US battleships in the Cuban crisis

Naval discussions covering the latter half of the 20th Century.
paul.mercer
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US battleships in the Cuban crisis

Post by paul.mercer »

Gentlemen,
I was watching a program on President Kennedy which featured part of the Cuban crisis and showed the US fleet sailing to intecept the Russian convoy carrying missiles to Cuba. In the film I thought that I caught a glimpse of what looked like an 'Iowa' class battleship sailing with the fleet - was one or more US battleships involved?
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tommy303
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Re: US battleships in the Cuban crisis

Post by tommy303 »

All of the battleships had been mothballed between 1956 and 1959, so would not have been available for service during the missile crisis. However, the heavy cruiser USS Newport News did participate and from some angles she could easily be mistaken for a battleship.

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They stood and Earth's foundations stay;
What God abandoned these defended;
And saved the sum of things for pay.
alecsandros
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Re: US battleships in the Cuban crisis

Post by alecsandros »

Damn, what a name... Newport News... the British had Ajax, Achilles, and so many other cool names... and the Americans came up with Newport News (!)
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tameraire01
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Re: US battleships in the Cuban crisis

Post by tameraire01 »

We always come up with some good names EG: Hood, Battleaxe and Hermes.
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Steve Crandell
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Re: US battleships in the Cuban crisis

Post by Steve Crandell »

alecsandros wrote:Damn, what a name... Newport News... the British had Ajax, Achilles, and so many other cool names... and the Americans came up with Newport News (!)
Yes, they were named after cities. The British did some of that ... Belfast, for example. It's even worse now; they are naming USN ships after politicians.
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