Check out the Midway parked in San Diego if you get a chance. Wife and I spent a day aboard this unique aircraft carrier.
The deck features more than a dozen Navy airplanes, including a rarity, the RA-5 Vigilante.
I did two cruises on the USS Hancock, CVA-19. The Hornet and the Hancock are(were) both Essex Class Carriers. For me is was an emotional flashback. My wife and I wandered about the ship and found that except for a few hatches and bulkheads, it was like being “back.” The smells at that time, ten or fifteen years ago, were the same.
I was an aviation ordnanceman in VF211 and at the time, they had one of our F8s in the hangerbay. The hatch on the port side guns was open and I can remember standing there for rather too long staring at the guns where I had spent a bit of my youth. I got a bit misty.
I cannot speak for others but I am glad to have been there.