Gun Grape:
You're hopeless. I spent 39 years of my life at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard starting off as a shipfitter apprentice in 1954 and retiring as a GS-11 Naval Architecture Technician (was temporarily a GS-12 when we were modernizing the Battleships).
With the exception of Submarines I have worked on almost every class of ship in the US Navy (and a couple of foreign ships) starting with landing craft on up to the Iowas and Forrestal class Aircraft Carriers. Hmmm, forgot about the Iranian assault boat we captured. Did some upgrading of that piece of fiberglass cr*p too.
Modernizing the Battleships was hard enough. To put them back into WW II configuration is IMPOSSIBLE. As a matter of fact, in some cases it would be illegal such as the Galley equipment of those days do not meet today's sanitation standards. Even in modernization we had to replace each galley AND mess decks with all new equipment, tables, etc.
Also, taking off the armor plate we put over the four secondary mounts we removed CANNOT be done with an Oxy-Acetylene torch. It won't cut STAINLESS STEEL WELD.
And where are you going to find enough 40 mm and 20 mm AA guns anymore? Plus we cut all their gun tubs off with the exception of the two stern tubs where one has been modified to hold a jettisonable 500 gallan fuel bladder for the RPV's. We used all of their old ammo hoists as armored cable and piping trunks.
You want to take off the flight deck also? Strip off the 1 1/2" thick armor we put on for CEC and turn it back into Flag Quarters? Rip off the tripod mast and put in a telescoping pole mast (to clear the Brooklyn Bridge)? Remove all the 1" thick armored bulkheads and overheads and vent ducts for the Comm Center and change it back to crew quarters with racks? Take out the CHT tanks that are required for holding brown water waste if shore connection is lost (strictly illegal)?
You obviously don't know the first thing about these ships (or any ship for that matter) and all the effort put in to building them to begin with and the extraordinary effort to modernize them to help bring the Cold War to an end.
As for a back up plan, don't ask as we won't tell. "LOOSE LIPS SINK SHIPS".
As for Missouri being in worse shape than Iowa, where the hell did you hear that? I personally inspected the ship for the Hawaii group before she was towed out of Bremerton. I have also personally inspected the Iowa in 2004 and she is missing four Armored Box Launchers and one Lube Oil pump. (Sorry, not allowed to mention Turret II except for what I wrote in my book).
Now, I buy the cheapest 80 proof Vodka I can find. However, I think you are in dire need of upgrading the brand of whatever it is you are drinking. And don't tell me a Marine doesn't drink (as I know us ex-tank drivers and sledge hammer mechanics do).
You're hopeless. I spent 39 years of my life at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard starting off as a shipfitter apprentice in 1954 and retiring as a GS-11 Naval Architecture Technician (was temporarily a GS-12 when we were modernizing the Battleships).
With the exception of Submarines I have worked on almost every class of ship in the US Navy (and a couple of foreign ships) starting with landing craft on up to the Iowas and Forrestal class Aircraft Carriers. Hmmm, forgot about the Iranian assault boat we captured. Did some upgrading of that piece of fiberglass cr*p too.
Modernizing the Battleships was hard enough. To put them back into WW II configuration is IMPOSSIBLE. As a matter of fact, in some cases it would be illegal such as the Galley equipment of those days do not meet today's sanitation standards. Even in modernization we had to replace each galley AND mess decks with all new equipment, tables, etc.
Also, taking off the armor plate we put over the four secondary mounts we removed CANNOT be done with an Oxy-Acetylene torch. It won't cut STAINLESS STEEL WELD.
And where are you going to find enough 40 mm and 20 mm AA guns anymore? Plus we cut all their gun tubs off with the exception of the two stern tubs where one has been modified to hold a jettisonable 500 gallan fuel bladder for the RPV's. We used all of their old ammo hoists as armored cable and piping trunks.
You want to take off the flight deck also? Strip off the 1 1/2" thick armor we put on for CEC and turn it back into Flag Quarters? Rip off the tripod mast and put in a telescoping pole mast (to clear the Brooklyn Bridge)? Remove all the 1" thick armored bulkheads and overheads and vent ducts for the Comm Center and change it back to crew quarters with racks? Take out the CHT tanks that are required for holding brown water waste if shore connection is lost (strictly illegal)?
You obviously don't know the first thing about these ships (or any ship for that matter) and all the effort put in to building them to begin with and the extraordinary effort to modernize them to help bring the Cold War to an end.
As for a back up plan, don't ask as we won't tell. "LOOSE LIPS SINK SHIPS".
As for Missouri being in worse shape than Iowa, where the hell did you hear that? I personally inspected the ship for the Hawaii group before she was towed out of Bremerton. I have also personally inspected the Iowa in 2004 and she is missing four Armored Box Launchers and one Lube Oil pump. (Sorry, not allowed to mention Turret II except for what I wrote in my book).
Now, I buy the cheapest 80 proof Vodka I can find. However, I think you are in dire need of upgrading the brand of whatever it is you are drinking. And don't tell me a Marine doesn't drink (as I know us ex-tank drivers and sledge hammer mechanics do).
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