Over the weekend, the Cub Scouts held a sleepover on the USS Massachusetts. This fearsome hulk sits in Battleship Cove moored near other fighting ships as part of a naval museum. We actually slept in the crew's bunks with the entire family occupying four in a row lined up above each other. While these were not deluxe accommodations, at least we were dry considering the heavy rain that greeted us and stayed with us all throughout the day.
The boys got in a bit of education about the various ships of the WW II era. They learned a little Morse code and watched a video which had some of the highlights from the ship's heyday. The USS Massachusetts is credited with disabling a Vichy French battleship in the Battle of Casablanca and fired the last naval shots of WW II in Japan. They even brought back a veteran who had served as a gunner and shopkeeper aboard the ship! This feisty young soul was in his 90's (he joined at 19) and shared his enthusiastic spirit.
At some point during his presentation, I began to realize that as we move further into the future there will one day soon be no one left alive who fought in WW II. It's a sobering thought to think that we are nearly as far away from WW II as they were from the American Civil War!
On a lighter note, I have to share one anecdote from a tour of the sick bay. When our tour guide opened the floor for questions, one grandmother asked him when they had women on the ship and where the maternity ward would have been. Puzzled, he asked for clarification. It turns out she had seen a sign on the wall that said "Marines Berthing" and jumped to a conclusion. He wisely moved on to another question.
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