Before we get to that, I need to clean up a loose end that some of you have been asking about.
In the last blogs, I mentioned that we had stored our jetskis and a friend's boat and all of the beach and pool furniture down in a hollowed out spot in the mangrove next to the RV park before we evacuated from Hurricane Irma. I forgot to let you know if they all survived.
Yes, they did all survive with only one casualty. The boat and the jetskis were covered in branches and leaves that blew off of all of the trees that surrounded them. The boat didn't suffer any damage and once Bob and Lynne, its owners, cleaned all of the debris off, they were happy.
The jetskis almost made it. They were also covered with debris.
The only damage was where a branch flew into one of the seats and ripped a big hole before flying away.
I was able to order a factory replacement seat cover from Yamaha and install it myself so everything is nice again.
Before we left the Keys, we winterized the skis and put them in storage at our friend Bruce's boat and lobster yard.
Our first new stop along our route was to visit the National World War II museum in New Orleans.
We spent a whole day walking through the numerous buildings looking at the exhibits.
An interesting exhibit did a very good job of showing just how unprepared the United States was before becoming involved in World War II.
This photo demonstrates the difference in manpower between the United States, Germany and Japan at the beginning of the war.
We also didn't realize how many ships were sunk by the Germans just off our coast in just 7 months in 1942.
One interactive exhibit was really an eye opener. We signed up to go on a combat patrol aboard the USS Tang, the U.S. submarine credited with sinking the most ships during the war.
We were each issued a small I.D. card which represented an actual crewman aboard the submarine.
I was assigned to operate the depth controls, which was the station manned by Fred Sunday on the last patrol of the USS Tang during WW II.
The exhibit was the simulated interior of the submarine with controls and also a large video screen where the ceiling of the submarine would have been so that we could see a periscope view of what was happening on the surface during the final battle that the Tang participated in.
After we entered the simulator, the lights went down to very dim and voices began giving commands over the loud speaker telling the various crew positions what to do. We adjusted the controls to submerge the submarine and Suzie had the assignment to push the button that fired the torpedos.
It was very exciting and scary at the same time as we watched the overhead video and saw ships approaching and then saw our torpedo's track away from our submarine and strike various ships, causing them to sink.
Near the end of the simulation, we only had one torpedo left so the captain was very careful as he lined up for our last shot. He then gave the order to fire and Suzie fired the last torpedo.
This is when it really got real.
Our last torpedo did not run straight and true to the target! It malfunctioned and began to turn.
The turn continued and then, the torpedo hit US and sank us.
Smoke filled the simulator and all the lights dimmed and then went out and it was pitch black in the simulator and was very real. It stayed dark for a long time, long enough for you to really understand what it might feel like to be trapped on the bottom of the ocean with little hope of rescue or survival.
The submarine sank to 180 feet. Then, a Japanese Destroyer started to drop depth charges, which eventually started a fire in the battery compartment of the submarine.
Eventually, the crewmen evacuated to the forward compartment where they were able to open an escape hatch and try to ascend to the surface.
This sinking was the first and only use by actual survivors of a sunken submarine to use the Momsen Lung, a rebreathing device that would allow you to breathe while ascending from the escape hatch.
Of the 87 men on the crew, only 13 were able to escape the submarine and only 9 were recovered by the Japanese ships and later transferred to a POW camp.
This was a real eye opener and just about completed our experience on the Tang.
The lights came on and the simulator was finished and we left the room and went into another room.
There we got to see pictures of all of the crewmen who were on the Tang on it's last mission.
Only the crewman in the lighted photos survived.
We then looked for the crewman that we represented during our simulation and we were both shocked to find that just like that, we would have been dead!!! Very sobering.
This is a list of all of the submarines we lost during WW II and a wall of names of the crewmen lost on those subs.
It was a BIG list!
The Tang was a very sobering experience for both of us and it really demonstrated that in a war, not only did the "bad guys" on the ships that we sank die . . . . . the "good guys" died too.
Maybe this war thing isn't such a good idea!
I guess that isn't a really happy way to end this chapter, but we are trying to remember all of the sacrifices that have been made to get us to where we are today.
More to come soon,
Tom & Suzie
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