We drove down to Corpus Christi to tour the retired aircraft carrier, the USS Lexington. Though not the largest in it's class, lets face it, an air craft carrier is a very big ship! As a 10 year old girl, I had toured the USS Forrestal with my family when my dad was stationed in Greece and it made such a huge impression on me I was looking forward to touring another carrier.
The Lexington was commissioned in 1943 and decommissioned in 1991 when she was given, to be used as a museum ship, to Corpus Christi. In 2003, she was designated a national historic landmark. She served in WWII, then as and anti-submarine carrier and finally as a training carrier during her career.
We spent 4 to 5 hours on board doing the self-guided tours and got some great exercise climbing up and down hundreds of very narrow-steep stairs as well!
Looking toward the bow of the ship from the con tower:
The flight deck is 120,000 sq feet! This pic with Mike on the right and the con tower on the left gives some perspective!
Mike is looking over the front of the ship.....and I am standing at the end of the plank! No kidding, I had to walk the plank for this shot;) Over 5 stories above the water!
In the shadow, above the work NAVY, it reads "USS Forrestal" which means this jet came off the Forrestal, the carrier I saw as a girl! The Forrestal was decommissioned a long time ago and, as a matter of fact, was moved just last year to Brownsville, TX, further south of us here, to be scrapped:(
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| pilots briefing room |
There were 3 chairs for the crew in the barber shop and a separate barber for the officers. With 2500 crew, I'm sure they were kept really busy!
Triple bunk beds, complete with storage under that cushy mattress!
Worth reading if you can enlarge this:
We ended our day at Harrisons Landing enjoying beer and shrimp and Corpus Christi in the background!
That's a neat tour! We visited the Midway aircraft carrier in San Diego and even attended a work holiday party on the ship one year!
ReplyDeleteBet that was fun!
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