Just...wow.

So the other day, I sent a text of this picture out to a rather well-known firearms enthusiast.

The reply was as expectwed, along the lines of: "OMFG!! Where did you find it? Did you get it? Ah, I see it has the Bomar sight, but not the extended one...Is the barrel bushing tight as hell?"

Yeah, I knew he'd recognize it. Sadly I did too when I saw it in among a few hundred other firearms this past week. It's a custom-built US Service Pistol Team 1911 in .45, and alas, it's one of the 450-odd small arms in the museum at Jackson Barracks, New Orleans, Louisiana that were caught by the floodwaters following Hurricane Katrina.

Of the 200+ buildings on post when the water came, only about thirty did not have to be rebuilt from scratch. Parts of the post were under 20 feet of water and this water contained sewage and just about every chemical you could imagine in a flooded industrial community.

Like the rest of the collection, this pistol spent about two and a half months submerged in the toxic sludge before it was dried off and roughly stabilized by the curatorial teams, however they all look like this one now--or worse--with finish wear, pitting, ruined stocks, etc. Historic military arms from the 19th century on upwards, including almost a dozen Thompson sub-machine guns, BARs, Springfields, Krags, Reisings, Colts of every flavor, and numerous foreign guns too. (I noticed a beautiful German MP40 that didn't look like it got wet at all...at least on the side I could see.)

The reason I got to see them was because I'd gone in and spoke to the staff about possibly donating some of my collection to replace the ones that they lost due to the flooding. One thing led to another and now it looks like I'll get the chance to volunteer to help fix and preserve some of these guns starting in January. It's a big job that really is just getting started and they need the help. Since I've owned or worked on much of what they have, why not?

And as thought, if any of you do have any period US Military arms that you'd like to see preserved in their brand new public museum and it's soon-to-be awesome "Wall of Weapons" display, please contact me and I can assist with the donation and proper credit to you. Some of mine will surely be going in there and I can't think of a better place for them to be displayed forever.

Operation Carnival boxes on the way!

And here goes the last of it. I shipped out two boxes yesterday, three went today, and the last two go tomorrow, roughly 70lbs of Mardi Gras beads, toys and other swag, all going to help some of America's best guys and gals in Afghanistan.

And for those of you who helped out, here's what you sent:
Mr. B

Margaret and Dennis K. and Kimber the dog!

Old NFO

Kirk C., CW3, USA (Ret)

Tom B.

Thanks, folks.

Sad end to a noble warship

So I was driving across the industrial canal the other day when I happened to catch a glimpse of a ship moored at the Lake Ponchartrain end. Lots of ships here, being one of America's largest seaports, but this one, what little I could see of it, had the sharp prow and superstructure of a warship. Those are NOT common here.

So yesterday I did a bit of exploring and found myself at the gate of the EMR scrap yard. I could see the ship back in there, but how to get to it? These places typically have pretty good security.

Sure enough, not two minutes into me reconnoiter, I was approached by their security guard, who wanted to know what I was doing there. Well screw it--I'm already blown, so I tried something new: I asked him about the ship. He said that it came in a few weeks ago for scrapping and that it was a "Desert Storm ship", but he didn't know anything else about it. I asked him if I could take a look at the ship and he threw me a bone and let me drive inside their outer fence to "turn around" so I could leave.

And I got these shots.

Coming home, a little internet snoopery turned up the information that this ship is the Ticonderoga-class cruiser, ex-Thomas S. Gates, (CG-51), being scrapped by EMR here in the city, the last of five warships that they were contracted to dispose of.

A sad end to a ship that only served for 18 years.

More on ex-Thomas S. Gates here.

Well that was quick...but airplanes!

So Wednesday I flew up to Michigan to see family. But then as soon as I leave...Hurricane. So I had to call the airline up and turn around and come back on Friday. I need to be here for work and my friends and my stuff.

But while I was there, I saw THIS at Willow Run Airport.

Out on the ramp by the FBO--A Super Constellation!!

This Lockheed Constellation was the Navy variant of the old EC-121D "Warning Star" Early Warning aircraft, known in Navy talk as a WV-2 (because they always gotta rename everything). They were the military version of the Lockheed L-1049, a mediocre airliner that became a military classic.

Of course I had to go through the FBO and sweet-talk them into ramp access to go see it up close. Just to see if Old NFO's name was written on it somewhere, of course.

Looking a bit worse for the wear back here, but certainly fixable easily enough. I didn't know those control surfaces were fabric.

