Friend to Sailor and Animal alike

This is a picture of a kinkajou (a nocturnal, tree living mammal from Mexico) that served as the mascot of the aircraft carrier USS Langley (CV-1). The officer feeding the kinkajou is P.N.L. Bellinger, one of the Navy's greatest officers of the modern era. Bellinger was one of the Navy's leading innovators of naval aviation and spend twenty-five of his forty years of service in Hampton Roads. Bellinger was serving as Langley’s commanding officer while the ship was based in Norfolk.

In the next Daybook will be the second part of our story on P.N.L. Bellinger and his time in Hampton Roads during World War II.

USS Missouri at Naval Station Norfolk, 1951

This a series of photos showing the battleship USS Missouri (BB-63) arriving at Naval Station Norfolk in 1951, shortly after the ship's tour in Korean War. Even with the rise of aircraft carriers, the battleship still knew how to draw a crowd as thousands of sailors stood to watch the famous ship come into port.

Other readily identifiable ships present in the first photo are the escort carriers USS Palau (CVE-122) and Siboney (CVE-112), the heavy cruisers USS Albany (CA-123) and Macon (CA-132) and in front of Missouri are the Greek destroyer escorts HNS Aetos (ex-USS Slater) and Hierax (ex-USS Ebert), which had just been transferred to the Hellenic Navy. There are also one heavy cruiser, two transports, and one escort carrier. Any assistance in identifying them will be most

appreciated.

UPDATE

With assistance from readers, we have identified the unknown heavy cruiser as USS Des Moines (CA-134) and the carrier across the pier from Des Moines is a Commencent Bay-class escort carrier (one of seven in the Atlantic Fleet at the time).  The two transports are not transports, but rather the "amphibious command" ships Pocono (AGC-16) and Taconic (AGC-17).

Summer Internship Position

The museum's education department is now accepting applications for a paid internship position for the Summer. Interested college students should download the information sheet here.