CVA-43 U.S.S. Coral Sea

[dyna76]

This was the ship my grandfather served on during the early to mid 1950's. If I remember correctly, he was on it during the Korean war also. He has passed away now, but I was told he was a gunner on this ship.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPjAcrDukPM&eurl=http://www.usscoralsea.net/pages/video.html&feature=player_embedded

[Shamus]

My Father in law was on that ship during the same time, also a gunner, wonder if they knew each other?

shamus

[FiLtH]

   I think a DNA test is in order...perhaps..you are brothers.

[OOZ662]

Wouldn't that be odd?

[dyna76]

Thats awesome Shamus..............his name was Melvin C. Lewis but they called him "baldy". He had a burn on his arm from battle on the ship from the ship coming under fire.

[Rich46yo]

I couldnt get the video to play. In case they didnt include the heritage behind the ship heres the story behind her naming.http://www.usscoralsea.org/pages/botcs.php That was one heckuva ship your Grandpap served on. Heres a photo of her crew bringing her back for the last time.

[crazyivan]

  Dyna

[dyna76]

 ........Thank you Rich. I really wish I knew more about his life aboard this ship but he has been gone for many years now and I never got a chance to talk to him about it because he was very ill during the later parts of his life living in a Veterans home due to his illness. I am currently seeking all information about him and the ship from scanning the internet and getting pictures that were his from aunts and uncles. I want to put somekind of scrapbook together to show my children what their grandfather did. I do have a picture of him taken while he was standing on the flight deck with some Corsairs in the background.

[TOMCAT21]

 

[DiabloTX]

I went aboard her in the late 80's with our ship's PH.  He needed some supplies and me being an SK he took me along.  I remember that ship just feeling OLD...They didn't have what we needed so we went to the Theo. Roosevelt and the differences were stark.  Their darkroom was bigger and any single compartment we had on our ship.  I also remember NAVSEA having a hell of a time trying to get the Coral Sea to float level.  The flight deck was always cockeyed to port, as in the photo above.

[Obie303]

My father was on the Coral Sea in 68-69.  He was one of the many meteorologist on board.  There are some great web sites: http://www.usscoralsea.net/  And this one: http://www.usscoralsea.org/  (The first one is better.)

Some of my favorite stories that my father told me I thought were "sea stories".  They actually turned out to be true.  Here's one that he told me;

Our skipper during the 68-69 cruise was Captain James Ferris, an absolutely top notch CO. One day while launching and recovering aircraft in the Tonkin Gulf he did something totally not in the book. Flight operations in the Gulf consisted of going in circles, turn into the wind, launch aircraft, etc. In between launch and recovery a friend of mine on garbage duty came walking down the hanger deck, soaked and covered with garbage. He was using the garbage chute on the fantail when water came up the chute. We were backing up! Shortly after Captain Ferris announced that we weren' t crazy we were backing up. He said he was tried of going in circles. We only backed up once but that was enough.

The Lighthouse Joke - Here is a joke that has been going around for years. It usually involves the USS Coral Sea as the US ship. The Navy absolutely denies it ever happened

Believe it or not...this is the transcript of an actual radio conversation between a US naval ship and Canadian authorities off the coast of Newfoundland. The Radio conversation was released by the Chief of Naval Operations on Oct. 10, 1995.

USS Coral Sea: Please divert your course 0.5 degrees to the south to avoid a collision.

Canadian reply: Recommend you divert your course 15 degrees to the South to avoid a collision.

USS Coral Sea: This is the Captain of a US Navy Ship. I say again, divert your course.

Canadian reply: No. I say again, you divert YOUR course!

USS Coral Sea: THIS IS THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER USS CORAL SEA, WE ARE A LARGE WARSHIP OF THE US NAVY. DIVERT YOUR COURSE NOW!!

Canadian reply: This is a lighthouse. Your call.

And last but not least, The Coral Sea is famous too:

Trivia - USS Coral Sea in the Movies.

- The Right Stuff
- Yours, Mine and Ours
- Major League II - After she was decommissioned, the Coral Sea had one last moment of fame. Some scenes at the end of the film were filmed at the scrap yard in Baltimore with an appearance by Jesse "The Governor" Ventura next to the Coral Sea.
- This is Spinal Tap. The Rob Reiner character wears a USS Coral Sea CV-43 cap throughout.
- The movie "Navy Seals" had some shots of the old girl.

Enjoy,
Obie