Houston / LaPorte, Texas - August 2007

Battleship Texas - LaPorte, Texas

This entry borders on "cheating" if the intent is to rely on my personal photos for the Blog. However, I was attacked by a major "tooth issue" the evening I'd planned to get to LaPorte for photos, so I am resorting to the web site. I want to document this trip for a few reasons. One, I really have been to the Battleship Texas, so it "counts", but mainly, I want to reserve this posting to enter a scanned photo of my dad and his shipmates when he was stationed aboard the Texas in the 1930s. My grandmother had lied about his age so he could get in the Navy, and he was only 17 years old when he reported on board the Texas. Dad died in 1988 at the age of 71.

History

The Battleship TEXAS is the last dreadnought in existence in the world, a veteran of Vera Cruz (1914) and both World Wars, and is credited with the introduction and innovation of advances in gunnery, aviation and radar. Having been designed in the first decade of the 20th century, (keel laid in 1911 and completed in 1914), and having seen action in some of the most intense and critical campaigns of WWII, she is an important piece of our naval and maritime history. http://www.usstexasbb35.com/introduction.htm

As a placeholder until I can get the Texas photo scanned, here is my dad, Earl Day, and I in 1987.