Super Connie nose. So sleek and tall. If planes were dogs, the Connie would be a greyhound.

Engines looking good. Pratt and Whitney R3550 powerplants and from where I stood I could see nothing missing on any of them. Love to try to spin one up.

Another engine view, with the dorsal radar antenna visible on top of the fuselage.

Big radome underneath too.

These things could monitor all sorts of radio communications, track numerous other flying aircraft (and missiles) and do all sorts of Secret Squirrel stuff back in their Cold War days.

Needs a little work, but the Yankee air Museum plans to make it fly again and put it on the airshow circuit in the next year or two!!

They just got this one here in July. Looks like it's last flight was back in 1983 though, and that one apparently didn't go too well.

History of BuN 141311

Can't wait to see it fly again. I'll support the Yankee Air Museum just for this!

USS Drum

You know that you're in a bad neighborhood when you wake up in the morning and you find your submarine up on blocks.

Battleship Park in Mobile, Alabama doesn't just have a battleship...They have this wonderful Gato-class fleet boat: USS Drum (SS-228).

Last time I saw Drum, she was still in the water. But two hurricanes and seventy+ years since her last war patrol have done a number on her, so now she's up on these concrete supports.

If nothing else, she's safer here...and visitors get a great look at her props and rudder as well as her stern tubes.

Up on deck, she's looking good. Got a 3"/50cal. deck gun and a 40mm Bofors Anti-aircraft gun forward.

There's also a 20mm Oerlikon gun on the after deck of the conning tower.

Going down through the old torpedo loading hatch brings you into the forward torpedo room, with six of her ten tubes await fresh fish. Back in the day, these subs sailed with 24 torpedoes, sixteen up front here and eight in the aft torpedo room where she had four tubes. Several of the crew got to bunk in these compartments too, sleeping above and below the torpedoes.

Leaving this compartment via this hatch, you find yourself in the forward section known as "Officer Country".

Here's the Officers' Wardroom.

Officers slept two and three to a small compartment except for the Captain, who got his own small compartment. Since they were all glassed over and the corridor itself was cramped, I couldn't get an angle to take a good shot of any. I did find this memorial to Howard Gilmore though.

Commander of Growler, he was machine-gunned on the bridge and wounded during a surface action in which Growler had rammed a Japanese vessel and destroyed 18 feet of her own bow. In the heat of battle he gave the order to dive, knowing he couldn't get off the bridge. The sub dove away beneath him and was saved, but Commander Gilmore was lost. He sacrificed himself for his boat and crew. Now there was a MAN. And yes, he was awarded the Medal of Honor...posthumously.

Another hatch...and the control room beyond.

Control room.

Helm (or "steering wheel" to civilians, landlubbers and brown shoe types.)

Diving planes. These control the pitch of the bow and stern.

Alarm switches. (Hey Old AF Sarge...remember these?)

"Christmas Tree" board, with two lights for every hatch and vent. Green meant closed and red meant open. Gotta have a whole green board to dive, meaning a lot of people in different areas have to work fast to close a lot of things off when the dive horn sounds.

Helm again, and plotting table.

And because I'm retarded or something, I got no pictures of the crew's mess. But click on submarines here to see pics of the insides of several other fleet boats that are laid out pretty much the same.

Cold storage beneath the crew mess.

Next was a bunk space for much of the enlisted crew--just stacks of racks--but most of them were out for some display stuff. Again, no pics for some reason. But then it was tie for the two engine rooms, and I like to think I made up for it.

Four Fairbanks-Morse engines, originally designed for railroad locomotives. These two are in the forward engine room.

And this hatch leads to the after engine room.

Each crew member got one locker like this for all of their stuff--spare uniforms, personal effects--everything.

Through another hatch, and you're in the electrical compartment.

It's back here that power is shunted from the four big diesels up front to either the battery chargers that put power into the 252 batteries below the decking or to the two electric motors that actually turn the propellers (or a combination of both). That's right--those four huge diesels just generate electricity for the electric motors that actually turn the screws. On the surface, the electric motors take their power fro the diesels. Underwater, they get it from the batteries. But either way, the subs motors are electrically driven. And here's the panel where it's routed.

By the way--this area and the engine rooms were so loud that most crew members who served in them suffered permanent hearing loss to some extent.

Next we come back to the aft torpedo room. These subs could and did fire shots from both ends.

And how is this for tight rack space?

USS Drum. A great memorial to the heroes of the "Silent Service".

Go to Battleship Park and see her if you're in the area. And let me know--I may just join you.