Prettiest thing I ever saw was standing outside on the foc'sle (front deck area) of the destroyer I was on at quarters...One bright and beautiful crisp morning off of the San Clemente Island gunnery range...The water was glass smooth, the air was still, just an absolute great day to be out there ready to blow something up...
The D.O. (Division Officer) was reading the plan of the day to us, and since we were due to move onto the range in short order (I was in Operations, and our job was to coordinate and run the NGFS practice that day)...Our wonderful IC rates (internal comm guys) had the NGFS range frequency piped inot the speakers outside for us to listen to the radio calls from the Marines practicing their trade calling in fire missions...
Since we knew what was going on, and could understand what the guys were talking about on the net...We would pause every now and then to listen in...
About 2000 yards (about a mile) away from us...The New Jersey was coming online and was getting their first practice call for fire...It was a "beach prep" type mission...Being that far away we thought would be kinda neat to see first hand what one of those would look like...
Since we had only a couple of 5 inch guns on our ship, we thought we would only see a 5 inch precision type beach prep volley from them (New Jersey)...Those gun crews need a little work every now and then too!
We were horribly wrong...
We saw all three 16 inch gun mounts traverse to the beach on San Clemente, and within a few seconds hearing the radio talker on the New Jersey give off the gun target line, time of flight, etc etc...
With a flash, and a big billowing cloud of smoke, a nine gun salvo was on the way...
A second later (watching the concussion wave rolling towards us) the shock wave hit us...
It was one of the most incredible things I ever saw in my life and career in the Navy...
Absolutely brought a tear to my eye! I would not want even to be in a neighboring county on the receiving end of one of those!
When they decommissioned all of them "again!"...I thought it was a big mistake...At least keep a couple of them online and deployable...We sat down one day and figured out what the daily operating cost of just one was...No big deal considering what we run on the water these days...
Once again it appears that our government is making a big mistake again in not keeping something like this, which in its history project power, intimidates, and can deliver something that is truely feared and respected by our enemies even today...
I actually believe they would save us money in the long run...
To some it may look like vanity, and living in the past...
But those ships, and many of its type both friend and foe do something obviously extra when you see them parked off your beach, and you may not have warm feelings about it...
Be somewhere else...Stop what you are doing for it to be there...
A very simple concept...And to me one worth every dollar it took to get that reaction...
And if you didn't...Oh well...sigh...The gene pool needed purging anyway...
Goat killer
A full broadside of the Iowa Class is a thing of beauty...
At night even moreso..when it goes from pitch black.... to dailight instantaneously.... you just cannot comprehend unless you've seen it.
THe battlewagons give the US Complete ownership of everything from the coast to 20 miles inland at will. There is no counter defense to a 16" shell.
16" combined with a remote drone for targeting, and if you can find em, you eliminate em... period.
During Iraq War I, enemy surrendered on sight to our drones... once word got around what followed. If you saw a drone, you were sure to either have a 16" barrage or a Tomahawk shortly thereafter.
That's just it. It's not whether it is the most cost-effective platform. It's about DETERRENT. The 16 inch guns don't knock down buildings like a cruise missile. They knock down neighborhoods.
Better to scare the enemy into submitting than trying to fight them piece-meal.