Diary for Waynes RV Travel Blog


U.S.S. Alabama Battleship Memorial Park

2017-11-09

When I left Savannah I dropped down to Jacksonville, FL in order to catch I-10 west. The drive to my next stop, Picayune, MS was a little long plus I wanted to stop and visit the U.S.S. Alabama in Mobile, AL. So I made the decision to live on the edge and stay one night on the parking lot at a Cracker Barrel restaurant on the west side of Pensacola. It was good decision and a short drive to Mobile in the morning.

Ginny and I visited the Alabama when we were stationed at Keesler AFB in Biloxi. At that time it was still in the Gulf and not in Mobile Bay. I still remember driving out over the marshland and seeing this grey mountain on the horizon and that it just kept getting bigger the closer we got. A World War II battleship is an amazingly big boat. I can't imagine how it even stays afloat.

The Memorial Park on Mobile Bay is very nice and there are many films running at various places on the ship explaining what you are looking at. The U.S.S. Alabama is an awe-inspiring sight that is also humbling as you sit inside a 12 inch gun turret or climb stairs down to the engine room. This is another place that can only really be appreciated by being here.

http://www.ussalabama.com

I must say that it was hard to contain my excitement when I saw that there as an SR-71 Blackbird on display. It wasn't so very long ago that this was the most super-secret aircraft in our inventory. Not only was it one of the first stealth aircraft, but it was one very fast Blackbird. Who knows the real specs, but there was a newspaper clipping in the museum where the pilot describes a quick little run over Libya. The mission's purpose was to document the damage after our bombing run on Quadaffi. Imagine making a sweeping turn over Libya at 80,000 feet and Mach 3.6 then pushing the throttles forward and watching the anti-aircraft missles coming after you as they run out of fuel and fall away. A beautiful and flawlessly performing aircraft designed by Kelly Johnson at the Locheed-Martin Skunk Works. Here's a link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_Johnson_(engineer)