Hornet's electricity still on, for now

Contra Costa Times ^ | 5/9/5 | Susan Fuller

[SmithL]

Some good news for a magnificant old warship.

[Pyro7480]

U.S.S. Hornet (CV12 - Essex Class)

[longhorn too]

Something tells me you never served aboard as US Navy ship!

[RhoTheta]

Hornet ping

[Vn_survivor_67-68]

"Scrap that old hulk. Honor the Sailors not their tools."

Honor the Sailors? You mean the guys who served on the Hornet, right? Your comment Honors nothing.

http://www.its.caltech.edu/~drmiles/crew_stories.html

[datura]

No, that person has never served. At least not anyone but themselves, and certainly not in the military.

[Jeff Gordon]

"We can't arbitrarily subsidize one customer at the expense of all others," said AP&T spokesman Matt McCabe, in a prepared statement before the last-minute arrangements for payment.

But you could donate electricity to a worthy cause. However, the chances are that Matt McCabe is an anti-war Berzerkly nut.

[brownsfan]

"Something tells me you never served aboard as US Navy ship!"

I served on 2, and he makes a good point.

[datura]

Has anyone ever told you about keeping your mouth shut so that there is at least some doubt as to whether or not you're the fool? Evidently not.

[longhorn too]

Which ships were you on?

[billbears]

I've never served on a Navy ship. Does that somehow exclude me from making a comment that unless the money can be paid by private sources the thing should be junked? Why should the taxpayers, even local taxpayers, be forced to pay for an old hunk of steel to be kept afloat and open? It no longer serves a purpose, junk it. I can't wait for some Congressman to come up with the idea to subsidize this with federal tax dollars. Then we can all pay for scrap metal in Alameda.

If only the citizens of the respective states held the actually important things affecting this nation of states in such a high regard, instead of old pieces of machinery, one would think there perhaps could be some hope for returning to a constitutional republic. Or is that somehow not important when our pet projects may come under the proverbial ax?

[skeeter]

I've been to several memorials & anniversary events aboard the Hornet Museum.

If it weren't for that ship my family & I woulda never met the vets of the great naval battles of WWII that we have.

Its one of the last physical links in the Bay Area to WWII. And to the US Navy, for that matter. It'd be a SHAME to lose her.

[henkster]

Let me join the growing list who've jumped you for your post. It's obvious that not only have you never served, you've never toured a museum ship.

I've not been to the Hornet, but I have toured her sister ship, the USS Lexington in Corpus Christi (and you can stand in the same room off the bridge where Marc Mitscher ordered the lights turned on to guide the exhausted pilots home when their planes were on fumes at the Battle of the Phillipine Sea.) We go to Carolina Beach, NC, every summer (because the USS North Carolina in the Cape Fear River. Stand in her hot engine room in midsummer and think of the guys buttoned up there in the South Pacific with the boilers runnning full blast, knowing that if the ship takes a fatal hit, you're going down with her). I've been on the USS Olympia in Philadelphia; Dewey's flaghship at Manila Bay. They have a set of footprints embossed on the bridge where the admiral stood as he gave one of the most famous commands in the history of the United States Navy: "You may fire when ready, Gridley." I've been to the U505 at Chicago's Museum of Science and industry. Even if they fought against us, you have to admire the courage of the German sailors who went to sea in their "Iron Coffins," knowing full well they had long odds of returning. And they were all volunteers.

Nope, from my humble perspective, you have no idea what you are talking about.

[brownsfan]

"Which ships were you on?"

USS Chicago CG-11
USS Sampson DDG-10

[longhorn too]

You didn't have to tell you never served on a ship I can tell by the rest of your post, if you had of served you would know the pride the sailors have for the ship they served on. You have a right to complain all you want about waste but until you served on one you have no idea the feelings one has for the ship they served on.

[longhorn too]

I sailed on the USS Dennis J Buckley DD808 in 1971-72, I think we may have worked with the Chicago at one time if my memory serves me correct.

[brownsfan]

I was on Chicago from 77 to 79, sailed on her last WestPac. She was decommissioned and I moved to the Sampson.
Chicago was a flagship for... dang, I forget, 6th fleet? Anyway, it wasn't bad duty. They made razorblades out of it.