USS Lexington

[XMEN Gambit]

I chaperoned my son's JROTC overnight fieldtrip to the USS Lexington aircraft carrier / museum in Corpus Christi. It was a blast. Rented a Canon 10-22 super-wide (but not quite fisheye) lens for the trip since I knew I wouldn't be able to back up far. I absolutely loved the wider angles! Obviously it's not for everything but it's a whole different world. Anyway, some pictures. All these were taken with the 10-22.


#1 Arrival


#2 A little football


#3 A control panel in the engine room


#4 This was a munitions area before the decommisioning and conversion to a chapel.


#5 Tokyo Rose called her the "Blue Ghost," sooo....


#6 Goofing off in the rec area. (Next door are really tiny bunks.) I was standing almost on the corner of the table, and the super-wide allowed me to get all the guys in. Can't miss the distortion, but I think it's interesting now and then.


#7 Imaging conning this 44,000 ton war machine from this bridge during flight operations! This shot demonstrates the power of shooting in RAW, not to mention the human eye. I took one exposure from this location, but when processing it into JPG either the bridge interior was too dim or the windows were hopelessly blown out. So I made 2 JPGs out of the one RAW and then combined them back together (snip snip) in paint shop pro. No, the rough outlines on the windows are NOT the result of my ham-handed editing; that's the way they look.

[BlackRider]

hehe, F-18 Hornet ready for takeoff! Those are some cool pictures... and they're tempting me into breaking my promise not to buy any more lenses this year. (Trying to save for a 400mm F/2.8 or 500mm F/4)

I really like #3, but I'd like to see it w/o the people and big enough that I can read the controlls.

[XMEN Gambit]

I couln't get the whole thing in there and so you could read it... I can make out quite a bit on my original, though. My intent in taking it was to show the work area and scale, actually. You really couldn't back off far from this thing before falling over a railing or backing into a bulkhead. There was a nearly identical panel on the other side of the engine room. Don't recall if this one was port or starboard. And, while in operation, most of the pipes around carried live steam or hot oil. A few carried relatively cool air.

Here's something similar, a detail from a nearby wall plate - though not that control panel.
http://www.xmenclan.org/images/gambit/p ... G_2179.JPG

Oh, on the port side of the flight deck and slightly behind the FA-18 was a mean-looking F-14 Tomcat.

[XMENRudeJelly]

Pilot and I did a "live aboard" trip with the cub scouts on the U.S.S Lexington. It was about two weeks after my angioplasty in 2000 (my cardiologist was kind enough to tell me that I would have died on that ship if I hadn't had the operation). I ended up twisting my knee climbing up and down the ladders. But it was still an awesome experience.

[XMEN Gambit]

Jellydude! Good to see you again.

We did the live-aboard thing as well. You get the ghost story treatment too? And how about that Navy(?) food!

[XMENRudeJelly]

I don't remember any ghost stories other than the explanation as to why they called her the "Blue Ghost". With our group, they had us do a ship-wide scavenger hunt. It consisted of little stories with clues to specific historic things on the ship. One that I remember was a plaque at the rear of the ship commemorating when a torpedo took out the ship's rudder. I believe it lists several mens' names who died in the attack.

Oh and I loved the "Navy" food. I wondered if it really was Navy food or if they just called it that to get the kids to eat it.

I think the coolest thing about the whole trip was standing on the beach area next to the ship and seeing all the jellyfish that had washed up on the shore. (I have a soft spot in my heart for jellyfish )

I think Pilot and I are going to go to Charleston over his fall break in order to go visit all the ships at Patriot's Point. U.S.S Yorktown is there. That should be fun.


*edit* Fixed the ship name after Gambit pointed it out. *edit*

[XMEN Gambit]

Er, you mean the Yorktown, right?

Wish we'd done the scavenger hunt. The ghost stories (right before taps, of course) were kinda neat, but I'd have enjoyed the hunt more.

[XMENRudeJelly]

Yes, yes, the Yorktown. I had just looked right at it on the website. I guess Old Timers is setting in on me already.