Submarine Force Museum, Groton, CT

[jazman]

Here are some pictures from my visit October 17, 2009. The museum is a hard place to take pictures, and much is glass-encased and you need flash for lighting. I had a really hard time getting pictures in the Nautilus, as I'm 6' 7" and it's really cramped down there, and angles are really weird.

Here's the sail from the USS George Washington, as you enter the lot:

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc48/jazman777/PA170004.jpg

The GW was the first US ballistic missile sub.

Here are the USS Nautilus propellers. I guess they're not classified:

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc48/jazman777/PA170001.jpg

[jazman]

A deck gun.

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc48/jazman777/PA170005.jpg

[jazman]

A view of the Nautilus from the museum parking lot.

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc48/jazman777/PA170006.jpg

[jazman]

A view from next to the Nautilus, looking south along the Thames River (the big bridge is I-5). That thing sticking out of the water at the right is the tail end of the Nautilus

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc48/jazman777/PA170017.jpg

[jazman]

More shots of the Nautilus.
http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc48/jazman777/PA170007.jpg

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc48/jazman777/PA170020.jpg

[jazman]

What you see as you leave the museum building, and head for the Nautilus, or are leaving the Nautilus to go back to the building and turn around.

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc48/jazman777/PA170021-1.jpg

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc48/jazman777/PA170022.jpg

[jazman]

The TDC in the Nautilus. Looked familiar to me.

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc48/jazman777/PA170014.jpg

[jazman]

Officer's mess. It feels more cramped, because of the glass enclosures limit movement; note also, I took this without flash, and it's not so good.

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc48/jazman777/PA170008.jpg

[jazman]

The Barb's battle flag. I got a thrill seeing this. Note that it hangs right above the Medal of Honor gallery.

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc48/jazman777/PA170023.jpg

[jazman]

Sam Dealy's Medal of Honor Gallery display. Note the jacket the guy standing there is wearing.

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc48/jazman777/PA170032-1.jpg

[jazman]

It turns out the USS Davis was having a reunion that weekend in Groton, and invited USS Liberty survivors along. This man was one of them (I'm just really tall); wounded in the Israeli attack, with everyone else in his compartment killed.

http://www.ussliberty.org

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc48/jazman777/PA170033.jpg

[jazman]

There's a 1/6th size model of a Gato fleet sub. It's pretty nice, enough detaill to get an idea of the size of things, but also a full view of all the sub.


This one is without flash, and I'm resting the camera on the railing.

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc48/jazman777/PA170055.jpg

Some detail. You can see how the conning tower, then the command center, then the pump room stack up.

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc48/jazman777/PA170050.jpg

[jazman]

Howard Gilmore's MoH display.

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc48/jazman777/PA170026.jpg

More on the Growler and Gilmore:

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc48/jazman777/PA170038.jpg

[jazman]

A slot machine one sub used to raise revenue.

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc48/jazman777/PA170043.jpg

[jazman]

A periscope camera.

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc48/jazman777/PA170053.jpg

[jazman]

A display on the USS Pittsburgh, which launched Tomahawk cruise missiles. This was interesting because when I was young I worked for Convair on the cruise missile program.

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc48/jazman777/PA170058.jpg

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc48/jazman777/PA170056.jpg

[jazman]

A battle flag. Several of these were there.

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc48/jazman777/PA170035.jpg

[jazman]

A difficult-to-see set of flags, look like replica battle flags.

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc48/jazman777/PA170059.jpg

[jazman]

And that's it. A lot of pictures just weren't good.

I got to go back the next week, and spent the weekend, so I went back and read just about every word in the musuem, give about 5 hours for that and the movie. (The movie is about the SOSUS program.)

I also stopped by the US Sub Vets WWII Memorial, not far from there. It has a memorial for all the submariners who died in WWII, and a stone for each of the 52 subs lost. Plus a real conning tower from a sub whose name I can't recall.

This second trip I didn't take my camera...

[ETR3(SS)]

Wow looks good! :up: Looks like they've made a few changes since I was there in late 02. The Nautilus' screws are indeed no longer classified as submarine screw design has changed since then. The deck gun is the infamous 5"/25 cal wet mount. And is that a model of a Polaris missile behind the slot machine I see there?:hmmm:

[AVGWarhawk]

Thank you for sharing! There is a lot of history behind that plexiglass.

[Akula4745]

Very cool pics... thanks for sharing!!
And yeah... you really are tall! :D I'm just 6'3" -

[snakeyez]

Thanks for sharing! Lots of interesting stuff there.

:up:

[Roads88]

thanks 4 the pics,,,very cool

[nikimcbee]

Necro cool bump.:Kaleun_Periskop::Kaleun_Salute:

[MarkCt]

Living in Ct I've been to the sub base many times. When I was real young, my parents used to take me there when they went shopping in the PX. Back then there were these Japanese mini subs on display with openings cut out in the sides so you could see in.

Another cool place to go is Battleship Cove in Fallriver Mass. where they have the USS Lionfish on display. If you think the Nautilus was tight inside, wait till you climb down into this one.

[Sailor Steve]

Very nice stuff! Thanks for sharing. I'm old enough to have read about Nautilus' North Pole trip when it happened. :sunny:

I'm just 6'3" -
You'll get no sympathy from us average folks, shorty! :O: