USS Essex

This weekend I got to tour the USS Essex when it was in Hong Kong.

This is the end of the ship where we entered from the ferry. The ship was anchored about a 40 minute ferry ride from the pier on Hong Kong Island. It was too big to come into the harbor.


Once inside the ship, we came to two large boats. These boats are released from the back end of the ship and will go closer to land to put vehicles and personnel on land. As you can see from this picture of me and the boat, it's pretty big and it is inside the Essex so obviously the Essex is huge.Another view of those boats.

I also got to see the morgue

There is a huge hangar for the helicopters and planes. The black part coming out the front of the helicopter is a machine gun.

Next we went up on the flight deck. It was about 7:30 pm so it was already dark and so I really couldn't get any pics. The 2 means that this was the second boat of this kind made.If you look really close in this picture you can see the outline of a helicopter in the middle.


Safety jackets that they sailors wear when they are on the flight deck.

I got this tour because I joined up with a program called "Meals in the home" to host sailors for dinner as they come through our port. I was supposed to host 3 but only hosted 2 for dinner. I did meet the other one though here are their pictures.Gary and Diane

Tom