RV Lifestyle Explore the mightyWWII battleship USS Alabama and the submarine USS Drum. Both are National Historic Landmarks. An aircraft pavilion is filled with more than 25 historic planes and military vehicles, including the Mach 3 A-12 Blackbird super-secret spy plane. The USS Alabama earned not only nine battle stars, but also the nickname “Lucky A” from her crew of 2,500 because she emerged unscathed from the heat of each battle. The Alabama saw action in the Atlantic for a year before joining the Pacific Fleet in mid-1943. There she fought at such key locations as Leyte, the Gilbert Islands and Okinawa. The Alabama served in every major engagement in the Pacific during the SecondWorldWar. After the signing of the war-ending surrender documents in September 1945, the Alabama led the American fleet into Tokyo Bay. Displacing more than 40,800 metric tons, the USS Alabama battleship measures 207 metres from stem to stern, half as long as the Empire State Building is tall. Armed with nine, 40-centimetre guns in three turrets and 20, 12-centimetre, .38-caliber guns in 10 twin mounts, her main batteries could fire shells as heavy as a small car accurately for a distance of more than 32 kilometres. The submarine USS Drum (SS-228), a SecondWorldWar veteran with 12 Battle Stars is credited with sinking 15 ships, the eighth-highest of all U.S. submarines in total Japanese tonnage sunk. USS Drum is the oldest American submarine on display in the world. At the USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park, the Second World War battleship and submarine are the highlights of the bayside park. Many historic warplanes are also on display. A Vietnam Memorial and a Korean War Memorial honour veterans of those wars on the park grounds. On self-guided tours of the 175-acre military attraction, you can view the cockpits of some two dozen aircraft, check out tanks from years gone by, inspect a Vietnam patrol boat and take the controls of a lifelike flight simulator. USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park Submarine USS Drum USS Alabama 26 | www.snowbirds.org
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