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What famous event happened with this ship?


vostoktrading
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First US aircraft carrier. CV1, followed by CV's 2 and 3, Lexington and Saratoga, respectively. Langley was a converted collier, IIRC, and Lex and Sara were originally being built as battlecruisers and then converted to the largest US aircraft carriers until the Midway class came along in 1945. The 1922 Washington Treaty, which we signed, limited the tonnage that could be built into capital ships. Several hulls were scrapped or converted to other uses.

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vostoktrading
First US aircraft carrier. CV1, followed by CV's 2 and 3, Lexington and Saratoga, respectively. Langley was a converted collier, IIRC, and Lex and Sara were originally being built as battlecruisers and then converted to the largest US aircraft carriers until the Midway class came along in 1945. The 1922 Washington Treaty, which we signed, limited the tonnage that could be built into capital ships. Several hulls were scrapped or converted to other uses.

That's right. Our first carrier.

She was lost on 27 February, 1942 on her way to Java from Fremantle Australia trying to deliver P-40 fighter planes and pilots. Survivors were picked up by the Pecos which was later sunk. That's gotta be a drag, sunk twice!

There's a good book about this story "Pawns of War". You know the saying "Don't reinforce defeat"? I think it applied in this situation, sending these planes and pilots to a hopeless situation in the Netherland East Indies.

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vostoktrading
Interesting coincidence. My father went a reunion of the USS Sumner County (LST-1148). His old DivO was there. When he was my dads DivO, he was an Ensign. However, years later he was the CO of the Stark when she was hit. Also, when I was OPS LCPO on USS Pensacola, I had an RM2 who worked for me. He had been on the Stark also when she was hit. He had swapped watches with another RM (Other RMs request), so my RM had just left the berthing compartment and gotten to the Radio shack just as the missile entered OPS berthing at the same point where my RM2s rack was. If he had not swapped watches, he would have been instantly killed. Sadley the other RM who had asked to swap watches was killed along with the other off watch ops guys.

 

As for Pheonix, at least she got to die like a war ship (of course the loss of life is regretable and sad) and not just cut to bits to be made into "stuff" of questionable quality. Or left ot rust away in neglect.

 

Steve Hesson

Interesting story, Steve.

It reminds me of a man I knew years ago here in Hawaii when I was a kid. His name was Everett Frye. He passed away something like 20-25 years ago. He used to sell stuff at the local flea market. He was a crusty old bas...d, you know the type, usually in a bad mood. At times he could be really charming. He sold militaria so I used to hang out at his stall and shoot the s..t with him. He really was old navy.

He told me he was a member of the USS Arizona crew. He was supposed to be on the ship on the morning of December 7, 1941. He had a girlfriend in town and had a date with her Saturday night (December 6th) and wanted to stay over with her so he switched duty with one of his shipmates. The man he switched with was killed during the attack (I don't know his name).

Jon.

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vostoktrading

sgtpete!

Am I wrong or is this picture your avatar? I just noticed!

I think Juneau in this photo has the coolest looking camouflage paint job that I know of.

Jon.

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sgtpete!

Am I wrong or is this picture your avatar? I just noticed!

I think Juneau in this photo has the coolest looking camouflage paint job that I know of.

Jon.

Yes, my avatar is the USS Juneau! Very observant! That pattern was applied by the builder. When she was sunk she carried that pattern on the superstructure, but the hull was done in a wave pattern.

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Everett Frye....He told me he was a member of the USS Arizona crew....
And he wasn't just telling a good sea story - S1c Everett E. Frye is indeed an officially listed USS Arizona survivor.
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What notable event happened with this ship along with the Rentz and Oldendorf in 1986?

 

 

They were the first US Navy ships to visit China (Shanghai) in 40 years. That was BIG news in the navy community when it happened.

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The map has the USS Quincy, but it doesn't show the positions of the Astoria and Vincennes. Still, I like that map! Is this map of ships that have been found or is it based on known or suspected sinking positions?

 

 

Vincennes would have gone down within a mile of Quincy. A few of the Vincennes' survivors had reservations (personally expressed to me) regarding Bob Ballard's discovery of the Quincy and asserted that the ship was instead the Vinny.

 

The Nasty Asty would be further south and closer to Savo as she remained afloat for several hours. The location where she slipped beneath the waves is fairly well documented.

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They were the first US Navy ships to visit China (Shanghai) in 40 years. That was BIG news in the navy community when it happened.

When the discussion of what ships would be going was happening, it was even suggested to sedn a LST. We had no charts of Shanghai newer than 1949, and were not sure the PRC would give us any. The LST thought was that if it did run aground, we could say, "It's supposed to do that, just a demo", and then back off. Of course, that was just a suggestion. Gaters aren't "Sexy" enough for "Show Boating", and charts were made available.

 

Steve Hesson

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Gaters aren't "Sexy" enough for "Show Boating"

 

Steve Hesson

 

Neither are Aux ships. I went from a brand-new cruiser to a decrepit old AOE. I loved them both. Being pierside in several ports on the CG was fantastic. On the AOE, we were anchored (seemingly) miles offshore on visits to the same ports. All that fuel and all that ammo meant that we were not desirable for port visits to many locations. If the AOE went up, the hole we'd have left behind could have drained the ocean dry.

