Navy Day at Battleship Cove

 

In the Navy, John served on the USS Joseph P. Kennedy.  It’s a destroyer that is now a part of the exhibit at Battleship Cove.  Entrance to this place gives you access to this destroyer, a battleship, a submarine, a Russian ship, and lots of smaller exhibits.  Wear comfortable shoes, because it involves climbing through hatches and climbing steep stairs just like in the Navy.  Here’s John in the rack he used to sleep in (yes, I made him climb in).  The lockers for the three guys are below him.

We’d seen the ships a few years ago, but John wanted to revisit his ship.  It turned out there was another guy there that served on the ship a few years after John.  He took us on a personal tour including some areas that he unlocked for us.  John worked with the boilers.  That included climbing into small places to clean the tubes like going under and then inside the boiler in this picture.

 

Even back in the 60’s they had drones.  This one was operated with a joystick to take a torpedo to the target.

 

 

In the ordinance room.

 

Our guide was heavily involved in the process of getting the ship from the Navy and rebuilding it.  They work very hard in trying to make the ship as authentic as possible.  It means trips around the country to find parts on similar ships or searching ebay for parts.  Volunteers do much of the work to maintain it.  The place is a little expensive, but the money is going to keeping the ships afloat.