USS Joseph P. Kennedy Jr.

[August]

http://home.comcast.net/%7Erdsterling/pwpimages/Subsim%202010%20meet%20August%20007%2025pct.jpg

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http://home.comcast.net/%7Erdsterling/pwpimages/Subsim%202010%20meet%20August%20124%2025pct.jpghtt p://home.comcast.net/%7Erdsterling/pwpimages/Subsim%202010%20meet%20August%20129%2025pct.jpg

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[Gerald]

Very nice pictures, thank you for sharing this, :up:

[elanaiba]

Very cool :)

Any pics of ASW equipment?

[Sailor Steve]

Thanks for that, Dave. It brings back a lot of memories.

1. Obviously the ship herself. FRAM 2, looks exactly like my old Brinkley Bass (DD-887).

2. Looking forward along the starboard gangway. The furthest platform you can see is the signal bridge. Here is a view from forty years ago, looking down from there to about where this picture was taken from.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/SailorSteve/Bbass5-1.jpg

3. You know, in ten months aboard that tub, I never once set foot in the engine or boiler rooms.

4. Another place I only visited once, and that when I was ordered to.

5. Fire control. Any time someone claims that the deck gun on his u-boat should be stabilized, show him this picture.

6. Fire control for the ASROC, with one on display. The actual storage/launcher is barely visible in the upper left of the picture. Here is the same area, but taken from above from the aft end of the bridge deck.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/SailorSteve/bbass-4.jpg

One thing that seems to be missing from JP Kennedy is the ZUNI anti-aircraft rocket launcher, visible in my picture alongside the semi-circular blast shield.

7. The Bridge. At the back of the picture you can barely see the captain's chair. Many's the time I delivered messages to him there.

8. Looking aft from the bridge deck, on the starboard side opposite where my earlier picture was taken from.

9. Inside the Hangar. Part of the FRAM (Fleet Rehabilitation And Maintainance) program was a hangar to house the DASH (Drone Anti-Submarine Helicopter). Remote-controlled, it carried two homing torpedoes - and they actually have one! The project was a complete failure. I was told that one of ours had a blade lock up and crashed, and the other flew away over the horizon when the radio-control failed. Whatever the truth was, by the time I was aboard the hangar was used only for storage and watching movies.

Here is the landing platform and hangar seen looking down from a tender.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/SailorSteve/bbass-1-1.jpg

And the landing platform playing host to some visiting Aussies.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/SailorSteve/bbass-6.jpg

10. Looks like a boiler to me, but what do I know - I never actually saw it.
:rotfl2:

11. Crew quarters, obviously. Doesn't look too familiar, so I'm guessing forward, beneath the mess deck. Radiomen were in the after quarters.

Great pictures, guys. Thanks for the memories. :sunny:

[Jimbuna]

We need more......nice pics :DL

[Takeda Shingen]

Great shots, August. I am beginning to regret not going to this.

EDIT: Steve's shots are fantastic too!

[August]

Great shots, August. I am beginning to regret not going to this.

Dude, you and everyone else who didn't show missed probably the biggest collection of ships that we're ever likely to visit in a single get together.

:O:

Between us we saw (in no particular order and not counting non ship exhibits):

A US Nautilus class submarine
A US Balao class submarine
A German midget submarine
A Japanese midget submarine
A Japanese suicide boat
A US Landing Craft Mechanized (LCM)
A US Fletcher class Destroyer
A US Gearing class Destroyer
A Soviet built missile Frigate
A US Des Moines class Heavy Cruiser (my favorite of the whole trip)
A US Baltimore class Heavy Cruiser (bow section only)
A US age of sail Frigate (and the oldest commissioned warship afloat in the world).
A US Elco PT boat
A US Higgins PT boat
A US South Dakota class Battleship
A Liberty ship (not sure if McBee made it there)
A US Essex class Aircraft Carrier (Lurchi and Bas)
A US Grayback class Missile Submarine (Lurchi and Bas)

We were all agreed that it's gonna be pretty tough to top such an extensive lineup...

[nikimcbee]

A Liberty ship (not sure if McBee made it there)


made it there! working on uploading stuff.:D

[Sledgehammer427]

Ivan and I saw the Liberty ship on our way back to CT, it was pretty impressive from the bridge.

EDIT: And I have to agree, for as decrepit a condition as the USS Salem was in, I really enjoyed how open it was.

