Barry's family snuck in a very last minute beach trip before all the kids headed back to school recently. From what I've been told, the weather was nice and they had a great time, but the highlight of the trip was visiting the USS Alabama Battleship in Mobile, AL.
Displacing more than 44,500 tons, the USS ALABAMA measures 680 feet from stem to stern, half as long as the Empire State Building is tall. Armed with nine, 16-inch guns in three turrets and 20, 5-inch, .38-caliber guns in 10 twin mounts, her main batteries could fire shells as heavy as a small car accurately for a distance of more than 20 miles.
Her steel side armor was a foot thick above the waterline, tapering to one half inch at the bottom. Her four propellers, each weighing more than 18 tons, could drive her through the seas at up to 28 knots, more than 32 miles per hour. Loaded with 7,000 tons of fuel oil, her range was about 15,000 nautical miles. The USS ALABAMA was built to fight.
The USS ALABAMA saw 37 months of active duty during World War II, earning nine Battle Stars. The “Mighty A” as she came to be known, safely carried her crew throughout the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean campaigns, and never suffered any casualties or significant damage due to enemy fire.
With the war over, and the military’s transition to a “Peacetime Navy,” the cost of maintaining the wartime fleet became too much of a burden. In May 1962, the Navy announced that the USS ALABAMA and many other war ships would soon be scrapped.
In 1964, a campaign was launched to bring the “Mighty A” home to ALABAMA as a memorial to the state’s sons and daughters who had served in the armed forces. Alabama school children raised almost $100,000 in mostly nickels, dimes, and quarters to help bring her home to her final resting place.
I love Caden's face! So excited!!
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