today, i went up to
baton rouge to see some of the sights. mostly t
o see the fletcher class destroyer, USS KIDD (DD-661) according to the lsu grad student guide on board, KIDD is the only us navy ship to be allowed to fly the jolly roger... which flies in the face of what i saw in norfolk and on USS HAWES (FF-53) formerly (FFG-53)... which also is allowed to fly the jolly roger, and
does. and their CO
definitely has it on her car. apart from that, KIDD was pretty interesting. we werent allowed to go into the wardroom, bridge, or engine rooms. but, it was pretty neat. 5X 5 inch guns and depth charges and torpedo tubes... the top of destroyer technology for 1943. what i thought was kinda interesting was that the o
fficer's staterooms seemed just as spacious as ours aboard NEW YORK or PONCE. granted, they had fewer officers on board. but, Lieutenant Junior Grades and Ensigns were in 2 and 3 man state rooms. Pictured is a 2 man stateroom. in addition to the destroyer we went and saw the old and new state houses. the old one is a gothic revival style thing that the yankees burned to the ground when they captured baton rouge during the war. the second one is more of a modernist stlye. Another part of the crazy legacy of Gov. Huey P. Long. it was finished in 1932 and is the tallest capitol building in the us... at 27 stories tall. its cool because its not a traditional capitol building modeled on the classical revival style, but something completely different. apparently, they copied it from the nebraska state house that was being built concurrently.
baton rouge to see some of the sights. mostly t
o see the fletcher class destroyer, USS KIDD (DD-661) according to the lsu grad student guide on board, KIDD is the only us navy ship to be allowed to fly the jolly roger... which flies in the face of what i saw in norfolk and on USS HAWES (FF-53) formerly (FFG-53)... which also is allowed to fly the jolly roger, and 
does. and their CO 
definitely has it on her car. apart from that, KIDD was pretty interesting. we werent allowed to go into the wardroom, bridge, or engine rooms. but, it was pretty neat. 5X 5 inch guns and depth charges and torpedo tubes... the top of destroyer technology for 1943. what i thought was kinda interesting was that the o
fficer's staterooms seemed just as spacious as ours aboard NEW YORK or PONCE. granted, they had fewer officers on board. but, Lieutenant Junior Grades and Ensigns were in 2 and 3 man state rooms. Pictured is a 2 man stateroom. in addition to the destroyer we went and saw the old and new state houses. the old one is a gothic revival style thing that the yankees burned to the ground when they captured baton rouge during the war. the second one is more of a modernist stlye. Another part of the crazy legacy of Gov. Huey P. Long. it was finished in 1932 and is the tallest capitol building in the us... at 27 stories tall. its cool because its not a traditional capitol building modeled on the classical revival style, but something completely different. apparently, they copied it from the nebraska state house that was being built concurrently.
