A Noble Warrior Goes Home
Posted by Johno on November 12, 1999 on World Wide Wits End
The most decorated ship in United States Naval history came home yesterday.
The Battleship New Jersey came up the Delaware River, and docked in the Philadelphia Naval ShipYard. How appropriate and ironic.
Born in the early forties, she was a product of the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. She went on to serve in World War II, Korea, Viet Nam, and Lebanon. In three minutes, the NJ could deliver the same payload as that of 60 warplanes. She could throw a one ton bomb 25 miles, with accuracy. Think about that one.
I don't know if the national media covered this story, but the parks and vantage points along the Delaware River from Cape May to Philly were packed. I was driving south on Interstate 95 at about 3 O'clock yesterday, and the Girard Point Bridge literally goes over the Navy Yard. Traffic, like time stood still. It was also Veterans Day, which was pretty damned appropriate. I only wish everyone could have seen that magnificent ship coming up the Delaware River.
She is berthed at the now closed Navy Yard, which is sad, and somewhat ironic. As if she had expired and gone to her peaceful reward, a shipyard cemetery.
But it won't end there. She will become a floating museum. Where? Either in Bayonne or Camden New Jersey.
© 2001 
johneeo@rcn.com
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