Markers of History

Colonial Parkway mark­ers
Naval Weapons Station

Location: Colonial National Historic Pkwy, Yorktown, VA 23691

Visited: July 4, 2009, 11:55am

Transcription of marker: The piers extend­ing into the York River, just to the right, serve a major Navy instal­la­tion. Since its estab­lish­ment in 1918, then as a Mine Depot, it has served our coun­try in two World Wars and the Korean con­flict as well as in peace time.

My impres­sions: Not a whole lot to say about this, but it does always sur­prise me when his­toric sites and mark­ers are in close prox­im­ity to mil­i­tary areas. I made a def­i­nite deci­sion to forego any attempt at a photo of the sign and its sub­ject, given that. But that history/military com­bi­na­tion seems to come up a lot for the Colonial NHP. Not only does it hap­pen here along the Colonial Parkway, but also at the Cape Henry Memorial in Virginia Beach.

Cannonball Trail
Armed Forces Memorial

Location: West end of Town Point Park beside Elizabeth River, Norfolk, VA 23510

Visited: July 3, 2009, 2:25pm

Transcription of marker:

The Armed Forces Memorial is located here on a river that has for more than 200 years car­ried ser­vice­men off to war and returned them home to loved ones. Within the Memorial are 20 inscrip­tions from let­ters writ­ten home by U.S. ser­vice mem­bers who lost their lives in war. The let­ters have been cast in thin sheets of bronze and are scat­tered across the Memorial as if blown there by the wind. From the Revolutionary War through the Gulf War each con­flict is represented.

Revolutionary War 1775 – 1783 • War of 1812 1812 – 1815 • Civil War 1861 – 1865 • World War I 1917 – 1918
World War II 1941 – 1945 • Korean War 1950 – 1953 • Vietnam 1962 – 1975 • Gulf War 1990 – 1991

Caution: The Memorial con­tains bronze let­ters pro­trud­ing from the walk. Please watch your step and show appro­pri­ate respect. Adults should accom­pany chil­dren, and no pets please.

Examples of bronze letters

My impres­sions: This is quite the unique mon­u­ment and it is very touch­ing. There is some­thing about let­ters between peo­ple who know each other. And I’m not sure it has trans­lated as well into the e-mail and instant mes­sag­ing age. Reading these let­ters feels quite inti­mate, and that we are get­ting to hear from these peo­ple as they really were.

I also have to admit to some sur­prise that the Memorial, with its curls of bronze “paper” on the ground was ever approved. It seems that so eas­ily some­body could trip and fall (though I believe there is ample space around them for wheelchair/walker access). I won­der if the fact that it’s sur­rounded by water on two sides (and there­fore is not a “con­ve­nient short-cut” to any­where, as well as only hav­ing two entrances in the brick wall that sur­rounds the memo­r­ial helped.

I am glad that it is there, because I think it ful­fills excel­lently its func­tion of help­ing us to remem­ber the sac­ri­fices made by those who have served and those who were left behind by fam­ily mem­bers who served their coun­try (and those who could not return).

Markeroni sta­tus: Direct-logged.

Cannonball Trail
Battleship Wisconsin: A Floating Fortress

Location: Foot of Plume St, Norfolk, VA 23510

Visited: July 3, 2009, 2:20pm

Transcription of marker:

Battleship Wisconsin and the sister-ships of the Iowa Class arguably hold a sym­bolic sta­tus as mon­u­ments in naval sur­face war­ship design. Unlike tor­pedo boats, tin-can destroy­ers, flat-top air­craft car­ri­ers, and pig-boat sub­marines, the teak decks and tow­er­ing masts of Wisconsin have per­ceiv­able design con­nec­tions to a bygone era of romance, glory, and naval lore. In the great Nelsonian line-of-battle tra­di­tion, the Wisconsin sil­hou­ette fea­tures vis­i­ble ele­ments of armored big-gun fire­power and ele­gant lines.

Formally placed into U.S. Navy com­mis­sion on 16 April 1944, the blue­jack­ets and offi­cers of Wisconsin shared a com­mon and unique bond as bat­tle­ship sailors-serving aboard a ves­sel that was dis­tinc­tively impor­tant to the fleet. Following cen­turies of naval tra­di­tion and sur­face war­ship devel­op­ment, Wisconsin is for­mi­da­bly armed with a main bat­tery of three 16″/50 gun tur­rets and a sec­ondary bat­tery of five duo-purpose 5″/38 gun mounts. Accommodating var­i­ous types of air­craft, the decks of the Wisconsin once bris­tled with numer­ous anti­air­craft gun mounts in World War II, the Korean War, and through­out the Cold War. During the Persian Gulf War, the Wisconsin crew coor­di­nated the first Tomahawk mis­sile strikes against Iraq using con­tem­po­rary com­mu­ni­ca­tions and intel­li­gence gath­er­ing equipment.

