Overnight on the Battleship Texas

[slowyellow]

Oh, and nice ass on the wife!

[GrayStangGT]

That is a cool deal, I still remember staying the night on the USS Lexington when I was in Boy Scouts. They let us wash one of the jets on the flight deck, and we thought that was the greatest thing ever.

[MstangsBware]

The Battle Ship Texas is a good visit...I need to to take my kids down there this summer to check it out along with the other sites in the area....

[mikec]

We did the Lexington with our pack as well, and I gotta say, the Texas looks like it was maybe a bit more awesome...

[Mach1Run]

We did the Lexington to a couple years ago. This was kinda cooler because it was just us on the whole ship with the 4 guides. The kids had a blast.

[Broncojohnny]

Those boys will remember that for the rest of their lives. I love touring those old ships.

[pHILSANITY07]

I read in the paper where the state approved a deal to put some money into the battleship.

[Rick Modena]

Nice pics, thanks for sharing. I haven't been there since I was a kid.

Oh and ginger chicks, fucking rock!

[BlackGT]

Did I see a pic of Helen Zass?

[David]

Nice!

Me and dad were invited were invited to bring one of the 5" guns back into working order on the Texas, we spent the whole weekend on board. I had the keys to the entire ship and ran around for hours.

[Magnimike1]

They will be permanently dry docking the ship in the next few years. Glad you got to see it.

[aggie97]

can you forward details on how to make that happen for a scout troop? Need something interesting for the kids here in College Station that isn't video games or making crappy arts and crafts projects.

Thanks.

[Mach1Run]

I read in the paper where the state approved a deal to put some money into the battleship.

Yeah she needs a ton of work. It's amazing how much history that ship has been a part of.

Nice!

Me and dad were invited were invited to bring one of the 5" guns back into working order on the Texas, we spent the whole weekend on board. I had the keys to the entire ship and ran around for hours.

Oh wow that's too cool! The guides took us deeper into the ship that the average visitor got to go but there are still a lot of compartments that were under restoration or so full of rust they had no oxygen left in them so we didn't quite get the run of the ship.

can you forward details on how to make that happen for a scout troop? Need something interesting for the kids here in College Station that isn't video games or making crappy arts and crafts projects.

Thanks.

I think my wife may have been the one who got that thing going, if you want to PM me a cell number I will try and get her to call or text you.

Let's see some of the highlights I can remember.

- Hull was launched in 1912 ( She's 100 years old now ) and I believe she was decommissioned in 1948.

- Fought in 2 both world wars and in both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters.

- Was where the 1st Marine Division was founded.

- Her Marine complement went ashore D Day.

- Nearly capsized off Cherbourg when the Captain flooded one side of the side to get more elevation for the guns. Normally they had a 12 mile range and knowing this the Germans placed and artillery battery 15 miles deep. The Capitan flooded one side and successfully engaged the battery. However the ship rolled so far over every one thought it was going to turtle. The Captain was sure he was going to lose his ship for that stunt but wound up getting a medal for all the soldiers lives he saved.

- Her radios still work and are used by a radio club to talk to people all over the world.


- Initial crew was 900 men, but by the time she was retired she had a crew of 1900.

- Those giant freaking pots are coffee pots. 2 x 60gal I think.


- We got to fly our flag overnight!


- She had the first talking movies ( the very first was snow white ), the first coke machine and the first ice cream machine.

- These searchlights were taken off the Arizona after Pearl.


- She only has one combat fatality in her career. A German artillery round came in bounced between the the armored conning tower and a 20mm gun director.


It came to rest here under the main bridge before it exploded.

The blast ripped one of the deck plates apart an cut the Helmsman in half, nearly killing the Chaplain and the guy in charge of the throttle as well.


- This is inside one of the forward 14" gun turrets. When fired the gun recoiled nearly 4 feet into the turret, about a 1/2 inch from the brass tray in the lower part of the image. There were something like 7 guys in this small space and 2 more on the ledge just below who handed up the powder bags.

When the gun was ready to fire, the guys in the turret strapped themselves to the wall and made themselves as flat as possible. The guys who handed up powder bags from below had to lay flat on their backs and try not to breathe deeply.

The powder bags weigh 105lbs each and it took 4 to fire. The green and yellow shells are HE and weigh something like 1300lbs each, the black ones are 1500lb AP.


- Her engines are the same type as the Titanic used, and are the last 2 examples in the world of that particular engine. 1 has been restored, the 2nd is in progress.

- Her only other wound was a from another German artillery round that hit the water and skipped into her sideways above the water line. It was later found in some ones room rolling around. They wrapped it up in every soft fluffy thing they could find and then closed the door. Politely. The Army EOD came aboard in port and defused the shell then presented it to the Captain. It's still aboard the ship lol.


That's all I can remember offhand.

[cobrajet69]

Holy shit that thing looks like it could wreak some serious TEXAS SIZED havoc!

Thanks for sharing the pix man.


David

[JimD]

Awesome pics!