CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The boys and I had reached the engine room of the USS Lexington, the decommissioned aircraft carrier berthed in Corpus Christi Bay.
We had wound our way past torpedoes and mines and a grim account of a kamikaze attack on the Lexington. But what caught 10-year-old Noah's attention was in the bowels of the giant ship, right next to the forward throttle: a fully functioning, World War II-era clipboard.
"Now I can tell my teacher I saw a really old clipboard," Noah said with genuine excitement.
There are moments in a dad's life when words just can't express the feelings welling up inside.
Here's the funny part: We had come to the Lexington to check out a new attraction - three Virtual Battle Stations. The stations essentially are video games that let visitors try their hand at landing a jet on the flight deck, engaging in a dogfight or shooting down enemy planes with anti-aircraft guns.
For me, that meant crashing jet after jet into the sea far short of the Lexington, while Noah effortlessly touched down on the flight deck. Itwasn't much different from staying at home and being humiliated on the Wii.
Clearly, the battle station kiosks are an effort to make a decidedly old-school military museum more up to date and interactive. They hardly turn the Lexington into an arcade, and who would want that? Still, I'd recommend jostling for a turn at the joystick - and riding the cheesy but fun flight simulator, too. (Go for the combat experience with the screaming title "Eject, Eject, Eject!", not the jungle-theme roller coaster.)
For those who don't watch the History Channel or build model planes in their spare time, the battle stations are a fun way to add context to a self-guided tour of the aircraft carrier, which spent almost two years in combat in the Pacific Theater during World War II and was decommissioned in 1991.
(Note to parents: Little kids won't get much out of a trip to the Lexington. You have to climb steep ladders between decks - or even get to a restroom - and the vintage aircraft on the flight deck and educational exhibits below are accompanied by a lot of text.)
As far as the twins were concerned, the Lexington was an interactive museum. Seth hopped into the captain's chair on the bridge, picked up the nearby red phone, flipped just about every switch he could get his hands on and tried to batten down a few hatches. That made me kind of nervous. But I reassured myself thattwo 10-year-old boys couldn't possibly succeed where Imperial Japan had failed and actually destroy an aircraft carrier.
While the flight deck is the size of three football fields and the hangar deck also is vast, other areas of theLexington are claustrophobic. Both boys described the mazelike passageways as kind of creepy. Fair enough. The Lexington was nicknamed "The Blue Ghost" by Tokyo Rose. And the ship's almost palpable sense of history is kind of haunting.
For the boys, it wasn't the fighter planes or the exhibits that brought that home, but the more mundane sights on the lower decks: the mess line (Seth: "I bet they ate slop"), the bunks where sailors slept stacked like merchandise at Costco, the almost homey barbershop, the stark surgical suite.
It was suddenly clear to them that people lived and worked on this ship, fought and, in some cases, died here.That led to questions, from "Why would they need to get their hair cut?" ("The ship could be at sea for months and they were in the military.") to "Who won the war?" ("We did.")
My question went unspoken: When was the last time these boys had wanted to talk about something other than Sonic the Hedgehog, Chowder cartoons or the Jonas Brothers?
It may not rank up there with virtual combat or antique clipboards,but still, that's something to write home about.
The USS Lexington Museum in Corpus Christi Bay, just across the ship channel from downtown Corpus Christi, is open daily except Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Address: 2914 N. Shoreline Blvd.
Hours: 9 a.m.-6 p.m. through Labor Day; 9 a.m.-5 p.m. after Labor Day through Memorial Day
Admission: $12.95; $10.95 for senior citizens and active or retired military; $7.95 for ages 4-12; free for ages 3 and younger.
For more information, call (800) 523-9539 or check online at usslexington.com.
Travel, Pages 54, 55 on 08/30/2009