Did you ever have one of those days? Yesterday did it for me. I'd hand-crafted this beautiful post with tons of pics and links, and it was up for several hours. It was truly a god post, as such things are measured by me, so it figures that I would accidentally wipe the whole thing out yesterday while trying to correct one little typo that I spotted. Two hours' worth of work, undone by one ill-considered keystroke. Argh.
Anyway, to recap that day-I'll start over again with an abbreviated post, and that only because, after landing, I got to visit a true American treasure indeed.
(No, not
Old Air Force Sarge...I'd be seeing him tomorrow.)
The day started back in West Virginia but it climaxed with an early afternoon landing at Groton's airport (KGON).
I set down on Runway 5 (above) and taxied over to Mystic Jet Center, my new favorite FBO in the northeast. In a flash, they had my aircraft parked and tied down. They refueled it at a pretty good price and then they loaned me this little Kia crew car to run into town.
I got down to the Navy Yard with no trouble and found myself at their
Sub Force Museum just outside the gate. The museum houses some nifty exhibits about the sub force and it's history, from the early days of the World War 1 S-boats to today's nuclear boats. But time was short, so I zipped right through the building and made my way our onto the pier to look upon--and go aboard--the world's first nuclear-powered submarine,
USS Nautilus, SSN-571.
Commissioned in 1954,
Nautilus served for twenty-six years before being decommissioned in 1980. During that time, she set records for underwater endurance and she was the first submarine in the world to transit the North Pole beneath the ice.
Nautilus was built at the very same Electric Boat Works that I'd just flown over, and she was christened on launching by Mamie Eisenhower, wife of President and retired General Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Going aboard. Unline most museum boats today, Nautilus is still overseen by the US Navy, and a sailor on deck welcomes you aboard and gives you a self-guided tour map. And because the Navy runs it and maintains it, everything is in pristine shape.
Alas, everything is also BEHIND PLEXIGLAS! (sob!) But here we are in the forward torpedo room. Plastic walls or not, I'm still aboard the very vessel that I'd loved since I was a kid. The very first plastic model I'd ever built was of
Nautilus back when she was still an active-duty boat, and little did I know back then that one day I'd be walking aboard her like this.
Control room. The tours today are sadly limited to the two forward compartments, and even in these, you're pretty tightly penned in. Still...
Nautlius!
This inviting
hatch door to the compartments aft was actually unlocked. The sailor on deck said that these spaces had also been cleaned up and made ready for tour but that the Navy decided against letting people into this space for "safety reasons". Twice I cracked it open, contemplating embarking on one of my self-guided VIP tours of the space, but as this boat is still Navy property, I decided against it. I must be getting old.
Submarine armory. A Winchester 1897 trench gun (left), two M1 carbines (center) and two M1 Garands (right) make for some fine close-in defense. There were a couple of 1911 pistols in there too, but the plexiglass kept me from getting good shots of them just as well as it kept me from playing with them.
Stairs! This was the first staircase ever installed on a submarine. It goes from the upper deck to the lower. (duh!). Upper deck in this area contains Officers' berthing and their wardroom. Below is the actual kitchen, enlisted bunk space, and various compartments housing the subs' machine shop, damage control space and ships' stores.
Radio room, for
Dr. Jim.
And just like that, I was back off. Hey look--ducks!
I had a few minutes left to try to take in the whole museum, and it wasn't enough time. I did get to see an exhibit dedicated to
NR-1, the Navy's deep research submarine. Also decommissioned today, her sail is outside the museum. Pity that the whole boat wasn't kept.
Also outside and up on blocks is a World War Two Japanese midget sub. I believe that it's one of the ones that surrendered to
Old NFO during the war, but I cannot prove that.
Inside, I thought that the
Medal of Honor gallery was the best part. More than anything else, it shows what kind of men went to sea for America back in the day.
They closed and booted me before I was done, but I left happy. It was definitely worth the trip.
I then adjourned to a dinner of fried cams at a nifty little place called
The Spot. The food was plentiful, cheap, tasty as all get-out, and it came to the table quickly and quite hot. Two thumbs up for The Spot!
Channeling my inner
Brigid, here's a picture of my food. Yum!
Then it was off to the airport for my scheduled bird strike. Hopefully I don't erase this post again because I'l never got to the next day if I do, and that was an even better day.