My impres­sions: This marker does a good job of plac­ing the Wisconsin in con­text for peo­ple, like me, who don’t know all that much about war­ships and their his­tory or design. That said, I won­der if this is “too much of a good thing,” hav­ing three mark­ers of the same series beside the USS Wisconsin. I guess it helps keep one walk­ing along the Cannonball Trail, but three mark­ers so close to each other on one ship…some of this felt rep­e­ti­tious after the marker I posted last night…and we still haven’t got­ten to the third marker; that will come later tonight.

Markeroni sta­tus: Direct-logged.

This is the first of three mark­ers related to the Battleship Wisconsin all found along­side the ship beside Nauticus on the Norfolk water­front. The remain­ing two Wisconsin mark­ers will appear on the blog tomorrow.

Cannonball Trail
Battleship Wisconsin: BB-9 and BB-64 in the Homeport of Naval History

Location: Alongside the USS Wisconsin, at the foot of Plume St, next to Nauticus, Norfolk, VA 23510

Visited: July 3, 2009, 2:15pm

Transcription of marker:

Battleships bear­ing the name Wisconsin have graced the waters off Norfolk and Hampton Roads since the begin­ning of the twen­ti­eth cen­tury. Ornately designed to show-off the “Stars and Stripes” of the United States, the first bat­tle­ship Wisconsin (BB-9) was com­mis­sioned in 1901. John Philip Souza and the United States Marine Corps Band once per­formed patri­otic marches from the wooden decks of the first Wisconsin. In 1906, President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt trav­eled to Norfolk with many other Americans to bid farewell to the first Wisconsin sail­ing on a two year voy­age around the world with the famed “Great White Fleet.” Serving pri­mar­ily as a Midshipman train­ing ship dur­ing World War I, the first Wisconsin was scrapped in 1922.

During World War II, the sec­ond bat­tle­ship Wisconsin (BB-64) was com­mis­sioned under the com­mand of U.S. Navy Captain Earl E. Stone. Born in the “Badger State” of Wisconsin, Stone ear­lier served as a Naval Academy Midshipman aboard the first bat­tle­ship Wisconsin (BB-9). Surviving the Imperial Japanese strikes at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, Stone had a key role in orga­niz­ing the war-winning com­mu­ni­ca­tions intel­li­gence efforts of the U.S. Navy. For a job well done, he received the highly cov­eted appoint­ment to com­mand the sec­ond bat­tle­ship Wisconsin (BB-64) in the spring 1944.

Sailing into the embat­tled waters of the Pacific, the crew of the sec­ond bat­tle­ship Wisconsin earned five bat­tle stars dur­ing World War II. Home-ported at Pier 7 on Norfolk Naval Base, the sec­ond Wisconsin earned another bat­tle star in the Korean War and, sim­i­lar to the first Wisconsin (BB-9), served pri­mar­ily as a Midshipman train­ing ship dur­ing the Cold War. During the Persian Gulf War, the crew of Wisconsin (BB-64) coor­di­nated the first Tomahawk mis­sile strikes against Iraq.

My impres­sions: One of my first trips around the area after I moved down here was to go to see USS Wisconsin. It is cer­tainly an impres­sive sight to walk down the street and all of a sud­den see it once you’ve walked through the gates in front of it. And it is inter­est­ing how they wove together the his­tory of the two Wisconsins on this marker (though the repeated spec­i­fi­ca­tions of BB-9 and BB-64 through the text grew tire­some, espe­cially since the descrip­tions of first or sec­ond Wisconsin were quite clear already).

Markeroni sta­tus: Direct-logged.

Markers of History is going to take a hol­i­day week­end off from post­ing, but I didn’t want to leave you high and dry, so we’ll close today with a bumper load of his­tor­i­cal markers.

Path of History
Fort Nelson Park

Location: Fort Nelson Park, cor­ner of Crawford Pkwy & Effingham St, Portsmouth, VA 23704.

Visited: June 23, 2009, 1:55pm

On my last trip to Portsmouth, I came across Fort Nelson Park which con­tained roughly a dozen Path of History mark­ers about Portsmouth Naval Hospital. I’m cross­ing my fin­gers, hop­ing that I man­aged to get all of them. (I’ll have to double-check next time I’m in Portsmouth.)

Given the large num­ber of images and mark­ers included in this post, I will spare the front page of this site and ask you to click the link to see the mark­ers and their texts, but I’ll break with my tra­di­tional order and open this post with:

My impres­sions: I was impressed with the pleas­ant set­ting for these mark­ers. That said, I was dis­ap­pointed (on a hot June day) not to find more shade. Thinking back, I’m won­der­ing what may have stood on that site before the park, which only opened three years ago.

Related to this: See Monday’s post for a state his­tor­i­cal marker about Fort Nelson.

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