uss alabama draws thousands of visitors By Shannon Clinton
f
ootsteps echo on metal floors as tinny Big Band-era music filters through a PA system on the USS Alabama in Mobile Bay, a massive floating time capsule paying tribute to the ship’s crew and wartime achievements. Serving mainly in the South Pacific, the Navy battleship carried 2,500 crew members when it was commissioned in 1942, and saw 37 months of active duty in World War II, park marketing director Karen Conner says. Though there was no loss of life from enemy fire and no significant damage sustained, the ship earned nine battle stars on the Asiatic-Pacific Service Medal, as its crew shot down 22 planes. The battleship was decommissioned and “mothballed” in 1947 in Washington state for many years, but with $100,000 raised from change collected by Alabama school children and another $1 million in corporate funds, the ship was saved from the scrapyard and was opened to the public in January 1965. The park is overseen by an independent government agency with a board of commissioners and is owned by the state of Alabama.
Offering seven upper and four lower levels of the 680 foot long battleship to explore along with its original main deck, the park also includes the Medal of Honor Aircraft Pavilion that opened in the 1990s, and the oldest submarine on public display in the country, the USS Drum, which arrived on site in 1969. The goal of the aircraft museum is to showcase aircraft spanning many decades in all branches of the nation’s military, Con-
Honoring our veterans On Monday, November 11, the Mobile Area Veterans Day Commission will host the following events: 10 a.m. – Veterans Day Parade, Downtown Mobile 11:30 a.m. – Veteran & Patriot of the Year Luncheon – Ft. Whiting, ticket event 3 p.m. – Veterans Day Observance Ceremony featuring area fourth graders leading the event with a Parade of Flags at the Aircraft Pavilion at USS ALABAMA Battleship Memorial Park. Free. 7 p.m. – Patriotic Concert by the Mobile Area Symphonic Pops Band at the Aircraft Pavilion at USS ALABAMA Battleship Memorial Park. Free. 20 NOVEMBER 2013
www.alabamaliving.coop