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March 30th Photos Page |
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I made the trip north again today, my 25th time aboard since I started volunteering last April. With a round trip of 320 miles that works out to be 8,000 miles in the last 11 months, my poor car takes a lot of abuse! Enough about that though, it was a great day onboard, I finally got to do something I'd been lobbying to do since last Fall. This past September I received an e-mail from a Signalman First Class aboard the USS Arleigh Burke. He said he had been stationed aboard the New Jersey from July of 1982 until September of 1984 and pointed out that the rails in front of the Flag Lockers on both Signal Bridges were brass and had shined up nicely back in the day. I tried to get the Brass Meister to let me work on them but we had other priorities in the tour areas and so it didn't happen. At the same time another volunteer was also lobbying to shine up the rails and today we finally received the go ahead to work on one of the Flag Locker rails. The rails on both Flag Lockers were covered with several coats of paint, but today we reclaimed one of them and shined it up for all to see, how does it look Dan? It took 5 of us the better part of the day to strip away the paint and years of tarnish and polish the rail on the Starboard Flag Locker. I've included a couple of pictures of the finished rail below and also one of the Port side rail which still needs to be done, one step at a time we move along. All volunteers are welcome to come down next Saturday and help us tackle the remaining rail. We've pretty much finished the Sick Bay area now and should be moving on to Broadway in the next week or two so working outside today was a nice break. As always I took a photo tour and once again several of today's photos are in response to a request from a former crewman. He was a member of the ships MARDET from February 1989 - July 1990 and wanted to see their berthing spaces on Deck 3, the Pull-up Bar on the Aft Missile Deck and the Gym behind the aft Smokestack. So Tim, the last dozen photos are for you, hope they bring back some fond memories. You'll be happy to know that the former MARDET bunk spaces on Deck 3 are in the process of being painted and refurnished and will soon be occupied by groups on overnight encampments onboard the ship. The mural you asked about will also remain in place as is the case with much of the sailor art found throughout the ship. That's it for today's visit, a great day onboard Big J! |
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| Inside Aft Main Battery Plot, at the aft end of Broadway |
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| Hoists inside Lower Handling Room for 5" Mounts (Off Broadway) |
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| Port Flag Locker, the "before" view of today's project |
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| Starboard
Flag Locker, the "after" view paint stripped from the rail and highly polished |
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| Another "after" view, it was a tough job, but looks great now! |
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| Inside
MARDET bunk area at aft end of Broadway. Visible hatch leads to ladder up to mess deck. |
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| Bunks in MARDET area |
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| Sailor Art on wall in MARDET area |
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| Exact frame and deck location of MARDET bunk spaces |
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| Leaving MARDET spaces heading out onto Broadway |
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| Through the hatch, next to Aft Main Battery Plot off Broadway |
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| Aft
end of Broadway. Visible hatch leads below to Deck 7, Aft Diesel, interesting place! |
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| This
was the gym, the space had no lights, I just poked the camera in and snapped this photo. |
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| Across from the gym was the Band Room, also dark and empty |
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| This must be the infamous USMC Pull-up Bar, look familiar guys?? |
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| A
new addition to the aft Missile Deck, an Air Conditioning unit to cool the ships interior spaces during the summer |
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| A shot of the aft Missile Deck from above |
