USS Alabama – Then and Now

USS Alabama, Cruise book

The USS Alabama (BB-60) is a South Dakota Class Battleship, launched on April 16, 1942. It served during World War II in both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

The Alabama served in British waters protecting supply convoys to the Soviet Union.

Later it joined U.S. forces fighting in the Pacific. It was involved in the Gilbert Island, Marshall Islands, and Marianas Islands campaigns, and in the Battles of the Philippine Sea and Okinawa.

The Alabama was awarded nine battle stars for her service.

On January 9, 1947, the Alabama was decommissioned. Her last journey under her own power was to the United States Pacific Reserve Fleet at Bremerton, Washington. She remained there until removed from the Naval Vessel Register on June 1, 1962.

US Navy poster

However, that was not the end of her life. Some citizens of the State of Alabama formed a ‘USS Alabama Battleship Commission’ with the aim of raising funds to preserve the Alabama as a memorial to the men and women who served their nation during World War II.

The money, including $100,000 raised by schoolchildren in the form of nickels and dimes, and a $1,000,000 corporate donation, was found, and the Alabama was awarded to the state on June 16, 1964. She was formally handed over at a ceremony in Seattle on July 7.

She was then towed to Mobile Bay, Alabama, where she lies in Battleship Memorial Park. It opened as a museum on January 9, 1965. She was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1986.

The Alabama is one of the most well-known American ships of World War II. The 1992 movie Under Siege, starring Steven Seagal, featured it, though not by name.

Though the action in the film is supposed to have occurred on board the Missouri, the Alabama is actually shown in most of the battleship scenes.

 

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Military Humor –

 

 

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Farewell Salutes –

Carlton Blackmore – Westfield, NJ; US Army, WWII, Captain

John Cleary Jr. – Bronx, NY; US Army, Korea

Allan Dally – Hawke’s Bay NZ; RNZ Army # 056129, WWII, East Coast Mounted Rifles

Harold Gordon – New Bern, NC; US Merchant Marine, WWII & Korea, radioman

Fred Johnson – Park City, UT; US Navy, WWII, PTO, USS Snowbell (AN-52)

Larry Jordal – Sisseton, SD; US Army, Korea

Stanley Levine – Cincinnati, OH; US Army, WWII

Richard Rose  – Battle Creek, MI; US Air Force

William J. Simon Jr. – W.Scranton, PA; US Army, Korea, 187th RCT

Marcey Jack Wilson – Wichita Falls, TX; US Navy, WWII

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