I thought that I would share a few of the photos that I took at the Fleet Gathering in Rocky Mount NC on Oct 10 & 11 2009.

First I would like to thank my friend James M for driving our battleships to North Carolina and driving the return trip where we visited 13 ships / museums and 2 museums that were not associated with a ship exhibit.

I would also like to thank the guys of the North Carolina Model Ship Builders / Mid-Atlantic Battle Group and Ya-al over in North Carolina area for your hospitality.



James M. with his trusty tape measure sizing up the situation at the lake


And here he is making up the jig to hold the pier to the seawall without attaching it to the wall. He brought some 2x4's along with the tools and just cranked it out, when he gets an idea and gets going it is best to just stay back a bit and watch. Every group needs a guy like this, TF-96 is lucky.


Here is the results. The launching dock was used extensively and made the task of launching the models much easier.


On Friday several of the skippers showed up for an informal ‘Meet and Greet’ , a great time was had by all.


Saturday morning Joe Wallace heads up a skippers meeting to go over some of the rules of the road.


Some of Duane Curtis’ fleet on display, These include the USS Anzio CG-68, USS The Sullivans DDG-68, USS Thach FFG-43, USS Carter Hall LSD-50 with the USS Artic AOE-8 partially hidden.


Duane Curtis’ very impressive USS Harry S Truman CVN-75. Duane has a specially outfitted trailer to transport his models.


Three Iowa class battleships in a row. USS Wisconsin BB-64 as in 1990, USS New Jersey BB-62 as in 1984 and USS Iowa BB-61 as in 1943/44. Being looked over by Skip Assy. These are a lot bigger then the subs that he used to.


USCG Bear WMEC-901 by Eric Bertlesen of Homeprt Models.


USS Duncan FFG-10 and USS Long Beach CGN-9 with the USS Yorktown CG-48 all by Charles Huet of CNC Models. In the background is a harbor tug and the USS Richard Byrd DDG-23 by Joey Joyner.






USS Rochester CA-123 and USS Belknap CG-26 by Charles Lamm.




USS Long Beach CGN-9 and USS Duncan FFG-10 by Charles Huet. Son Nathan seems to enjoy this hobby as well.




James Mousaw’ USS Iowa tied up to the launching dock.



A pair of FFG-7’s ready to head out on patrol.

The fleet got together for its portrait, getting this many models lined up for a photo op can be challenging.





Well the end of the weekend comes and the models are packed away for their journey home.

I had a great time at this years fleet gathering and I hope to be back again next year.

Thanks for posting Lee.  It was great meeting you and seeing James again.  Glad to see you made it home safe and I'm really jealous of the trip back.  I hope someday I can visit all those museums too.