8-26-1943

Dear Dad, Mother and Shirlee;
Boy I sure saw something today! I went with a group out to the Gun Plant and is that ever a wonderful place. It is under the supervision of Navy officers and Marine guards. We watched them reline a 14 incher that was on a battle-ship in the South seas. The gun cover, which is the biggest part of the gun, never wears out but the lining is the part inside the Jacket & that can only have 100 to 200 projectiles fired from it before it needs to have a new lining. The gun Jacket, and lining inside, is 70 feet long and the whole thing weighs 100,080 pounds, it is about 5 feet in diameter. When they reline it they do it in a huge building, about 200 feet high. On top of the building, topside and on rails along the bulkhead, (walls) is a large moveable hook "thing" with an electric motor. The lift picks up the whole gun, 100,000 lbs. and carries it to an electric furnace; it then sets it in the furnace which is set 90 feet in the ground in a big round hole. The gun at this time has the old lining removed. It is then heated for 20 hours at a temperature of 500 degrees. After 20 hours the Jacket has expanded enough to allow the big 70 feet long lining to go into it while it is still in the furnace with a clearance of .01 inches which isn't much. We watched them drop this lining into a hot Jacket & it was fascinating. This is then cooled for 20 hours by water being pumped thru the tube which shrinks the Jacket on tight around the lining and then it is lifted out of the furnace & laid on reserve until another ship needs it. We also saw anti-aircraft guns of the newest type, but I can't write too much about this, all I can say is that they are really built for the business and I would hate to be on the receiving end of one. We saw bomb trucks that lift 10,000 lb bombs into ships & planes, we saw all kinds of light arms, (newest types), all kinds of new cars and trucks all wanting to be shipped to action. We also saw a new anti-aircraft Browning 50 caliber machine gun. It is water cooled and is really built nice. They had hundreds of the crated for shipping.
From this plant they have enough equipment to service a whole battle-wagon at once, and that is really a lot of guns.
They also had gun turrets that had been damaged in battle that were being patched up.
The Captain, (full) equal to a Brig. general in the Army, took us thru the plant, and he told us that a year ago they had serviced the Enterprise with 3 eight inchers that had been hit by bombs. The "E" was in "pearl harbour" at the time & it only took three days to fix her up. They still had a couple of the "E's" Pinchers that were damaged there at the plant.
It was really an experience & I'll tell you more when I come to S.L.C. soon. Oh, they also had about 20 metal lathes that were 90 feet long & could hold a whole 16 incher on the at once. These cost 1/4 of a million dollars a piece. (They are exact to 1/1000 of an inch) Some money, eh: (There's taps I'll finish in the morning)
Well it is now 0930 (9:30 AM Aug 27) and we just had room inspection. Everything was ship-shape. We got a personnell inspection in a half hour so I have to switch into my blues. Well I hope you are all well and tell Jim hello if he is home.
With Love
Bill