In October 1944, Intrepid's planes help sink the superbattleship Musashi. The battleship Iowa, steaming in the background, never had to meet Musashi or her equally formidable sister Yamato, which was also sunk with Intrepid's help. Today Iowa has been reactivated.
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York and the Nation
us, Intrepid Museum Foundation
of the Essex-class carrier, and inspired in me a feeling of awe: this is how we're going to win the war, I thought. Twenty-nine years later, in 1973, I became a part of a team which attempted to save carriers by utilizing the Randolph and Essex as a STOL (short take-off and landing) airport. The idea was to weld them bow to bow, using both flight decks as a landing field in New York's Hudson River at Pier 76. Then, in 1976, I and Larry Sowinski, current member of the Board of Trustees of the Intrepid Museum Foundation and Director ofExhibitry, were recruited by a group called Qdyssey in Flight to assist in acquiring an aircraft carrier, for the purpose of converting it to a museum. Larry, then a freelance art director, was to handle graphics and exhibitry. I was to be in charge of public relations. At that time, I represented Lufthansa, the German airline, in that capacity. It soon became apparent to Larry and me that in order to accomplish this considerable undertaking, we had to acquire a berth and show the financial wherewithal to have a vessel donated by the US Navy. This hard fact necessitated a change in our original roles and we devoted our time and energies to fulfilling these two immediate prerequisites. Thus we embarked upon our pilgrimage. Before it was over, we had secured the approval of two Presidents of the United States, (Carter and Reagan) ; Secretaries of the Navy Woolsey, Hildalgo and Lehman; Mayors Beame and Koch; and four commissioners of Ports & Terminals, Mastriani , Gliedman , Heilbron and Seale. In securing the interest of the Navy we were passed up a ladder of friends who became enthusiasts for the undertaking. Advertising executive Michael Gillespie introduced us to Captain Ted Wilbur, editor of Naval Aviation News. Wilbur, a former Navy fighter pilot and renowned aviation artist, had been part of the team that created the great Navy Air Exhibit in the Smithsonian's Air & Space Museum. With his help we climbed the Navy chain of command, ending with Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Hayward. In New York, where we had to secure a berth and financingultimately, over $20 million-the National Maritime Historical Society's Chairman the late Admiral John M . Will, USN (ret.) led us to the late Rear Admiral John Bergen, a retired Naval Reserve officer prominent in the hotel business and dedicated to SEA HIS1DRY, FALL 1984
Jim Ean , age 23, in his F6F fighter plane aboard the USS Independence (CVL 22) in the South Pacific ca. 1943. Forty years later, in Intrepid's hangar deck Jim Ean exchanges reminiscences with Vice President George Bush , who flew an Avenger torpedo bomber like the one in the background, when he served in the light carrier San Jacinto in World War II.
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