In the Navy...

[Geo]

I think the HMS Warrior is a wooden ship with iron plating, but I could be wrong.

It's the French Gloire that was wooden-hulled, ironclad. The Warrior was iron-hulled.

[Rusty Edge]

Aha! I stand corrected. Have you seen The Warrior ?

[Geo]

From a distance, about 20 years ago.
(Hey, HMS Mary Rose and Victory sits in the same museum at Portsmouth, and a day only has so many hours ).

[Rusty Edge]

I might not have made it beyond the Victory myself ( if I had the opportunity ), but I've not yet been to England, and I thought that the chances were pretty good that you had, living so much closer.

[Geo]

I should return to Porthsmouth, but the world is soooo big.

Perhaps I should muster on the boat below (a destroyer was leaving Pearl Harbor while I was on the Memorial).

[Geo]

Not as much pain as the soldiers my dad worked on in Korea in the army, I bet.  Daddy could only see out of one eye at a time, was only a medic with no college, and I can attest that he did not have a gentle touch...

Ouch. Did he pull your teeth instead of your leg?

Since wifi here seems more reliable, let's talk guns...

1) The main (16"/406 mm) battery of the Iowa class.
2) Secondary battery. 5"/150 mm I believe. Used both in a heavy anti-air -and light anti-ship (at least the smaller fast ships)  role.
3) Old anti-air in the foreground, with an advanced WWII  version in the background.
(just pulling your leg, Rusty )
4) 'Battle center' section of the ship in the super structure. I was impressed by the armor, and locking system.
5) Transfer 'tube' for 5" granates I believe. Runs right through one of the berthing compartments. But those (the berths) are literally in every nook and cranny of the ship.

[Geo]

1) Passageway just below the main deck, aft third of the ship. I hope no Commonwealth sailors were on board. Do I use the left or right hatch to go through? *SLAM*
2) Some sort of informatics class room. I *suppose* at the time of Missouri's decommissioning Apple was it. I saw some type of computers there I used during my desktop publishing education back in the late eighties.
3) Standard berthing 'packs'. Stacked two high. The most used type was three high. I think that was a petty officer compartment. Will check tomorrow on the USS Midway.
4) navigation room IIRC. Or at least, the armored version for during battles. Situated just after that armored comparymeng I showed earlier.
5) Open air navigation bridge. Somewhere at the higher levels of the super structure.

[Geo]

Rusty, these are most of my Missouri pictures. I could attach at least 5 more tomorrow if you want to see them (getting late here). Or I could move on to the next vessel. Your choice.

[Rusty Edge]

I guess I'd like to see more of the Missouri. It's all pretty much the same as the Massachusetts, but modernized. In it the bunks were mostly triples, too, but if IIRC they were hanging from chains, pipe frames with wire grid springs, and a thin mattress.

The class room is a reminder that training wins wars. With all of the attrition, there is a constant need of new men, preferably experienced/veteran  ones, to man the replacement machines. By spending their off-duty hours on combat patrols studying and learning to get certifications and promotions, the officers and crew not only better themselves, but better the navy.

Being the best American pilot in WWI, like Eddie Rickenbacker , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Rickenbacker , or the best American submarine officer, like Dick O'Kane    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_O'Kane, weren't their greatest contributions, in my opinion. More significant was their big picture thinking that resulted in their dedication to training their men in the tactics and techniques gained from years of dangerous experience. They put the war effort above personal glory.

[Geo]

I guess I'd like to see more of the Missouri. It's all pretty much the same as the Massachusetts, but modernized. In it the bunks were mostly triples, too, but if IIRC they were hanging from chains, pipe frames with wire grid springs, and a thin mattress.

I saw sugh a bunk room as you described, but that picture failed.

Let's see...

1) Sideview of the superstructure.
2) Chained to the quay.
3) Bristling with disabled guns.
4) The main guns schematic.
5) The medium guns schematic.

[Geo]

Next lot.

1) Flags galore. I was surprised at the Hawaiian state flag. The British ensign is well represented in it.
2) Some sort of bridge.
3) View of the main tower.
4) Some instruments near the bridge deck.
5) View of the Arizona Memorial from the bridge deck.

[Geo]

Final lot.

1) A type of machinegun. Didn't see further description, so don't know if this was a typical WWII anti-air gun or not.
2) One of the later installed missile silos. I assume a tomahawk cruise missile. Four in each emplacement.
3) Forward view over the main deck.
4) A bit more sideway view of the superstructure.
5) I envy the men who've sworn to salute every single American flag they come across...

That concludes the USS Missouri.

[Rusty Edge]

 !

The things that look like R2D2 are the Phalanx radar controlled 20 mm cannons
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phalanx_CIWS   that fire 75 rounds /second and make the cloud of shells converge with the approaching missile or aircraft automatically. They used them to replace all of the Bofors guns, and some of the 5" and  .50 cal machine guns  they relied on in WW II.

 That reduced crew requirements and made space for the Tomahawk launchers. It's the key concept of the Iowa Class refit... making the Battleship better defended and giving it more offensive capability.  Well, they removed some of the 5" turrets to make room for the Harpoon missiles, too. To be honest, I wouldn't know a Tomahawk Launcher from a Harpoon Launcher without reading the stencils on the side.

They were able to modernize the Iowa class for less than the cost of a new anti-sub frigate , each.

[Geo]

Wow. Never realized the half-domed tube was a weapon.

[Rusty Edge]

I'm guessing final lot, 1) is a display of the phalanx system's gun. That's what it would look like, but I never got anywhere near one myself. Thanks for the pictures!

I have a Hawaiian shirt that depicts the ships Missouri, the Bowfin, The Hornet, and the airplanes  P-40B War Hawk, a P-36A Hawk, a PBY and B-25 Mitchell taking off from the Hornet to represent the Doolittle raid.

Since we're talking about Phalanx weapon systems and the USS Missouri - here's a wiki clip I came across while looking for something else. It happened during desert storm-

During the campaign, Missouri was involved in a friendly fire incident with the Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate Jarrett. According to the official report, on 25 February, Jarrett '​s Phalanx engaged the chaff fired by Missouri as a countermeasure against enemy missiles, and stray rounds from the firing struck Missouri, one penetrating through a bulkhead and becoming embedded in an interior passageway of the ship. Another round struck the ship on the forward funnel, passing completely through it. One sailor aboard Missouri was struck in the neck by flying shrapnel and suffered minor injuries. Those familiar with the incident are skeptical of this account, however, as Jarrett was reportedly over 2 mi (3.2 km) away at the time and the characteristics of chaff are such that a Phalanx would not normally regard it as a threat and engage it.[33] There is no dispute that the rounds that struck Missouri did come from Jarrett, and that it was an accident. The suspicion is that a Phalanx operator on Jarrett may have accidentally fired off a few rounds manually, although there is no evidence to support this.[34][35]