This is a "touristy" thing worth doing. The most powerful moments for me...
- In the early 1940's Japan was trying to expand into China. But, I didn't understand why they allied themselves with fascists and anti-semites in WWII. Part of the tour was a great film that helped explain this. The United States stopped selling Japan oil shortly before they attacked us. You can't annex China without burning a lot of oil.
- We detected the first wave of Japanese planes on radar (a new technology then), but we ignored it because we thought that it was a squadron of B2's we were expecting back that day. This was one person's bad call. What a position to be in: balancing the risk of firing on your own planes vs. preventing an attack.
- We managed to get several planes airborne and shot down a handful of Japanese pilots. As our planes came back, our men on the ground were so shaken, they shot all but one of our down. War is confusing.
- We have footage of the USS Arizona being hit by the hull-piercing shell that ignited its forward munitions store. The explosion is insane. It's incredible that anyone made it off that ship at all (very few did).
As you walk in to ticketing area, take time to read the plaques beneath the torpedos. The evolution of torpedo science and submarine-launched ballistic missiles is mind-blowing.
- Did you know that, in the 1960's, we had missiles we could launch from a sub that had a range of 2,800 miles? I wonder what we can do today...
- The earliest torpedos were steam powered (they'd burn fuel, to boil water, that would power a turbine). They were unreliable and missed a lot.
- We developed nuclear torpedos that were so powerful, they were a danger to the sub that fired them. They best strategy for using them was to aim them away from the enemy and only detonate them at their maximum range.
- Another evolutionary leap was the electric torpedo that trailed a wire back to the firing sub so that it could be steered.
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