Battleship North Carolina

So this was a neat thing for me to see for 2 reasons.  First because Sam just lived on a ship for several months, and even though this wasn't his ship, it's close enough, size wise, for me to get the general idea of what ship life was like.

The second reason was because my grandfather was in the Navy when my mom was born.  And much of the history aboard this ship was from around that time.

So I had a great time wandering through Battleship North Carolina.  They even had fans blowing below decks, so at least the warm air was moving.

Did you know they recycle ship names?  I actually learned this when I was doing family tree research and had to figure out which ship would have been in service at the correct time period.

Movies were projected from this tiny room into the mess hall after dinner.

Operating room, yikes.

I am pretty sure most of my kids have no idea what a cobbler is--unless we're talking about Grammy's cherry cobbler!  Insert moment of sadness over our disposable society here.  On a ship, you don't just go get a new pair of shoes.  You fix the pair you have.

See the sewing machine in the background?  Alterations, patch sewing, etc.  I was surprised at how many promotions happened on ship while Sam was gone.

Vaguely threatening projectiles.

So this is a big, circular room, that goes up 3 decks.  The center thingie is used to haul them up and down.

*Touch!*

Basically, those cylinders on the right are the explosive that goes inside the pointy things.

Those cans have three powder bags in each of them.  There was a whole wall of these things.

Had to get a shot of the dumbwaiter because part of Sam's time on Ship Tax was spent loading boxes onto a dumbwaiter.  All day long.

Zach is Air Force, and when he deploys, he goes to an air base.  That was my frame of reference, prior to Sam's deployment.  Sam, however, is a Marine, and when they go on ship, they're hitching a ride from the Navy.

There is some posturing between the branches, of course, but everyone works toward the goals of the deployment.

Laundry info

Laundry machines

I enjoyed some of these little anecdotes shared by former crew members.

When I was a kid, I ran across some of my great grandmother's stuff in my parents' garage, and one of the things I found was a patch similar to these.  I know from my mom's BC what rank he was when she was born, but I don't know what rank he was when he left the Navy.

Looking at a roomful of racks really helped me to imagine Sam's sleeping quarters.  He was so happy to get off the ship and only have ONE room mate and properly functioning, dependable toilets.  We really do take so much for granted.

After wandering all over the ship, I did the walk around the outside of it.  It's a nice path, with signs for all the branches.

Notice the background here is basically swamp.  Everything is so amazingly green there. 

The signs are in a Then and Now format, with the branch emblem between the two. 

One end of the ship.

I took a panoramic shot, but it came out pretty weird shaped. 

Super proud of my Airman, as well.  He just promoted.

I've been really blessed by watching what my children are becoming as adults.  Their unique paths have enriched my world and taught me so much. 

Even travel.  I realized this morning that I visited Nebraska because of Zach, Hawaii because of Annaliese, Missouri because of Brianna, and North Carolina because of Sam (not to mention China because of Hannah and Katie!).  I look forward to seeing more of where they go and what they do.