Sunday October 2nd 2016

Today I took a day trip 70 miles west to the USS Alabama Battleship park  in Mobile Alabama. The park is home to the World War II era battleship Alabama, the submarine USS Drum and many other pieces of military hardware from the civil war through the current era.

USS Alabama on display behind the gift shop.

The USS Alabama (BB-60) is the fourth ship in the South Dakota class of battleships. It was commissioned in August of 1942 and decommissioned in January of 1947. During World War II, she saw service in both the North Atlantic and the Pacific theaters. The museum opened in January of 1965.

The ship has three self guided tour routes marked out using red, green and yellow arrows. Following the marked paths take you down three or four levels (I lost track) into the depths of the ship and up to the observation level of the superstructure. Using pictures, written descriptions, and mannequins they strive to tell the story of life aboard the ship during the war.

Battleship Alabama forward 16 inch guns.

USS Alabama aft 16 inch guns.

Crew mess area with seats around the aft 16 inch gun turret

In addition to the ships mess, the hospital area, and the engine room which are standard elements on similar tours, this ship museum has a good display of the radar/command and control center and the munitions handling for the big guns. The size of the projectiles for the 16 inch guns call for some impressive mechanisms to bring them from the depths of the ship to the guns on deck.

A-12 CIA Spy plane

After climbing up and down near vertical ladders to navigate the ship tours, I went into the pavilion that holds aircraft from world war II to the present. They have a number of aircraft in the collection that I haven’t seen at other museums. In the pavilion is an A-12 CIA spy plane. The Lockheed built A-12 was a successor to the U-2 and a precursor to the SR-71 Blackbird.

B-52D in Vietnam era night camouflage

Across the main parking lot is a B-52D  Stratofortress. It is painted in a night flight camouflage scheme used for the Vietnam war. Since many B-52 aircraft are still in service after 60 years, it is surprising to see this one here. Elsewhere on the grounds I saw a DC-3, a B-25 bomber and an exhibit of Coast Guard boats and a helicopter.

DC-3 as seen from the deck of the Alabama

Vietnam era gun boat

The other major boat to tour at this facility is the World War II submarine the USS Drum. It is mounted on dry land, not afloat. Once you climb the stairs up to the deck your can enter the bow torpedo room and work your way aft to the other torpedo room. The tour passes through the officers sleeping area, the control room, and the engine room. For some reason, I’ve been in quite a few submarine museums. Climbing through the small water tight hatches gets old fast.

All 55 of the pictures I took can be found in my Google Photos shared album Battleship Alabama.

With travel and touring time my day trip lasted about six plus hours. Tomorrow I will be moving on east with the motorhome.