Just several miles off the coast of Hatteras, the USS Monitor foundered and sank taking all hands with her. The wreck has been salvaged and here you see a replica of the ironclad as she looked when in service.
There are two other great displays at the museum. First is a dedicaiton to Army Air Corps Gen. Billy Mitchell who conducted bombing tests just off the coast here to prove the superiority of air power over naval power with the use of pinpoint strategic bombing. Gen. Mitchell also reportedly devised the ideas for the B-17 Flying Fortress, the B-25, which bears his name, and smart bombs. He also supposedly filed a report detailing the attack on Pearl Harbor, correctly predicting the country, arms, targets, AND THE DATE that the attack would occur, all years before 1941! The curator said his prediction even stated the time of day the attack would begin-however he was wrong on the time-HE MISSED IT BY TWENTY MINUTES.
The museum also has, submerged in saltwater, an Enigma machine and a transcription machine which were salvaged from the German UH-58, sunk by the USS Roper off near here. The Enigma was the coding machine used by the Germans and the codes were considered unbreakable until some of the machines were captured.
1 comment:
That Mitchell! He probably got mad that he missed it by 20 minutes!
Looks like you are having fun... but did you get more children??? There seems to be a lot more in the picture than the 5 I knew you to have. :)
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