Quote:
Originally Posted by Llarry
A couple of shipyard photos of aircraft carriers:
1) The first three USN aircraft carriers all at the Puget Sound Navy Yard in 1929; from top to bottom: USS Lexington (CV2), USS Saratoga (CV 3) and USS Langley (CV 1).
2) The same shipyard (Bremerton, Washington) in August of 1955 busy converting carriers from straight deck to angle deck. I'm not sure which carriers are in the photo, except USS Midway (CVA 41), still with a straight deck, is in the middle.
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There are 5 Carriers (3 Essex and 2 Midway class) and a Cruiser in the pic. That is the Yorktown CV-10 and the FDR CV-42 on the right. Of the other three, I think I can make out a 9 on the bow of the inboard ship which would make her the Randolph CV-19, but I'm not sure. All of the other three are definitely Essex Class though. I did a 5 month pre deployment work up aboard the FDR as part of the Air Wing back in 1969. I was coming from a Westpac aboard the Enterprise, and the difference in the two ships was night and day (and about 20 years). Everything about her just seemed awkward. I guess I was just spoiled. Truthfully the worst part was the culture change between the West Coast and the East coast Navy. Westpac was laid back, with minimal attention paid to what we considered nit picking regs. But the East Coast was gung ho on regs, and very by the book. It made work more difficult, and the Master at Arms were insufferable.