Philadelphia Bound
Long past when she was due, the Battleship New Jersey (BB62) gracefully left the Camden pier where she draws thousands of visitors to view history last week. Under tow, she headed to the Philadelphia Shipyard for renovations, rehabilitation and a return to her decades old beauty to continue as a museum back at the Camden dock in a few months.
The nation’s most decorated Navy vessel will arrive at the Philadelphia Navy Yards where she was built in 1941 to undergo the hull work that ensures her longevity; she will return as a site for history, overnight visits, tours, seminars, lectures and more in the spring.
After leaving the Camden pier, the ship went under the Walt Whitman Brider and is staying at the Paulsboro Marine Terminal in Paulsboro, across the Delaware River from the shipyard’s Dock 3 until Wednesday, when she will complete the last several hours of her trip to the berth where she was built.
For this writer, to be present for the battleship’s first move in 25 years was especially poignant and memorable. I was aboard her in Panama when she came from the Washington State shipyards where she had been in mothballs and traveled through the Panama Canal to arrive in Camden to begin her new life as a museum.
As a guest in 1999 of the late Senator Joseph Azzolina, a Highlands native who was primarily responsible for having the highly decorated ship come back to New Jersey, it was a thrill to travel with the last Senator and late Senator S. Thomas Gagliano and Governor Christine Whitman among numerous other state leaders and Naval officers at that time for the historic event. To be the guest of the late Azzolina’s son, Joe, who is a member of the Battleship New Jersey Commission, to see her move once again was another opportunity to appreciate the dedication the Azzolina family has given not only to American history but to naval history and pride as well.
Governor Phil Murphy was present for the gala Dry Docking ceremonies in Camden last week, along with Congressman Donald Norcross, Camden Mayor Victor Carstarphen, Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, Camden County Commissioner Director Louis Cappelli, Jr., and hundreds more residents, veterans, active duty personnel and historians to cheer as the bow and stern American flags were lowered, and the large American flag raised at the center of the ship in Naval tradition marking the ship was seabound, albeit by tow. Norcross acknowledged that Azzolina had played a role in securing the ship back to New Jersey but failed to acknowledge how long and hard the late Senator, businessman and newspaper owner had worked to have it accomplished. Capt. Azzolina had served aboard the New Jersey as well.
The ceremony included a welcome from the Battleship NJ CEO Marshall Spevak, and the pledge of allegiance led by Maser Chief Winfred Keith Cameron, USN. Master Chief Winfred is chief of the boat, the USS New Jersey (SSN796) the nation’s newest sub scheduled to be commissioned at NWS Earle in Leonardo in September. The crew from the submarine has visited and toured the battleship of the same name as well as having made several trips to other sites in New Jersey. When the submarine crew made its first visit, it was to Monmouth County where they were hosted by the NJROTC Cadets at MAST, the Marine Academy of Science and Technology at Fort Hancock.
Lieutenant Commander Chaplain James Johnson offered an invocation, before Mayor Carstarphen read a letter of congratulations and best wishes from President Biden. Rear Admiral Thomas J. Anderson USN also spoke, likening in good humor the many ways the naval ship, always referred to as female, has the spunk and spirit of every New Jersey woman. Even, he laughed, to the point that like New Jersey women, “she doesn’t even pump her own gas.”
Admiral Anderson and 98-year-old World War II Navy veteran Johnny Quin Esso, Sr., cast a POW Veteran wreath during the ceremony and the New Jersey State Police saluted the ship with a helicopter pass striking in the blue sky and chilling winds. Ken Kersch, a Vietnam combat veteran from the ship, led the gun salute presentation.
The battleship is nearly 900 feet in length, the length of three football fields, with a beam of 108 feet, 3 inches. Her complement as a naval vessel is 1,921 officers and men and the ship and its crews have earned 19 battle stars during her extensive career which began with World War II. She was launched Dec. 7, 1942, the first anniversary of Pearl Harbor, and served in the Korean, Vietnam and Cold Wars in addition to the second world war.
There will be shipyard visits as well for the New Jersey, with interested persons able to purchase tickets to go beneath the ship in drydock. For further information, ticket purchase or donations, visit www.battleshipnewjersey.org
