Alameda’s U.S.S. Hornet Aircraft Carrier Museum Hosts One Of A Kind, Record Event On Veterans Day
This past Veterans Day aboard Alameda’s prized World War II Aircraft Carrier Museum, The U.S.S. Hornet, produced a unique, historic, banner day for the famed vessel, for the combined thousands of dignitaries, visitors and, most importantly, Veterans who ascended the gangplank that day.
The numbers aligned in remarkable ways, to make it an historic day for an historic ship on an historic day.
On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month — numerical marks denoting the symbolic time of the signing of The Armistice that ended World War I—the Hornet celebrated its 80th ‘commissioning’ birthday and 25th Anniversary as a Museum dedicating to preserving the past through living history.
An entourage of dignitaries came aboard to share with nearly 5,000 visitors in the triple celebrations, including U.S. Congress Person Barbara Lee, Alameda Mayor Marilyn Ashcraft, and Vice Admiral Daniel Dwyer, Commander of the U.S. Navy’s Second Fleet based in Norfolk, Va., home of the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Eisenhower, now deployed for strategic deterrence just outside the Persian Gulf.
Lee, Ashcraft and Dwyer acted in concert to honor the most important folks aboard that day, America’s military veterans.
Dwyer took things one step further to tie past with future in a bit of a plug to the civilians in attendance to join the Navy.
In a classic, full-circle of circumstance, Dwyer returned to his former hometown according to Russell Moore, The Hornet’s Community Events and Outreach head.
An Alameda native growing up here in the late 1960’s and ‘70’s, Dwyer “used to see the Navy ships, the Navy aircraft come and go,” from what was back then, during the Vietnam War, Naval Air Station Alameda.
“This is home for him,” said Moore.
Moore emphasized that a key component of the Navy’s mission is to tell its history involving the sacrifices vets have made to keep the country safe which Dwyer also did, a direct tie to the Hornet’s central purpose.
“Living Ship Day,” a part of the Hornet’s program to keep the ship’s history alive to enrich others, was highlighted by open jet cockpits for some of the planes in its collection, WWII re-enactors dressed in time period uniforms of pilots of the era who tell visitors “what it was like to fly off the Hornet in World War II,” said Moore.
“I can look around this ship and see a lot of interesting things, but when somebody tells me what that guy standing up in that hangar flight deck control room does, that’s ten times more interesting,” he added.
Two Vets with deep ties to the ship took the re-enactment, Living History program to a higher level as they took to the air in an authentic aircraft flyover just a few hundred feet above the deck of the Hornet, punctuated by thrilling visuals and the distinctive buzz of the propeller planes’ engines.
A P-51 Mustang fighter plane and T-28 trainer were piloted by The Hornet’s CEO Mark Epperson, a veteran Navy pilot and major Hornet donor Duane Doyle.
That live event was augmented by another flyover conducted by “The Hornet Memorial Squadron out of Sacramento whose mix of civilian and ex-military fly jockeys also took to the air above the deck of the Hornet to wow the crowd with aerobatics and smoke trails.
A few more, true ‘standout character performer’ seasoned vets themselves complemented the hundreds of Hornet Vets and 25 or so paid staff who are all part of the ship’s deep history mission.
Moore pointed first to Dale Berven, a Korean War pilot who actually served on Hornet after the war’s cease-fire Armistice July of 1953.
Berven is now a “sharp” docent in his 90’s, and part of the ship’s ethos that ties veterans to the times and places of their past, members of a special group who share that connection with those visitors who come aboard to grasp what living history is truly about.
Just as Moore told of that elemental historical symbiosis–in a moment of pure serendipity that almost seemed the doing of a Hollywood screenwriter– Allan Cartwright, an A4 Skyhawk pilot who also served on The Hornet walked by, mission for the moment unknown.
The Hornet is the steel hulled domain of so many other vets as well, notably Leo Russo, a lithe, good hearted, slightly gristly gentleman of many years, proud of his Portuguese heritage, and whose stint in the service traces to The U.S. Army.
‘Meyers delivered the ship’s living history mission as a military consultant for “Devotion, ” a recent film about the first Black aviator in U.S. Naval history.’
Moore pointed to another in the standout in the cast of characters, Chuck Meyers, a Navy vet who served on aircraft carriers, and is now a motion picture consultant, to add to the Hollywood strand of this vessel’s voluminous living history DNA.
Meyers delivered the ship’s living history mission in his guise as a military consultant for the recent movie Midway, predicated on one of the most incredible, improbable WWII, US Navy victories in U.S. History.
The Battle Of Midway became pivotal in turning the tide of the war in the Pacific, as a vastly outnumbered U.S. Fleet –still ravaged by Pearl Harbor—gambled and soundly defeated the enemy, highlighted by the sinking of four, irreplaceable Japanese aircraft carriers.
Most recently, Meyers consulted for the film “Devotion” a film about navy fighter pilot Jesse Brown, the first Black aviator in U.S. Navy history. Meyers advises film makers on key details of historic authenticity as how to salute or when does a service person take a hat off and other small elements that loom large in making history live as it once did.
“I almost think of the Hornet as a Club for the Veterans,”
Russell Moore
For Moore a special day as that one goes beyond preserving and teaching history through a ‘hands on deck’ experience for visitors.
When it came to planning and executing the mission to host an historic occasion in anticipation of thousands coming aboard –for free on that special day—a kind of military operation unto itself got underway.
Logistics were key, and putting those together into a functional battle plan meant late nights, early mornings and hundreds of hands on deck for days in advance.
“Things like bike parking, stroller parking, V.I.P. parking, stage event ,flow of the show rotation, food and beverage ordering, gift shop staffing, sound system equipping, signs pointing in the right direction and prepping and on and on,” said Moore.
But all of that paid off in a true and highly positive “Mission Accomplished” for all involved in the experience.
“It went well. The crowd flow was good, people going up to the flight deck, getting up and down when they needed to, pulling off a ribbon cutting on the flight deck, holding a Midway panel; there were so many things that were happening,” said Moore, adding that, as is always the case with any production be it Thanksgiving or Veterans Day.
“Obviously, there were a lot of last minute fixes and scrambling around and stuff,” said Moore.
Perhaps though, there are two more missions that come to the fore, both of which endure past the stroke of midnight when Veteran’s Day was done for the year.
This mission is one that can find accomplishment on an ongoing basis for the storied ship, a place that looks toward the future history of the living, as well as the past of living history.
“I almost think of the Hornet as a Club for the Veterans… A lot of these guys work here, because where else can you find a lot of people who understand what you went through, what it was really like.”
Often times, Vets who are guests that come aboard uncork their stories with the ship’s Veterans. “Where else can you find people” with whom you can talk about what it was to perform night flights off of a carrier? queried Moore.
“Honestly, for a lot of them, it’s almost therapy,” observed Moore, adding that the ship also does PTSD workshops in conjunction with groups as Sea Valor, a sailing group that takes Vets out on The Bay.
“It’s so cool to go somewhere and people understand what you went through and you guys can talk about it together,” observed Moore.
“I want kids to say, ‘hey Dad I want to come back and see those planes again,’ ”
Russell Moore
Then there is the prospect of enriching youngsters who may, one day, become Veterans themselves or will at least take home a deeper, more visceral life learning history experience and reward from their time aboard The Hornet.
“We want them to come back, especially those kids. I want them to say, ‘hey Dad I want to come back and see those planes again.’ ”
And that is just exactly how the Hornet folks want living history to really take flight.