[August]

Some more pics maybe closer to Steve old haunts.
http://home.comcast.net/%7Erdsterling/pwpimages/Subsim%202010%20meet%20August%20113%2012pct.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/%7Erdsterling/pwpimages/Subsim%202010%20meet%20August%20115%2012pct.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/%7Erdsterling/pwpimages/Subsim%202010%20meet%20August%20050%2012pct.jpg

You see a lot of these types of memorials throughout the ships at the cove.
http://home.comcast.net/%7Erdsterling/pwpimages/Subsim%202010%20meet%20August%20058%20cropped%2025 pct.jpg

[Sailor Steve]

Radio shack has a lot more stuff in it than I remember.

But still, it looks familiar.

[krashkart]

Quite a treat to see these pics. Thanks to August and Steve for sharing. :salute:

[August]

Radio Shack has a lot more stuff in it than I remember.

I hear they are big into cell phones and other PEDs nowadays... :D

[TLAM Strike]

One thing that seems to be missing from JP Kennedy is the ZUNI anti-aircraft rocket launcher, visible in my picture alongside the semi-circular blast shield.

duuude... that WHAT!? Seriously Zunis for AAW? I know they used rockets for chaffing vampires but for shooting down aircraft?

I think they toyed with it in WWII but found it didn't work too well. They kept at it?

[Sailor Steve]

duuude... that WHAT!? Seriously Zunis for AAW? I know they used rockets for chaffing vampires but for shooting down aircraft?

I think they toyed with it in WWII but found it didn't work too well. They kept at it?
We had them. Someone told me that's what they were for. I don't know anything other than that.

The only AA we had for sure was the dual-purpose part of the 5" guns - all four of them. One day during an excersize an A-7 came straight at us, maybe fifty feet above the water. By the time the guns could be brought to bear he had hopped up and over us. By the time they could be swung around the other way he had gone vertical and was out of range before the director could get a position lock.

Absolutely useless in modern warfare. In every mock engagement we had, whether aircraft or submarine, we lost.

[ivank]

Ivan and I saw the Liberty ship on our way back to CT, it was pretty impressive from the bridge.

EDIT: And I have to agree, for as decrepit a condition as the USS Salem was in, I really enjoyed how open it was.

Yes it was.
And the bridge was huge! 10 lanes!
Is this the one that messed with the GPS

[Sledgehammer427]

rofl yup.
according to Ivan's GPS we were flying over water, then we were suddenly on the wrong side of the bridge...then we were okay...and going the wrong direction...

[August]

rofl yup.
according to Ivan's GPS we were flying over water, then we were suddenly on the wrong side of the bridge...then we were okay...and going the wrong direction...

Yeah a big bridge for the smallest state. Somebody was overcompensating for sure! :DL

[TLAM Strike]

We had them. Someone told me that's what they were for. I don't know anything other than that. I think he got it wrong. Most likely they were for chaff rockets.

The only AA we had for sure was the dual-purpose part of the 5" guns - all four of them. One day during an excersize an A-7 came straight at us, maybe fifty feet above the water. By the time the guns could be brought to bear he had hopped up and over us. By the time they could be swung around the other way he had gone vertical and was out of range before the director could get a position lock. Ouch, the new 5" guns are quite a bit better, they are fast enough to target subsonic ASMs.

Absolutely useless in modern warfare. In every mock engagement we had, whether aircraft or submarine, we lost. Don't feel so bad, not much has changed. My buddy served on a Arleigh Burke FLT IIA and he told me that against subs they are toast (the only time they found any was when the sub drivers were told to let them know where they were), and against missiles they are toast because the PRC has missile that home right in on their SPY-1D radar (he said one 'can drives around with its radar on to detect and guide missiles and soaks up the vampires while the others shoot using their data).

[Sailor Steve]

Ouch, the new 5" guns are quite a bit better, they are fast enough to target subsonic ASMs.
The new guns do fire faster, but the real problem is fire control. We had the absolute very best WW2 technology. :D

[Sledgehammer427]

We had the absolute very best WW2 technology.

:rotfl2:

[TLAM Strike]

The new guns do fire faster, but the real problem is fire control. We had the absolute very best WW2 technology. :D

So did the Dear Leader (or whatever it was named) when it sank the ROKS Cheonan. :03:

[August]

The new guns do fire faster, but the real problem is fire control. We had the absolute very best WW2 technology. :D

Hey there is something to be said for having perfected technology. All the bugs are worked out!