New York City's Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum

It's easy to get from the Port Authority of New York to the Intrepid Museum. You just exit the front of the Port Authority terminal, which borders 42^nd Street, and hang a left. Walk west four blocks to the Hudson River (12^th Avenue) and bear right. There you will see the Circle Line Harbor tour boats, restaurants, benches and a fountain.

Looming large and to the right of the Circle Line tours is a boat you can't miss-the long serving aircraft carrier Intrepid, loaded from stem to stern with military hardware. Military veterans get a small discount on the ticket price, but a standard adult ticket costs $18.00. There are reduced tickets for children, too, and subscriber memberships. Ticket and membership information can be obtained prior to a visit by visiting the Intrepid Tickets page.

The Intrepid Museum is very popular with kids and parents; there is a part of it devoted to Exploratorium type activities for the kids. For the more athletic, kids can climb a challenging cargo net, the way real sailors do.

The Intrepid Museum features sleek aircraft from a variety of nations. British Harrier Jets, Israeli Fkir jets (which have an interesting history) Italian jets, Russian and Chinese Migs, "Huey" gunships from the Vietnam era, and Cobra attack helicopters with ball turret guns, mini-guns, rockets and room for a fore gunner. The one drawback with the Cobra gunship is that, if you're badly hit, you can't eject as you'd be chopped up by the whirring blades.

A general admission ticket entitles you to explore the Intrepid, including the bridge and tower, the hanger deck, the top deck, and the Exploratorium.

If you visit Intrepid, be sure to save a little energy so that you can enter the Growler Submarine, which dates from 1958. You'd think a 1958 Growler Sub would be like your grandfather's first automobile. Perhaps it was, but add two large nuclear missiles complete with launch pads which rise from their underwater pods. Your grandpa's 1958 submarine couldn't launch from underwater as today's submarine missiles do, but an array of impressive hydraulics opened the bay doors, and raised the missiles upright for launch.

While I didn't mind in the least, it's probably best for female visitors not to wear a tight skirt as the woman in front of me did. Before they let you tour the sub, you have to enter a regulation size mock-up of a submarine hatch. That's because you have to pass single-file through quite a few hatches as you tour the sub.

Submarines are the fore-runners of today's space-saving technologies. The submarine commander's "private" quarters was so small that you'd be charged with cruelty to animals if you'd kept a dog in it. The enlisted quarters were smaller, with sailors living in little boxes at the sides of a center tunnel. The lady with the tight skirt had an enthusiastic and very pleasant kid with her, aged about 12 or 13. At one point, the kid turned to me and said:

"What is about boats that smells so good? Can you smell it?" he enthused.

"Yes," I said, "I can smell it, too. It smells like...victory!"

The future submariner laughed joyfully, recognizing the stolen movie line. The kids weren't the only ones enjoying the Intrepid Museum. There seemed to be some old sea dogs with misty eyes, now towing families; there was plenty to jog the nostalgia.

Most of the aircraft in the exhibits have been replaced by newer aircraft but were not exactly "vintage" either. How could anything flying at close to 1500 mph be vintage? True, there were planes that only approached 500 mph, but Sabre-jets were as effective in their day as the A-4 Skyhawks which Senator John McCain flew later when he was blown up on the deck of the U.S. S. Forrestal.

Each of the aircraft aboard the Intrepid had its own interesting history, spanning the WWII period when George Bush H.W. Bush was shot down to the development of today's fast fighter-bombers and high-flying reconnaissance jets. The Italian jet had one of the most refined or elegant "skins"; the independent Israelis developed their Kfir jets when the French refused to sell them their own jets; the durable and highly maneuverable Chinese and Russian Migs looked like the intimidating weapons they are; the British Harriers appeared to be the leading edge in terms of vertical takeoff.

It is a cliché to say that the large aircraft carriers are "floating cities." Still, I thought it must be great fun for a pilot having to locate one of these boats in the midst of the vast oceans. At sea, that 900 foot long deck would seem short to me for anything larger than a paraglider.

There's a lot more to explore at the Intrepid Museum than I've mentioned. If you're interested, you can target your GPS to Intrepid at 12^th Avenue and 46^th Street, New York City. It's well worth it in the way of education and entertainment.

Meanwhile, I'm content to be a soft, spoiled civilian, marveling at the colossal and deadly machines and people who defend my liberty as I scuttle about in my self-indulgent civilian world. Call me crazy, but to tell the truth, I slept better last night, thanks to my Intrepid Museum visit.

The Intrepid Museum home page can be reached at this link. The home page has a link and tools to help you plan your visit. You can purchase individual or group tickets online at the ticket site provided above, reachable from the home page, too.

Sources: Information obtained from visiting the Intrepid Museum and from website at:

http://intrepidmuseum.org/

https://tickets.intrepidmuseum.org/