So we tried to visit the American Victory Museum last week but we got there at 5:30pm — and they close at 5:00pm. So today we left earlier and was able to tour the USS Victory in Port Tampa. Though most of the guns have been removed from the warship, 3 big ones remain. They’re HUGE too — a 5-inch gun, a 50mm machine gun and a 3-inch gun. I can’t imagine being hit by a bullet that’s 3 inches wide — let alone 5-inch. That’s literally a cannonball.

The comm room is interesting — I can’t believe so long ago we were sending encrypted messages via telegraph, using morse code. The speed of communication was so slow, that must have been super frustrating. Apparently comm people/codebreakers used to be able to hear morse code signals like words — some would even nap at the comm and wakeup when they heard their ship’s name come over the comm in morse code.

Anyways the WW2 museum American Victory is a cheap place in Tampa to check out if you’re ever in town and worth taking a tour if you’re in the area for a while and love WWII history.