Weekend Open Thread
Hello everyone and welcome to your weekend open thread. I’m typing this up on the run because I’m busy running around today. This is the first ever blog post that I’ve written on my iTouch. No links yet, you’ll have to provide your own!
Tags: Open Thread
Interesting day today. My father’s ship from WWII is being towed from the San Diego mothball fleet to Brownsville, TX to be scrapped. Today she went through the Panama Canal. They have webcams at the locks and you can watch the ships going through. Here we sat in Hockessin watching a WWII fleet oiler traveling through Panama. The contrast between the old ship and the technology that allowed us to watch her on her last journey was something to think about.
http://www.pancanal.com Click multimedia and then click live camera if you’re interested in watching the canal traffic in real-time. It’s pretty cool.
Interesting–I didn’t know they scrapped military ships–I thought they decommissioned them, pick parts in mothball, blew ’em up or something, then used them for a reef. My husband is asking what’s the name of the ship?
Hey Joanne,
Dad’s ship was the U.S.S. Taluga, hull number AO62. She was built in Norfolk, VA and commissioned in 1944. Dad picked her up in Cuba, he was at Guantanamo. When Dad went aboard she was on her shake-down cruise and headed for her first passage thru the canal to the Pacific theater. The Taluga was a fleet oiler and provided fuel and food to the ships fighting in the Pacific. Dad says she was like a roving “Wawa” and even carried movies.
In 1945 she was hit by a kamakaze plane and 17 crewmen were injured but no deaths. She was fully loaded with aircraft fuel that day, but luckily the kamakaze missed the tanks and they were able to contain the fires. She was in Tokyo Bay for the surrender ceremonies and stayed in Japanese waters to supply the occupation forces until late 1946. Then Dad and a skeleton crew, most of the crew had gone home, sailed her back to San Diego.
She served in the Korean UN Action, receiving several citations and again in Viet Nam with more citations. She was the “pilot ship” for the Navy’s program to convert their supply ships from military to merchant marine operations. Today, supply is handled by private contractors. There is a crew lounge in the San Diego shipyard that is named for Taluga and they display lots and lots of memorabila from the Taluga, including bits and pieces of the kamakaze plane in a shadowbox frame.
Like you, we thought that old ships got stripped of anything useful and then sunk somewhere. But apparently the environmental impact of this practice is really bad and they’ve started scrapping them instead. Also, I suspect the price of scrap today makes this economically rewarding. Before Taluga could make the journey to Brownsville she had to be “detoxed” and scrubbed. Several of the Viet Nam era crew plan to meet her when she arrives in Brownsville to get some last pictures and maybe even be allowed onboard one last time. This is all pretty emotional for the guys who served on her.
Her shipmates hold a reunion every year, and we’ll be going to Williamsburg, Va to take part this year. It’s a lot of tall tales and memories. The bond among these men is very strong. Unfortunately the number of WWII shipmates gets smaller every year but the younger guys are always excited to see Dad show up.
My gang just loves this stuff–so thanks for all the added info.. Unfortunately, when we went to the Panama canal website, it must’ve already passed–but the USS New Jersey was saved, as a “memorable passage” from a 1999 recording which got them salivating. The boys and husband spent a Scout weekend on some military ship years ago–and it was a definite highlight of their youth.
At the risk of dating myself, when I worked at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard for 11 years (starting as a 17 year old apprentice machinist) I worked on the US Becuna ( a conventional as opposed to nuclear submarine) and the Battleship “New Jersey”. We refitted the “New Jersey” for the war in Vietnam since it could sit off the coast and lob shells (18 inch, I believe,-equivalent to bombs) with deadly accuracy 25-40 miles away. This practice allowed for fewer aircraft runs and less being shot down. The remarkable thing, however, is that both of these ships now rest off the Camden piers (the New Jersey) and the Penns Landing site (the Becuna) across the Delaware from each other as actively visited museums pieces. Fortunately I wasn’t around for King Tut’s internment and can visit that museum site without personal memories.
John Kowalko
First US soldier killed in Iraq since “withdrawal” of combat troops
So has anyone else noticed that the picture on Velda’s signs up and down Route 1 (and I’m sure elsewhere) have the same exact picture that was used in those full page ads paid for by WSFS? Seems like those ads were an in-kind campaign contribution to me.
MJ – i have a major scoop for tomorrow asshat of the day award – get up with me – its really big!!!
MJ,
Let’s see if the in-kind contribution for photography shows up in VJP’s campaign finance filing.
Any bets?
Provided, of course, that WSFS actually DID take the picture, which seems highly unlikely. WSFS pays to place the ad, not to develop the copy.
But using the same pic as the campaign pic? C’mon.
I’m pretty sure it’s the same photo as the one at her state web site. How nefarious.
Interesting tidbit out of the race in the 41st. Greg Hastings was offered a chance to debate John Atkins with a neutral 3rd party moderator (John authorized me to arrange the debate on his behalf). The offer was placed on his web page. The offer was deleted & a post stating that trouble makers posts would be removed from the page. I would have thought that Greg would jump at the chance to debate John. Guess it’s better to be thought a fool then to speak and remove all doubt.