Battleship Memorial Park – Mobile Alabama – A Great Historical Experience

Battleship Memorial Park Mobile Alabama A Great Historical Experience

Learning about war history…

At Battleship Memorial Park, lies some of the many war vessels and jets that have been used in the wars America have fought. The park itself is fairly large with several buildings to see all of the vessels they have. Everything there was big, and that fact shows just how powerful and destructive just one of these vessels of war can be. This article is on the museum where many of America’s finest historical war machines have been sent to retirement. There are tanks and fighter planes from WWII, a retired submarine, and of course the famed USS Alabama.

This Museum has relics of one of the world’s most bloody and devastating wars. The USS Alabama was commissioned in 1942 during WWII and was decommissioned in 1947. The Alabama was officially retired in 1962. This ship is a literal monstrosity weighing several thousand tons and being taller than a ten-story building. This battleship was sailed into Mobile Bay in 1964 and was officially opened as a museum ship in 1965. She was registered as a National Historic Landmark in 1986. The Alabama could hold up to about 2000 crew members at a time. There are many many guns, turrets, anti-aircraft guns, and missile launchers aboard the battleship. For the biggest guns it took up to 8 men to load and fire.

USS Alabama – A Walk in the Park

Knowing about the past war heroes’ lives

Touring through the USS Alabama is interesting in that you can see where the men slept, where they ate, where they watched movies, had recreation time and even got paid. Did you know that at any one time there were several hundred thousand dollars kept for payment to the troops as well as a brig.

The movie Under Siege with Steven Segal was filmed on the Alabama in 1992. The USS Alabama is a stand in for the USS Missouri in the movie.

USS Drum

The USS Drum, a retired submarine that lies near the Alabama is just like any other submarine. It is cramped, loud, hot, and dangerous. To earn your place on the submarine you had to learn what every single little switch, lever, and button did so you could assist no matter where you were at in an emergency. When you learned the sub inside and out, and there were literally thousands of details to learn, you would earn a dolphin badge. It is one of the most honored and revered badges in naval history.

As explained earlier, the submarine is not a fun place to be. To take a shower you would have to wait until there was enough condensation from your bodies and breath collected to take a shower, or when you surfaced and it happened to be raining. There is a term submariners use called “hotbunking”. It is when your shift is over and someone else is sleeping, you would wake them up for their shift and sleep in the bed that they were using so that it would still be warm. A submarine is so cramped that food and beds would be put anywhere, space was available.

The museum also houses a many planes, jets tanks, bombers and more. There is a fun gift shop with lots of interesting memorabilia and toys for the kids. The museum is a fascinating place to be. You learn a lot about how life was a sailor during a war. There was no air conditioning and challenging living conditions. The threat of bombing, death and long voyages at sea made the live difficult for our brave soldiers. These war machines were amazing.

Visit the Official Site – http://www.ussalabama.com/

USS Alabama – Battleship Memorial Park – Mobile, Alabama

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