Pearl Harbor - Battleship Missouri BB-63

This was a morning of nostalgia for Rob. We went to Pearl Harbor to visit the Battleship Missouri BB-63. When Rob was in the Navy (seems like an an eternity ago) he was on the same class ship - New Jersey BB-62. He was a Surface Weapons Officer on Turret 3 for part of the time on the ship. He didn't need the tour guide to show us around the ship as he knew the way on his own! From the teak deck, ladders, officer's quarters, ward room, mess hall, bridge, bathroom and showers - everything was the SAME as what he remembered from his time on the New Jersey17 years ago. I was taken back by the very retro bright blue linoleum tile lining the floors on the Missouri but he said it was the same as on the New Jersey too. Rob's friend, USN Capt. Paul V. gave us a tour of the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis CVN74 when it was stationed in Bremerton about two years ago. I recalled quite a contrast between the two ships. The battleships are definitely vintage. The New Jersey was commissioned in 1943 and the Stennis in 1995. The battleships seemed old and ancient by comparison to the modern options and technology on today's fleet. They may be old but the 16 inch guns and the historic past of the battleships at Pearl Harbor and afterwards are impressive. We ended our time on the Missouri by going to the ships bridge and sitting in the Captain's chair on the starboard side of the ship and then going to the site where the the signing of documents proclaiming the end of WW II were signed. We quickly toured a memorial for submarines on eternal patrol. From my days long ago working at Sub Base Bangor and around submariners, I had heard about the USS Scorpion and USS Thresher but I didn't know numerous others, including the USS Cisco never returned from a voyage under the sea.