In the many years I’ve been travelling the States since a first visit in late 1980/early 1981 I have enjoyed inspecting some of the most famous battleships and aircraft carriers in the world.
This interest was first fostered in sight of the aircraft carrier USS Coral Sea moored in Sydney harbour in 1970 and then stepping aboard the USS Missouri (BB 63) when it visited Sydney in 1986 and also the aircraft carrier USS Midway (CVB-41) that sailed through Sydney Heads a year later.
I inspected many more ships on their visit to Sydney and have somewhere in storage in Sydney a handfull of caps from those visits and one cap I recall vividly ‘collecting’ was from inspecting’ the USS Belleau Wood, a 40,00 tons amphibious landing ship also visiting Sydney.
Welcome aboard! Seated in the captain’s chair aboard the USS New Jersey anchored in Camden, New Jersey (Sept, 2014)
On my first visit to Hawaii I stood on Pearl Harbor memorial over the sunken USS Arizona and amazed at the number of Japanese tourists present.
Once on the mainland I have visited battleships such as the USS New Jersey and USS Alabama along with the aircraft carriers USS Lexington tied-up in Corpus Christi and the USS Texas in Houston along with the carrier USS Massachusetts.
This page is devoted to a visit of the USS New Jersey anchored at Camden, in New Jersey on Monday 2nd September, 2014 and the day following the PGA Tour’s Deutsche Bank Championship in Massachusetts.
Camden is located directly across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
USS New Jersey (BB-62) (“Big J” or “Black Dragon”) is an Iowa-class battleship, and was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named after the US state of New Jersey. New Jersey earned more battle stars for combat actions than the other three completed Iowa-class battleships, and was the only US battleship providing gunfire support during the Vietnam War.
USS New Jersey
During World War II, New Jersey shelled targets on Guam and Okinawa, and screened aircraft carriers conducting raids in the Marshall Islands. During the Korean War, she was involved in raids up and down the North Korean coast, after which she was decommissioned into the United States Navy reserve fleets, better known as the “mothball fleet”.
She was briefly reactivated in 1968 and sent to Vietnam to support US troops before returning to the mothball fleet in 1969.
Reactivated once more in the 1980s as part of the 600-ship Navy program, New Jersey was modernized to carry missiles and recommissioned for service. In 1983, she participated in US operations during the Lebanese Civil War.
USS New Jersey tied-up on the Delaware River at Camden, New Jersey and with the guns pointed across the river at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
New Jersey was decommissioned for the last time in 1991 (after serving a total of 21 years in the active fleet), having earned a Navy Unit Commendation for service in Vietnam and 19 battle and campaign stars for combat operations during World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Lebanese Civil War, and service in the Persian Gulf.
After a brief retention in the mothball fleet, she was donated to the Home Port Alliance in Camden, New Jersey, and began her career as a museum ship 15 October 2001.
The USS New Jersey is the most decorated battleship in the US Navy’s history.
What no seat belt for one of the scariest rides upon the ocean
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