Kirins or Asahis and pound each other into the walls. This was back in ‘69 when you could buy a brand new Honda 750 for just under a grand.
Yeah. I know. You are not alone in this. I will say, on my last deployment, I decided when I went ashore a few times to just go off on my own, as far away from the port as I could go in a day, and just look around.
One of those times I was in Taranto, miles from the ship, and I come across a crowd, gathered around a passed out sailor in a gutter. Sheesh...here I am, trying to get away, and couldn’t. I couldn’t just leave him there, so I got one of the Italian civilians to give me a ride back to Fleet Landing on the back of his motorcycle, and I took the Shore Patrol back out there with a truck.
Those were nice people. Didn’t even take the money out of his wallet, which was in the gutter beside him. Now, if he was in Naples...
Now, if he was in Naples...
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Yes, the ‘urchins’ would have stripped him AND the gold out of his teeth - quicker than you could convince the guy to give you a ride on his motorcycle.
Don’t know if you ever in Subic Bay but the ‘bridge’ into Olongapo was over ‘Shiite River’ and the sailors would throw coins in the water and the ‘natives’ would jump into the water for the Peso coins....Every once in a while a ‘smart-ass’ would throw a slug or such and every so often a drunken sailor would get waylayed on the way back across the bridge...I like to think it was one of the slug throwers.
Mad Dogs and the noon day sun was surely written about Olongapo.... Would take the BNG to a watering hole in middle of day, throw 5 or 6 quick shots down him and toss him into the middle of the street...that dust etal sure did a number on a brand new pair of whites......then we would hustle him back to the ship....
I lived in Subic for several years as well (My dad was the XO there between 1969-1971)
Yep...I threw a few centavos off that bridge...I must admit, they were of such inconsequential sturdiness and value, I always thought they would float when they hit the water.
I lived up on Kalyaan Hill near the Officers Club, and when the wind blew the right way, I could smell the Olongapo River...not pleasant. My brother’s best friend’s father owned Pauline’s...a notorious place! (I never went there, wasn’t brave enough, but was told that was where they fed little duckling chicks to the crocodiles in a pit)
I am glad I never went to a place like Olongapo when I was in myself...it surely would have been the death of me! (I assume the BNG was B****** New Guy!)
But as a kid, I loved Subic!
I am glad I never went to a place like Olongapo when I was in myself...it surely would have been the death of me! (I assume the BNG was B****** New Guy!)
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Never made a Med but have heard Naples was every bit as ‘bad’ as Olongapo..
BNG is Brand New Guy...Also knows as FNG (you can figure it out)<: <:
Wasn’t aware of the croc pit but I always get a kick out of people who ‘really don’t know’ refer to a ‘Dog & Pony’ Show as a fiasco -
when in ‘reality’ a REAL Dog & Pony show is quite orchestrated and under control.. (or so I have heard..<: <:)
lol
LOL, as “under control” as those things can be! Well, life on ship could be boring, but it rarely was ashore!
I saw "Fantastic Voyage" there, and that was around the time I kind of thought that maybe girls might not be the enemy...
(after seeing Raquel Welch in these scenes...)
I remember the theater seemed way to small and hot when they began tearing the antibodies off of her white wet suit...)
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