 

Talk about lacking sexiness.

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Neither are Aux ships. I went from a brand-new cruiser to a decrepit old AOE. I loved them both. Being pierside in several ports on the CG was fantastic. On the AOE, we were anchored (seemingly) miles offshore on visits to the same ports. All that fuel and all that ammo meant that we were not desirable for port visits to many locations. If the AOE went up, the hole we'd have left behind could have drained the ocean dry.

 

Talk about lacking sexiness.

That was the good part of Tin Cans. I was on a Garcia Class Frigate (former DE). We could get inot ports that the DDs & CGs couldn't. The best thing though was breaking away from an unrep on a Can. Both the FF and the Adams Class DDG I was on did it well. The last line is cast off, Prep is hauled down and you hear the turbines whine. You could feel the stern dig in as the screws caught the added RPMs and the bow comes up. We always had a "Ships Song", so it would blare from the topside speakers, we'd kick up a "Rooser Tail" and haul away at 30+ knots. It was really COOL! :thumbsup: Just always put a "Sh-t Eatin' Grin" on my face. Of course, if it was cold, wet and raining or snowing, well, I still loved it. Then we'd get back out to our "Screen Alpha" (spot on the screen) and settle back inot the boreing grind of screening, but for awhile, it was good to be a Tin Can Sailor.

 

Steve Hesson

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That was the good part of Tin Cans. I was on a Garcia Class Frigate (former DE). We could get inot ports that the DDs & CGs couldn't. The best thing though was breaking away from an unrep on a Can. Both the FF and the Adams Class DDG I was on did it well. The last line is cast off, Prep is hauled down and you hear the turbines whine. You could feel the stern dig in as the screws caught the added RPMs and the bow comes up. We always had a "Ships Song", so it would blare from the topside speakers, we'd kick up a "Rooser Tail" and haul away at 30+ knots. It was really COOL! :thumbsup: Just always put a "Sh-t Eatin' Grin" on my face. Of course, if it was cold, wet and raining or snowing, well, I still loved it. Then we'd get back out to our "Screen Alpha" (spot on the screen) and settle back inot the boreing grind of screening, but for awhile, it was good to be a Tin Can Sailor.

 

Steve Hesson

 

 

Early on in my navy career, I was the unrep and sea/anchor helmsman. Being on that CG during unrep was cool - when we broke away, we'd do so with all ahead flank - slamming the throttle levers forward (gas turbines) and immediately begin to pick up speed. The breakaway song would be blaring over the topside speakers as we carved a trough in the deep blue. Good times.

 

Switching to the AOE and seeing ship after ship come alongside became mundane (especially as we had to hear each ship's breakaway song (most used the same stupid song...no originality :lol: ). Imagine spending 12-14 hours alonside a ship...we did that when we took on fuel from USNS ships (Hassayampa and other T-AO ships) - known as CONSOL or consolidation UNREPs.

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  • 9 months later...
  • 1 month later...
vostoktrading

That's right. On the morning of 7 December, 1941 while the Japanese were attacking by air, Monaghan rammed, depth charged and sank a midget sub within Pearl Harbor.

She later took part in the aborted attempt to supply Wake Island. She was present at the battle of the Coral Sea and at Midway. She assisted in trying to save the Lexington there.

She was sent to the Aleutians.

Finally she was one of three destroyers to be lost in the December 1944 typhoon east of Luzon also known as Halsey's Typhoon and also as Typhoon Cobra. She rolled over and sank at the height of the storm. There were only 6 survivors.

A sad end to a ship that had really managed to be at many of the key places early in the war.

3 photos: USS Monaghan, an oiler in heavy seas and the USS Cowpens rolling.

Interesting side note.

Future President Gerald Ford was present during this storm on the USS Monterey nearby.

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In the fall of 1986 Battle Group "Charlie" (comprised of USS New Jersey, USS Long Beach, USS Vincennes and USS Merrill) steamed northward in the Sea of Okhostk toward the 60th parallel, flanked by a Kara-class cruiser and two Sovremenny-class destroyers. With continuous overflights of Badger and Bear recon flights, we clearly made the Soviets uncomfortable.

 

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This photo was snapped from the fantail of my ship, CG-49. We were third in a four-ship column with Merrill in the lead position.

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In the fall of 1986 Battle Group "Charlie" (comprised of USS New Jersey, USS Long Beach, USS Vincennes and USS Merrill) steamed northward in the Sea of Okhostk toward the 60th parallel, flanked by a Kara-class cruiser and two Sovremenny-class destroyers. With continuous overflights of Badger and Bear recon flights, we clearly made the Soviets uncomfortable.

 

627787436_ba81047849_o.jpg

This photo was snapped from the fantail of my ship, CG-49. We were third in a four-ship column with Merrill in the lead position.

 

showing the flag

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showing the flag

 

Ha ha...more like showing the guns!

 

I see that I typed that we were the third ship...we were the 2nd in the column formation.

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