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"Strange to think that I've become the World War II guy," Hanks laughs. "All my friends had dads who were on the U.S.S. Nimitz or U.S.S. Enterprise or U.S.S. Coral Sea. They lived in naval housing, and everybody who was like a primary caregiver to me talked about the war."

I hate to pick nits, but Nimitz was a man during WWII, and Coral Sea was a battle. Are you sure your friends weren't talking about some other war?

Hanks should've kept his mouth shut for this interview - if anyone is counting on him as a historian, they will be sadly misled.

But wait. It’s seared in his memory.

I really didn’t want to know how ignorant Hanks was of history. I know there’s a lot I don’t know, but please... And I really, really enjoy Apollo 13. (sigh)

"I hate to pick nits, but Nimitz was a man during WWII, and Coral Sea was a battle. Are you sure your friends weren't talking about some other war?"

There's a 1980 movie called "The Final Countdown" in which the USS Nimitz is time warped back to December 6, 1941. Charles Durning plays a US Senator who is rescued at sea and brought aboard the Nimitz and asks that very question, "What is a US Navy ship doing named after a serving Admiral?" The story line is kind of hoakey, but like "Top Gun" a few years later, was a good show of US Navy firepower.

Had it not been for the A-Bomb, there's a good chance the USS Coral Sea would have played a role. It along with the Midway and FDR were a new class of super-carriers that totally outclassed the Essex class flat tops that carried the bulk of the war in the Pacific, and arrived just a little too late. Like the A1 Skyraider they were to carry, they all proved their worth well into the Viet Nam war and beyond.