by "Jcarr" (jcarr)
Published 06/01/2017 at 10:48
by "Jcarr" (jcarr)
Published 06/01/2017 at 10:48
Tags: Planelopnik
STARS: 16
The Navy operated 2 paddle-wheel aircraft carriers on Lake Michigan for training during WWII. Some images and videos below.
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"Takuro Spirit" (takurospirit)
06/01/2017 at 10:52, STARS: 1
I recently read about them, one of the vintage local Facebook pages I follow posted a picture of one in the Milwaukee harbor and I had to look them up.
"Shane MacGowan's Teeth" (shaneteeth)
06/01/2017 at 10:53, STARS: 7
Wouldn’t you love to be the navy guy chosen to captain one of these?
“Well Bob, you’ve done some great work over your career, and it’s finally paying off. They’re giving you an aircraft carrier!”*snicker*
"leicester" (leicester)
06/01/2017 at 10:58, STARS: 6
That should put those pesky Canadians on notice...
"Kiltedpadre" (kiltedpadre)
06/01/2017 at 11:20, STARS: 1
I had read about these in a couple of books, but they were written from the pilot’s perspective so I never knew they were paddle-wheelers. I think they left out the coolest aspect of the ships now that I know.
"Berang" (berang)
06/01/2017 at 11:21, STARS: 1
I posted a photo here of one of them a while back, but I had never seen the film footage before. Pretty crazy story.
"facw" (facw)
06/01/2017 at 11:30, STARS: 2
That’s cool, I had never seen those. Pretty safe from U-boats (even U-505 wasn’t around until after the war).
I’m always a bit amused by big warships on the Great Lakes. Here’s the heavy cruiser USS Macon transiting the Seaway:
And in Cleveland:
And of course the Freedom Class LCS is built in Wisconsin and must pass through to get to the ocean:
"Jcarr" (jcarr)
06/01/2017 at 11:34, STARS: 2
There is something neat about seeing big ships that far away from the ocean.
"Future next gen S2000 owner" (future-next-gen-s2000-owner)
06/01/2017 at 12:25, STARS: 2
When you are on the great lakes, they look like oceans.
"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn)
06/01/2017 at 12:39, STARS: 1
That was cool. I had no idea. Thanks for posting! I remember seeing an other documentary about using inflatable bags to recover an aircraft from under the surface of the water.
"You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much" (youcantellafinn)
06/01/2017 at 15:51, STARS: 1
Neat, I never knew that there were aircraft carriers on Lake Michigan. Suddenly the Navy Pier in Chicago makes a lot more sense to me.
I’ve flown through O’Hare a few times and wondered about its connection with the Navy. I always just assumed that Edward O’Hare was from Chicago, but it doesn’t appear that he had any particular connection there. It turns out that the Wildcat they have on display does have a connection to the Wolverine though.
The airport displays a Grumman F4F-3 [1] [2] museum aircraft replicating the one flown by Butch O’Hare during his Medal of Honor flight. The Grumman F4F-3 Wildcat on display was recovered virtually intact from the bottom of Lake Michigan, where it sank after a training accident in 1943 when it went off the training aircraft carrier USS Wolverine (IX-64) . In 2001, the Air Classics Museum remodeled the aircraft to replicate the F4F-3 Wildcat that O’Hare flew on his Medal of Honor flight. [3] The restored Wildcat is exhibited in the west end of Terminal 2 behind the security checkpoint to honor O’Hare International Airport’s namesake.