RIMPAC is a huge military exercise that happens mostly out of Pearl Harbor but also San Diego. There are hundreds (exaggeration, maybe) of boats involved (at least one would think that many for the amount of complaining I heard about base traffic). On one Saturday they open up some boats for tours. I let Brian pick, begrudgingly, and he wanted to start with the Abraham Lincoln, and aircraft carrier. We waited about a half hour to get in and arrived around 8:15am, they opened at 8.
The most critical piece of equipment available on this boat is a plastic(?) replica of the Lincoln Monument statue of Abe.
I think Brian’s submarine could fit into the hangar bay (this is only half).
Speaking of Top Gun… Oh wait, I didn’t mention it, because it speaks for itself.
We did get out to the top for the flight deck!
Brian was particularly fond of these call signs… this one was “Balls”. Oh pilot humor.
Then Brian wanted to go onto the Zumwalt destroyer. This has been called “a failed ship concept“. Incredibly expensive (more than a submarine) and pretty incredibly useless. To give you a taste, it’s currently a destroyer with no guns. However, the sailors on board gave us a tour with pride, and I think it had(s) a lot of promise. We were able to see the control room and it essentially looks like where they launch spaceships at the Houston Space Center. Despite its size, on a radar it only shows up looking like a fishing trawler. We waited for a little over an hour to get in here.
Our final stop was a Philippine boat. My one request for the day was to tour a foreign boat, because how often do you get that chance!. They fed us! But the tour wasn’t that great… and we were wiped so this was our last stop. It looks quite similar to a US boat.
I’m glad we did it! It made for an adventurous morning and we won’t likely experience it again. To give you an idea of just how many boats were in port, the destroyers are double docked!
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The replica of the Lincoln Statue by Daniel Chester French that is the centerpiece of the Lincoln Memorial in D.C. is not very good. Look up “Statue of Abraham Lincoln (Lincoln Memorial)” on Wikipedia and note that his feet are closer together than they are on the ship and his legs are at more of an angle. Also, the face is not as good a likeness as the original. It rather resembles one of the cheap miniatures you can purchase in any D.C. souvenir shop. The aircraft carrier crew should have done better.
I am curious if it was some newbie officer’s right of passage art project. Although I wouldn’t put it past the Navy to have hired someone that produced that badly gauging the quality of our boat’s insignia. Art is not their strong suit. I think I’m ok with that.