Texas!

[PRB]

You have to love Texas! Texans are proud of their state the same way US Marines are proud of their service. Here's a pic I took in August 1991, from the deck of USS Nimitz (CVN-68), of USS Texas (CGN-39), a “nooqular” powered missile cruiser. Note the two giant Texas state flags flying from the yard arms. That's cool. Not one giant state flag, mind you, which might be appropriate for normal states, but which is entirely inadequate for Texas, but two giant state flags. :salute:

http://www.prbsystems.com/pics/CGN-39.jpg

[Willy]

When I was doing the exchange tour with Belgian Navy, one of the ships I served on was BNS Zinnia (A962), a mine warfare command and support ship for the Belgian Navy's minesweepers. Most Navy ships will fly the red Bravo flag when refueling at sea. They did it a little different on Zinnia. They flew the Confederate battle flag on the yardarm. Although some of the Belgians insisted that it was the Canadian flag :d.

[N2056]

Sadly all of the CGNs are long gone. I think the Texas was the first to go back in '92. I was on the Long Beach at the time in drydock at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, and the Texas came in for what was supposed to be a refueling overhaul. Instead it ended up being decommisioned and partially scrapped. The hull was all that was left for several years, and that finally went away a few years ago. When I worked for SIMA there I remember the job where we went onboard the dead hull and removed the fwd weapons elevator so that we could refurbish it and install it on the still active Arkansas.

[PRB]

When I was doing the exchange tour with Belgian Navy, one of the ships I served on was BNS Zinnia (A962), a mine warfare command and support ship for the Belgian Navy's minesweepers. Most Navy ships will fly the red Bravo flag when refueling at sea. They did it a little different on Zinnia. They flew the Confederate battle flag on the yardarm. Although some of the Belgians insisted that it was the Canadian flag :d.

Hmm, I wonder what possessed the Belgian navy to fly the Confederate flag from one of thier ships... Couldn't possibly have had anything to do with an exchange crewman from Tennessee, could it? :)

[PRB]

Sadly all of the CGNs are long gone. I think the Texas was the first to go back in '92. I was on the Long Beach at the time in drydock at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, and the Texas came in for what was supposed to be a refueling overhaul. Instead it ended up being decommisioned and partially scrapped. The hull was all that was left for several years, and that finally went away a few years ago. When I worked for SIMA there I remember the job where we went onboard the dead hull and removed the fwd weapons elevator so that we could refurbish it and install it on the still active Arkansas.

Rgr on the CGNs. Sad! We also had the USS Bainbridge (CGN-25) in our USS Enterprise battle group during the early 1980s. All we were missing was Long Beach to complete the "Round The World on Nuclear Power" cruise reunion! I saw the Long Beach one time, as part of another battle group. Impressive ship too. Bigger (longer) than most WW-II battlewagons.