U.S.S. Washington: The Steel Ghost

Chap.3 "Restoring The West Virginia"

I am going to start keeping a diary of the month, day, and year so most people will know of when all of these events fall into place. It was February of 2002, I have to admit that my father passing away was the most damaging to me but I sucked it up and just admitted that he died back in January. My plan was to restore the WeeVee to the state of how she use to be in her original 1941 condition, I knew this would take some time but in the meanwhile, I still needed to assemble my crew of technical experts who knew of how to run a Battleship. I think its about time I reveal of who I am, My name is Raymond Cadigan "Dusty" Rodes, My father, Raleigh Dusty Rodes who was the captain of the West Virginia Was awarded one Medal of Honor for his bravery during the attack on Pearl. My dad was so damn courageous that he saved men off of the Battleships Tennessee, Arizona, and Utah. Now that I have revealed myself on this matter of saving the Washington, I have the balls to tell of who I am because I will not let the navy officials silence me for of what will happen as I list the entire story in these pages of my diary.

I decided to contact a few people who I knew but I will keep their identity anonymous due to certain restrictions, In order to restore the ole Colorado-Class Battleship, I had to get a various amount of carpenters, technicians, engineers, and all of the obvious of what it will take to get her back to the same 1941 as she was in Pearl but I wanted to give her a boast in her AA and give her a camouflage with a new horn. Her new Anti Air would be an assortment of the original 1.1"/75 28MM "Chicago Piano" Anti Air guns that were fitted not only on the Colorado-Class but also the New Mexico-Class and many other classes of battleships, I know we were going to use some very old technology and keeping those M2 Brownings would have to stay while some 20MM Orelikons and advance targeting systems were being added. As I write most of this down, I am looking at her being constructed back to of how she was, I knew the cagemasts were in fact very dangerous but I wanted her restored with the same unique old feeling of her.

However the redesigning of the WeeVee made her stand out amongst normal standard type of battleships back then as I had ordered her to have a boost in her speed, Now, Most American Battleships back then before the North Carolina-Class could go around 20-21 Knots which was fast back then but now it is slow for her. I wanted to make her go at least 25 Knots which means more of the normal armament such as some castemates that were not going to be useful would have to go so that is plus that we could keep the 44's secondaries, Most of her 40MM Bofors would be stripped even though they were harder hitting. Sometimes I would also wonder if the event surrounding the Washington was in fact just a fools myth and I am just spending my hard earned money on a Battleship that I really don't have the resources to upkeep the thing but, I am going through of what my old man said and I am going to save the ill fated battleship from whatever lurks at the Triangle. The final refit would be a combination of both the original 41 variation and the 44 refit of the WeeVee, I will show some pictures of her in the early 30s-40s to get a feeling of how she looked in 2002. I will also show pictures of the guns that she would've been armed with.