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Legendary WWII battleship Alabama anchors Mobile’s military memorial park

Shea McLean, Curator at the Battleship Alabama Memorial Park
Credit Thomas Wilmer
Shea McLean, Curator at the Battleship Alabama Memorial Park

The USS Alabama (commissioned August 16, 1942) served in the North Atlantic in 1943 and subsequently the South Pacific. With a crew of 2,500 the USS Alabama led the American Fleet in to Tokyo Bay for the formal Japanese surrender at the conclusion of WWII September 5th 1945. 

The Alabama was slated to be scrapped by the early 1960's but was saved and became the anchor attraction at the Veterans Memorial Park in Mobile, Alabama (opened to the public January 1965). 

Today the park is commonly known as the USS Alabama Memorial Park.

The park also includes an Aircraft pavilion with an array of more than 28 War Birds, including a P-51 Mustang, B-25 Mitchell bomber, C-47 (DC3) Sky Train, F-4 Phantom, Russian Mig-17, and a Marine One presidential helicopter. The park also includes tanks and artillery displays, and the WWII submarine USS Drum.

@USSALABAMABattleshipMemorialPark

Credit USS Alabama Memorial Park
USS Alabama Memorial Park logo
Journeys of Discovery with Tom Wilmer NPR One, Apple Podcast album art
Journeys of Discovery with Tom Wilmer NPR One, Apple Podcast album art

You are invited to subscribe to the Lowell Thomas award-winning NPR Podcast travel show Journeys of Discovery with Tom Wilmer via: 

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Culture Editor @360magazine

Journeys of Discovery with Tom Wilmer winner of the Lowell Thomas Award 2017, 2016, 2015, 2013
Credit SATW Foundation
Journeys of Discovery with Tom Wilmer winner of the Lowell Thomas Award 2017, 2016, 2015, 2013

Underwriting support provided by Society of St. Vincent de Paul
Credit Society of Saint Vincent de Paul
Underwriting support provided by Society of St. Vincent de Paul

Tom Wilmer produces on-air content for Issues & Ideas airing over KCBX and is producer and host of the six-time Lowell Thomas award-winning NPR podcast Journeys of Discovery with Tom Wilmer. Recorded live on-location across America and around the world, the podcasts feature the arts, culture, music, nature, history, science, wine & spirits, brewpubs, and the culinary arts--everything from baseball to exploring South Pacific atolls to interviewing the real Santa Claus in the Arctic.
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