Today we are going to visit Battleship U.S.S. Alabama in Mobile, Alabama.

The Alabama is one of four Dakota Class ships. She was ordered in 1939 and entered service in 1942. She is best known for protecting our aircraft carriers in the Pacific during WWII.

After the war she carried 700 men home as a part of Operation Magic Carpet. She was in the Pacific reserve fleet from 1947-1962. The ship was slated to be destroyed until the state of Alabama raised the funds to purchase it in 1964 and turn it into this museum which opened January 1965.

Information on the museum can be found at USS Alabama Memorial Park.

When you pull in it costs $5 to park.

These are the ticket prices.

There are three tour routes you can take on the U.S.S. Alabama. In this article we are covering the yellow route which includes the upper decks. The red and green routes cover the lower decks.

If you are looking at doing all three tours, I recommend finding this sign and starting with the yellow tour.

Next is a theater where you can watch a video on the Alabama.

Next is the Officer’s Wardroom. This was basically their dining room and lounge.

This is the exterior of the wardroom.

This is one of the Officer’s rooms.

Stepping outside. 

These are 20mm machine guns.

This is the #1 gun turret. You can go inside it.

Back outside we are looking up at the 16″ guns.

These are 40mm guns on the side of the ship.

That is chained up so you can’t go inside.

It looks like you might be able to go inside this one but I didn’t see that ladder when I was there.

This is referring to an incident where one of the 5-inch gun mounts fired into another killing these five men.

There is a bald eagle that has been keeping an eye on things as long as I’ve been here.

Getting closer to the eagle.

That concludes the tour of the upper decks. To continue with the lower decks please check out USS Alabama – Lower Decks.