USS Alabama - The Mighty A, Last of The South Dakota-class 

I went onboard the USS Alabama many years ago when I saw a small boy. Seeing this huge ship and all those John Wayne movies led me to join the navy at 17, retiring at 37 in 1999. It was a true honor ❤️

My father sailed in company with the Alabama aboard the South Dakota as a Royal Navy communications link with our Home Fleet when both acted as Arctic distant convoy protection against Tirpitz for convoys to and from Russia. 👍🏻🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿✌️🇺🇸

I visited the Alabama last year, fulfilling a promise my father made back in 1965. Back in '65 we were travelling over Mobile Bay on the I-10 bridge and Dad pointed out a warship in the distance. "That's the Battleship Alabama and one day we're going to visit her." I could only spend one day in Mobile and there is so much more to see now than there was in '65. Funny how such a big ship has so many tiny spaces. Some areas are not open to the public for reasons of safety. There were crew access hatches that are very difficult for us visitors to squeeze our fat old bodies through. Part of the wartime equipment included a training device to teach crews to load the 5"/38 cal dual purpose guns (anti-aircraft and secondary surface battery--also used for star shells to light up the night). Even though Alabama's service life was about four years (Jan 1943 to decommissioning in 1947) I believe America got her ,money's worth. I need to spread out my battleship reference books to compare the various American battleships that saw service in World War Two, and then I have the paper performance statistics--the real-world performance achieved was not always as specified.

I toured her just last year. There is a plethora of .50cal and 20mm guns all over that ship. More than what the drawing above is showing. Her teak decking is in the process of finally being replaced after all these years. They close and open various parts of the ship over time for maintenance. My last two visits, the bridge has been closed as well as the combat bridge which was open 3 years ago. I did get to make it down to the engine room this past trip which has been off limits for a while. If you go to tour her, get there when it opens and then do the self guided tour in reverse. You will be rewarded with having the lower decks all to yourself for a couple of hours. It is a real nice experience and I highly recommend the visit.

Roll Tide!!! Cleveland Indians great Bob Feller, served as a Gunnery Officer onboard the Alabama. I checked & it was still marked. During Hurricanes that strike the Mobile area, it serves as a makeshift shelter. The USS Drum is also there along w/many other aircraft & vehicle exhibits.

Alabama with her Marine Battalion barracks in her bow was truly an AUSSAULT BATTLE SHIP!

The Lucky A and her sisters are good ships! And it's heartwarming to know the citizens of her namesake state successfully preserved her to this day.

I served in The Living History Crew aboard Alabama for 3 yrs. She is a beautiful ship and is in great shape. They are in the process of restoring her a few compartments at a time and I believe they have replaced her decking. Life has just gotten in the way but I plan to return to the crew when I retire.

I have visited the Missouri, The North Carolina and the Texas. We were going to go to see Alabama in 2019 but COVID intervened. Still have plans to go sometime in the near future though.

Nobody talks about Tirpitz vs Alabama as a theoretical fight and I really hope you do!

Pleasant video of an outstanding battleship. I have visited Alabama several times, even slept on it in 1990 as a boy scout one weekend while they were filming Mission of the Shark which was a made for TV movie about the USS Indianapolis sinking and the crew's survival waiting for rescue. One rainy night during that weekend, me and two others snuck away and went exploring all over the Alabama and there were many times we could have fallen to our deaths but that was the last thing on our minds while we explored as much as we could of that amazing vessel though we did get lost a couple of times and there was a looming fear of getting trapped within one of the rooms/spaces. Have not been out to see it since 2003 and a revisit is long overdue. I highly recommend visiting USS Alabama.

As a navy vet I served onboard a Perry Class frigae, I've been there to see the USS Alabama, that ole girl is impressive.

I pass her every week, for years now, and she still awes me everytime! My fav Biggun Battlewagon!

A mighty ship for a mighty State!

In that one Steven Seagal movie. She was a stand in for Mighty Mo.

Just toured her in November. Wow

Imagine the Mighty A with the other battleships blocking San Bernardino Straight during the 1944 invasion of the Phillipines.

I live in Alabama and I am a huge fan i think you should do one on the HMS Hermes

You didn't mention that USS Alabama appeared in at least one movie. During the filming of Steven Segal's "Under Seige" the crew used Alabama as a stand-in for the USS Missouri during some interiors, etc.

I went to mobile Alabama on vacation and went to see her!

A few years ago now, I took the opportunity to stop and tour the ship. It is easily the most impressive warship I've been on. I've toured the Texas a few times, but the compact & powerful South Dakota class battleships give a real sense of efficient power. Awe inspiring. So balanced. Definitely worth a visit.

It's not that ships without big, flashy moments don't deserve being preserved. It's that ships with big, flashy moments that would have absolutely deserved to be turned into a museum, were scrapped because of reasons.

My favorite ship. Been on her many times. Even got to spend the night on her growing up in cub scouts

I was one of the children , I donated 25 cents and received a one time pass to go on the Alabama ,which I used two years later . Wish now I had the pass .

I have watched several of your other videos and found them quite interesting. Yet I feel you missed the mark here. Because the Alabama was never struck by a shell or bomb nor sank another ship does that minimize the efforts of the men who served? Going into harms way being prepared to give the ultimate sacrifice deserves the same amount of reverence .

