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USS Enterprise: The aircraft carrier that changed everything turns 50
Daily Press ^ | September 24, 2010 | Peter Frost

Posted on 09/24/2010 10:14:46 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki

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To: massgopguy
The only ships that were at Pearl Harbor on that day that still exist are the Arizona and Utah. I’ve read that the Arizona is near collapse.

Really? Until I retired a couple months ago, I commuted daily to Ford Island. Never heard anything about the Arizona collapsing. Hell, it is sitting on the bottom, where could it go? Maybe some upper decks might fall in, but not much else.

The superstructure was removed a long time ago. A bunch of it was dumped down on the tip of Waipio peninsula, got to check it out a few times. Just a lot of riveted, rusting metal now.

It's a shame the Utah is off limits to most. There is a nice memorial on the pier if you have base access.

61 posted on 09/24/2010 1:59:32 PM PDT by doorgunner69
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To: doorgunner69
The possibility of a structural collapse of the Arizona wreck has been an issue with the Navy for more than a decade. There was talk of building a cement sarcophagus to hold the remaining wreckage where it is, driven by the fear that if it did collapse, the remains inside could be scattered in the harbor.
I'm not sure why this issue has been moved to the back burner; could be that no one in the Navy wants to take responsibility for the job and associated risks.
Wife and I visited the Arizona Memorial, the submarine memorials and the Missouri while in Honolulu this past March. The wreck still gives up about a pint of Number 6 oil every day. The crowds on the Memorial were mostly young Japanese and a few gray hairs like us.
I spoke to one couple from Japan, asking why they wanted to see the Arizona. from what I could understand, (and I used to speak pretty good Japanese) they wanted to see what their grandfathers had done because they just couldn't believe it possible.
btw, the Missouri had just come out of dry dock with a new paint job and looked like a brand new battleship. The paint looked to be about 1/4 inch thick and other than the small dent on the edge of the main deck where a kamikaze had hit and bounced off, she looked perfect. We got to go inside the dining area with the dinner service placed out for the officers and walked through the control room. This was remarkable because along side old round radar scopes were the digital controls for the missiles President Reagan had put aboard when the Iowas were refitted.
62 posted on 09/24/2010 2:34:39 PM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (Impeachment !)
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To: Eric in the Ozarks; cardinal4

The USS Massachusetts is tied up at Battleship Cove in Fall River, MA. It’s just off I-95. The Massachusetts engaged the French warship Jean Bart in 1942, and participated in Operation Torch (the U S landing in French Morocco). She then went to the Pacific and fought in the Solomons campaign and the battle for Leyte Gulf.


63 posted on 09/24/2010 3:03:25 PM PDT by Ax
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To: skeeter

In late 1944, the Navy had started construction on 4 (I believe) large carriers, which wer quickly scrapped after V-J day..do you have any info on them? Thanks


64 posted on 09/24/2010 3:25:51 PM PDT by ken5050 (The meek shall inherit the earth, but no way Kendrick Meek beats Marco Rubio)
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To: ken5050

The only heavy carriers discontinued upon conclusion of the war that I’m aware of were the long-hulled Essex class, considerably more than 4 and all of which were scrapped, and the Midway class (4 planned, one completed) and the rest scrapped.


65 posted on 09/24/2010 3:41:06 PM PDT by skeeter
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To: ken5050

... actually, not all of the long hulled Essexes were scrapped, several were.


66 posted on 09/24/2010 3:43:38 PM PDT by skeeter
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To: ken5050

Damn, don’t listen to me... three Midways were completed, the rest cancelled.


67 posted on 09/24/2010 3:46:33 PM PDT by skeeter
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To: skeeter

Thanks..I’ll do some more digging..


68 posted on 09/24/2010 3:47:51 PM PDT by ken5050 (The meek shall inherit the earth, but no way Kendrick Meek beats Marco Rubio)
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To: Gaffer

We were talking about that a couple of nights ago. The theory was that if the Might Mo fired all of it’s guns at the same time in the same direction ( either exactly port or starboard ) the recoil would flip the ship over. I think that well known picture was the test of that and the ship was OK.


69 posted on 09/24/2010 3:53:13 PM PDT by Hillarys Gate Cult
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To: ken5050
Iowa class BB’s, the Illinois and Kentucky were started but scrapped. The bow of the Kentucky (BB 66) was used to repair the damaged Wisconsin after a collision in 1956.
Five larger battleships of the Montana class were drawn up. They were to be the Montana, Ohio, Maine, New Hampshire and Louisiana. These featured 12 big guns with a 121 foot beam; too big for the Panama Canal. The Iowas were 108 ' beam.
70 posted on 09/24/2010 4:25:05 PM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (Impeachment !)
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To: Pyro7480

“There was a FReeper whose handle was B-Chan who served on the Enterprise. But it’s like he’s never existed. “The requested document does not exist on this server.”
Do you know what happened to him?”

He was one of the guys in the Philadelphia experiment.


71 posted on 09/24/2010 5:30:09 PM PDT by Beowulf9
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To: ken5050
In late 1944, the Navy had started construction on 4 (I believe) large carriers, which wer quickly scrapped after V-J day..do you have any info on them? Thanks

Two Essexes were cancelled at the end of WWII while still incomplete: Reprisal (CV-35) and Iwo Jima (CV-46). Six additional unnamed ships, CV-50 through CV-55, were cancelled without having been laid down or named.

