Experiencing our nation through its environments, animals, people and history.

Galatians 5:1

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

USS Barry

No kids camp this week so we were out and about again. Today we went to see the USS Barry. The ship is at the Navy Yard on the Anacostia river just south of the Capital Mall area in DC.




Good picture S!


Where are the Kaler Kids? Can you see them? It's a big ship and those are some small little chilluns!










We enjoyed the self guided tour. It was amazing to see first hand how soldiers would spend months on board the ship. We loved it. We were surprised at how tight the sleeping quarters were. Can you say Claustraphobic?



This is the boardroom where the officers ate and made decisions. It was interesting to learn that the officers had their own cook and food and paid for it from their own pockets.







I was hoping we'd get to see the bridge and almost didn't because the door was stuck. We walked away but I was pretty sure we were supposed to be able to go through there (thanks to the friendly tour signs) so we went back. We gave it the old "Heave Ho". Now there's some good navy talk for you. It opened and the kids had fun pretending to run the ship! Shayna is pointing out the icebergs.
After a hard day of directing the ship the kids took some time to get some grub in the galley!

Some facts about the USS Barry for those of you who are interested in such things. The USS Barry is a Destroyer and was put into use in 1952. It was actually the third ship to be commissioned as the USS Barry. It can do about 30 knots and was one of the first ships to be equipped with air conditioning. It was considered the Cadilac of the Navy Fleet! It was a very valuable asset during the cold war and the Cuban Missle Crisis. It was decommissioned around 1980.

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