Warbird Information Exchange

The Forrest Sherman group is keying off the USS Turner Joy Museum
in Bremerton. Another great bunch of folks who worked their butts off
to preserve a piece of US history

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Don't touch my junk!!

The Iwo's island is at The Museum Of The American GI in College Station, Texas.

http://www.museumoftheamericangi.org/

Pictures of it being moved

http://www.museumoftheamericangi.org/index.php?set_albumName=album36&option=com_gallery&Itemid=29&include=view_album.php


Shay
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Semper Fortis

Thanks, Shay... that's good news. It makes sense to save the Iwo first as it was more substantial and in far better condition. Besides, the Cabot island was drasticly altered from its original WWII appearance.

Just wodering if any info is available on the remains of the Coral Sea?

I went to Brownsville to see what was left of the Cabot the summer she was scrapped. By the time I got there, she looked like she does in the third picture up from the bottom, being eviscerated by the cutting torches and cranes.

It was a sad couple of days. Apartment sized pieces of the lady were piled helter skelter on the sides of the slipway. On top of the being at a funeral, sick in the pit of the stomach awfulness, and the attendant I can't believe this is happening especially since it's so needless and didn't have to happen kind of sadness, the wind was blowing and the huge pieces of her carcass would creak and moan as they shifted slightly, further contributing to the macabre tone.

I don't want to sound over dramatic, but truly, it felt like being in the presence of a form of death.

At one point I pretty much stumbled over something in the dust at my feet and uncovered one of those concentric circles spider web 20mm gun sights. That deepened the feel of surrealness for me as my father's battle station on his liberty ship was a 20mm on the bridge, and I wondered if he had ever seen the Cabot, as he too was in the Pacific. Needless to say, the sight is now here with me.

I also have several 2-4 foot long pieces of flight deck. Years later, I'm still figuring out what to do with them. A shelf for WW2 Navy plastic planes? Ebay? Or?? I also have a bathroom vanity with the mirror still intact from an officer's cabin, as well as the two iron devices, for lack of the proper word, that joined the ropes from the captain's boat to the hoisting ropes of the ship. They're something else I don't know what to do with, but they sure do look cool. I left Harlingen with being within a pound or so of having to pay the overweight baggage fee.

I had contacted John Houston before going down, and not only did he take me out to the ship, about a 45 minute drive from the museum, the day I arrived, but he also put me up in the museum's volunteer quarters during my stay. Having the run of the place at night was pretty much worth the trip by itself. John was a gentleman as well as a real cool guy, and we are lessened by his passing.

John was a heii of a guy. One year at our airshow I was in charge of dealing out VIP rides and John volunteered his T-6. I put my 18 year old son in the back seat as he had never had a T-6 ride. When he returned with a sh*t eating grin on his face I asked him if during the flight they went upside down. His reply " the only time we were right side up was when we were in the pattern" Tail winds John you were great.

nice momentos, while not worth much $$$$ wise...... hang on to them, you'll never find a replacement if you sell them!!!

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

Pelican hooks I believe.

Sorry to resurrect such an old thread, but I had to. My great uncle served on the USS Cabot. I never met him, he died right after I was born and the military history in my family isn't talked about much. I just found this out last year. The Cabot was pretty much in battles for her entire time at sea during WWII. She has nine battle stars. Her callsign was "Mohawk". Here's her scoreboard:



Here's a great page with some more info:

http://delange.org/Cabot4/Cabot4.htm

"Up, Mohawks, and at 'um!"

Was wondering why no one mentioned that the Cabot's tower is the centerpiece of the WW2 Gallery at the NMNA at P'cola.
Or is it?

The one at NNAM is a nice replica. AFAIK no pieces of the real one were used to construct the replica.

The island at the NMNA is a reproduction, not the actual Cabot island.

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Had God intended for man to fly behind inline engines, Pratt & Whitney would have made them.

CB

http://www.angelfire.com/dc/jinxx1/Desrt_Wings.html

I saw the Cabot tied up in New Orleans in 1997, I think. It shocked me to see a carrier of that type still around, at that time. I was there with my girlfriend at the time and I tired to get closer but the Cabot was all fenced off and you couldn't get any good shots with everything in the way. I had no idea she'd gone to the torch until many years later.

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Life member, 91st BG Memorial Association
Owner, 1944 Willys MB #366014
Former REMF (US Army, O3)

This still smarts when you think about it. Imagine Cabot tied up alongside the John Rodgers? How either ship slipped through everyone's fingers is shameful. Especially since most of the powers-that-be already learned from the regret of scrapping Enterprise. As a side note, the Forrest Sherman people could not save their ship either.

The big problem with historic ships is the amount of capital they require for restoration and ongoing maintenance, and being in the water, you simply can't push it to the "back of the hangar" like you can an airplane when you don't have the funds to work on it. If you don't stay on top of things, the ship will go to the bottom.