This is the ship that my half-brother, Kevin Wayne Burgess, from my symbolic and artificial memory, was stationed aboard. He was a U.S. Navy nuclear-qualified Machinists Mate. I couldn't "remember" the name of the ship but I always "remembered" the unique superstructure. I wrote about this detail in my journal a few years ago.
From 9/9/1961 to 5/1/1995 is: 33 years, 33 weeks, 3 days
USS Long Beach (CGN 9)
USS LONG BEACH, the third ship in the Navy to bear the name, was the first nuclear powered surface warship in the world and the first large combatant in the US Navy with its main battery consisting of guided missiles. She was also the first American cruiser since the end of World War II to built entirely new from the keel up, and, when completed, boasted the highest bridge in the world. She was also the last warship to be fitted with teakwood decks.
Commissioned: September 9, 1961
Decommissioned: May 1, 1995
USS Long Beach (CLGN-160/CGN-160/CGN-9) was a guided missile cruiser in the United States Navy. She was the only ship of her class.
Commissioned: 9 September 1961
Decommissioned: 1 May 1995
Long Beach was the first "all-new" cruiser designed and constructed after World War II (all others were completions or conversions of cruisers begun or completed during the war). She was the third Navy ship named after the city of Long Beach, California, and the last ship built on a traditional "cruiser hull" in the US Navy; all subsequent cruisers were built on scaled-up destroyer hulls.