Five additional members of the class were completed in the post-war months: Leyte, Kearsarge, Princeton, Valley Forge and Philippine Sea. The final class member was completed in 1950 to a modified design incorporating new technology (more welded construction and use of aluminum): Oriskany

Three members of the Midway class were cancelled without being laid down, or named: CVB-44, CVB-56 and CVB-57.
72 posted on 09/24/2010 5:42:12 PM PDT by tanknetter
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To: tanknetter

To add ... the final tally for the Essex class (understanding that there were multiple sub-classes that could be referred to as the Ticonderoga Class, the Hancock Class, the Oriskany Class, etc) was 24 completed ships (I’ll refrain from naming all of them).

The final tally for the Midway class was 3 completed ships (Midway CVB-41, Franklin D. Roosevelt CVB-42 and Coral Sea CVB-43). CVB-42 was laid down as Coral Sea, but the name was moved to CVB-43 after FDR died and CVB-42 was renamed in his memory.


73 posted on 09/24/2010 5:48:35 PM PDT by tanknetter
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To: DesScorp

There should always be an Enterprise in the fleet. Always.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
I ‘signed’ a petition yesterday to name the next carrier Enterprise.


74 posted on 09/24/2010 6:13:24 PM PDT by xrmusn ((6/98) POLS= "a plethora of advice and a paucity of real assistance")
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To: DCBryan1
I got to see the Enterprise (with the Iowa berthed alongside her at Newport) from a boat -- up close and personal -- a dozen years ago or so...

Let me tell you -- the "E" is one HUGE structure -- visible from miles away across Narraganset bay! I can't imagine what a thrill it would be to see her underway at speed....

75 posted on 09/24/2010 8:55:13 PM PDT by TXnMA ("Allah": Satan's current alias...)
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To: Eric in the Ozarks
+The possibility of a structural collapse of the Arizona wreck has been an issue with the Navy for more than a decade.

Interesting. Hard to imagine the debris getting out into the main channel though, think it would just fall right next to the hulk. And nothing navigates near the Arizona other than tour boats. The big carriers do dock on the other side of the channel there, so I could see some concern.

btw, the Missouri had just come out of dry dock with a new paint job and looked like a brand new battleship. The paint looked to be about 1/4 inch thick and other than the small dent on the edge of the main deck where a kamikaze had hit and bounced off, she looked perfect.

Got video (illegal, but everyone was doing it) of the Missouri getting towed out after the redo, past Bldg 38 where I worked. So damn close I could not go wide enough angle to get the whole ship, so I panned back and forth. Beautiful ship, classic lines. Did a tour several months earlier, and the rust was very apparent, needed the facelift bad.

The rails were lined with sailors that had reenlisted on her as a special ceremony before leaving the drydock.

76 posted on 09/24/2010 9:45:01 PM PDT by doorgunner69
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To: doorgunner69
One more surprise I didn't expect; new US Navy officer uniforms. Tan shirt. Black pants and patent leather black shoes. Campaign style (folded) hat.
I thought the guy was a Marine...
77 posted on 09/25/2010 5:39:15 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (Impeachment !)
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To: Eric in the Ozarks
Them be enlisted sailors. They have shiny rank insignia on the collar, so you might mistake them for occifers. Don't think Chiefs and officers have changed.

Ya ought to see the goofy "camo" utilities the sailors get to wear: a sort of black with blue motif. Dunno where that will blend in..........Camo for Air Force, camo for sailors, where will it end? Camo for Coast Guard?

78 posted on 09/25/2010 12:24:17 PM PDT by doorgunner69
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To: doorgunner69
I'm pretty sure he was officer grade. He had something to do with managing the pair of tourist boats going back and forth from the Arizona Memorial and the Missouri from the opposite side of Pearl Harbor.

I have to add that I had no idea the US had lost so many submarines in the war. Each submarine memorial stands on a stone pillar in a circle with each submarine's name, officers and crew names on a brass plate.

We also took a day and visited the Big Island to see the volcano. It's a 20 minute flight, then a bus ride to the “pit.”

We had been looking down into the crater for about half an hour, hacking and coughing from the smoke and dust when a US Parks Service guy emerged from the gift shop wearing a gas mask. He ordered us all inside because the volcano was giving off too much SO2.

This was one of the more amusing episodes, along with the Norwegian tourist lady whose shorts, shall we say, didn't quite cover her buns. The entire tour party laughed and pointed at this “hang out” repeatedly.

79 posted on 09/25/2010 12:40:27 PM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (Impeachment !)
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To: tanknetter

The Enterprise had an early version of phased array radar that was somewhat troublesome. The Long Beach had a similar system. You will note that the nuclear “frigates” Bainbridge and Truxtun did not have such systems - the superstructures not large enough for the large “billboard” antenna arrays at the time, and I suspect the system was still buggy.The computer technology at the time wasn’t quite there yet. The phased array application on this scale requires a bit of signal processing computer horsepower. So these systems were no where near the capabilities of even the early versions of the SPY-1 found on the Ticonderoga class.


80 posted on 09/26/2010 5:19:24 AM PDT by Fred Hayek (FUBO! I salute you with the soles of my shoes!)
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