SoDak was a very effective shell magnet and diversion while Lee was getting his ship into position to drop unholy death onto Kirishima. Every bad thing that could have happened to SoDak aside from collecting a full salvo of long lances and becoming a permanent submarine happened.

We have her sister ship Massachusetts here on display.

i visited Lucky A as a child in the mid 90s while on our annual summer road trip with my mother and father. i remember staring up at this absolute titan slack jawed and saying "dad, that boat is as big as Godzilla!" id like to go back and see the old iron lass again one day.

Been aboard her several times, most recently about 20 years ago. My parents were Mobile natives, so we'd visit the area frequently. The great Bob Feller served aboard her during the war.

I had the honor to tour the USS Alabama battleship!

I’d love a video on what was removed from the museum battleships in the 1980s. I am frequently on BB55 and cannot think of anything significant missing on the tour routes - though I might not notice if small things were. I have heard that North Carolina contributed from the massive stock of stores and spares aboard her - some of which still remain. And while I’ve been in two of the machinery rooms (the one on the main tour and the one on a special tour), I’ve no idea what the other two machinery spaces are like. 1 of 3 magazines are open. 2 out of 3 turrets are open and look pretty intact. Again, it might be little things. I wonder if Massachusetts and Alabama had more stripped off because the SoDak design and equipment were closer to the Iowas than NC?

There was 4 South Dakota class, South Dakota, Indiana, Massachusetts, and Alabama. The North Carolina had 2: North Carolina and Washington

Can you do a in depth look at the CL-83 USS MANCHESTER and her service in Korea? A dear friend of mine sailed on Her then...

She is the only American military ship recognized by the Kremlin in Russia as a major contribution to supplying Russia by protecting arctic convoys. Bama sailors were actually awarded medals by Russia, for the USS Alabama

Please do a video on USS Massachusetts

I've inky been to the Alabama twice, and there is still half of the entire ship I haven't seen yet

I’ve been on the ship twice. It’s sad that the employees have the ship restricted to where ur able to go to see the magazines for the powder. I’ve been to the bottom of turret 1 but not inside the magazine

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-vODy6k0oJzQ.html TARGETS: Fleet Oilers: USS Patoka (AO-9) USS Sapelo (AO-11) USS Kaweah (AO-15) USS Laramie (AO-16) USS Mattole (AO-17) USS Rapidan (AO-18) USS Salinas (AO-19) USS Salamonie (AO-26) USS Chemung (AO-30) USS Cimarron (AO-22) USS Guadalupe (AO-32) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_Squadron

'Don't hate me because I'm beautiful'; born w/ Buck Rogers ammo, she was a 28 - knot no-fly zone. Feel sorry 4 poor Japanese trains tossed by 16" shellfire

Did the Massachussets absorb all the Good Luck for the SODAKs?

My dad served on the Alabama and later was on the lsts during dday

Sounds like she is a hurricane magnet.

I still have my card to get in. We raise penny for her.

needed her guns for D Day they didn't use enough to support the troop landings

Last of the South Dakotas? What about USS Massachusetts tied up in Falls River?

Yeah ... North Carolina and Alabama are not known for their wealth ... but ... their citizens came up with the money to buy _their_ ships. Unlike - Washington. It's somewhat understandable that South Dakota didn't buy their ship and then dredge a channel up the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Then you have New York City - not coming up with the money to buy _Enterprise_ ... Says something about the people in those States. Oh ... and when I was in 4th Grade - I was one of the North Carolina School Children dropping my dimes in a can to buy _OUR_ ship. .

I wish it was repainted in her camo, i live 10 min away from it.... they just repainted the hull..... in..... gray.

This ship will suffer the same fate as USS Texas unless it's taken out of the water

PLEASE STOP calling Ozawa's force a decoy force.....he had orders to run off TF 38..part of that could be done by striking the fleet oilers servicing TF 38. Direct attacks on tf 38 were not required, BUT would be accepted. ServRon 10 generally operated east of the fleet.

Roll Tide !

Bring them back,all 7 battleships and let's kick ass

Alabama played as USS Indianapolis in both version 1991 mission of the sharks is good film I highly recommend to watch and horrible 2016 crappy nic cage film men of courage by far the worst film ever made

They were obsolete when built. Just a waste of $$$. See how long they were in service? Not long. Like the Abrams tank,they are not usable in modern warfare. Vested interests kept these programs going when common sense said it was just a waste. Huge carriers are likewise obsolete.

To be fair to Alabama, SoDak did Jack shit during Second Guadalcanal (and her performance during Santa Cruz is also hilariously overinflated in pop culture history), and even Massachusetts’s combat record at Casablanca isn’t that impressive given the incomplete state of her target plus Ranger’s oft-ignored involvement. As you mentioned, WWII battleships in general failed to actually do their jobs, but I have to disagree with the idea that we shouldn’t judge these ships for not having any significant achievements in combat-after all, those achievements were literally the reason these things even existed in the first place, and at the strategic level building a battleship (due to the massive investment involved) is only justifiable if it can be used as a capital ship instead of being only useful for second-line supporting roles. So the fact most of them never actually engaged enemy capital ships is very much indicative of just how much of a net strategic negative these new battleships ended up being for their own fleets.

I'm happy about this documentary, I was always interested in the south Dakota class.