Translation Required

Finally, summer has returned. Today was mostly clear with the temperature up to 24C.

This morning was routine work on the trailer, time to flush out the black water tank and, as the sun was out and the wind had dropped, I opened up the awning and gave it a wash down.

After lunch we headed back over the causeway towards Corpus Christi and the Aircraft Carrier USS Lexington.

USS Lexington Corpus Christi, Tx

The carrier is anchored in the bay close to the aquarium. Once on board you enter straight onto the hangar deck where there were a couple of WW2 fighter aircraft

Grumman Avenger USS Lexington Corpus Christi, Tx

Most of the hangar deck had been converted into an area for ticket sales, food, gift shop, cinema etc. We went up onto the flight, but it was a little disappointing with life size models of the aircraft that had flown on the carrier, unfortunately they really didn’t look too life like.

One aircraft on the deck was real

F-18 USS Lexington Corpus Christi, Tx

I am sure that the surface of the flight deck was not original either, it was more like a paved road surface and all the steam catapult machinery had been removed.  Visiting the bridge was a bit of a surprise, there was very little electronics there even though the carrier was in operation until 1991. In my mind the bridge hadn’t changed that much since she was launched in 1942.

We headed back down to the hangar deck and went to the Imax theater to watch a film entitled Fighter Pilot which was shot at a large international exercise called Red Flag.

After the movie we toured the living quarters and engine room areas. Unfortunately the whole self guided tour was laid out more as a museum with many glass cabineted exhibits, rather than leaving the boat (ship?) in its original condition. I certainly enjoyed the tour of the USS Alabama last year over this one as we got a much better “feel” for life on board.

Now for the translation, this is the patch of the Landing Signals Officer (LSO), these were pilots who , when not flying, provided assistance from the flight deck to pilots landing on board the carrier. What does the motto mean?

LSO Patch USS Lexington, Corpus Christi, Tx

Back at the campsite it was still a warm and sunny day. The picture below shows that we are a little more crowded here, but also shows the water is not too far away. Our trailer is on the right next to the grey truck

SeaBreeze RV Park, Portland, Tx