I remember the day one of the battlewagons pulled in to San Diego for the first time since Vietnam, this would have been at some point in the eighties. The only time I've ever seen traffic on I-5 stopped without a traffic problem of some sort. Much more impressive visually than an aircraft carrier.
Much more vulnerable, too. They are fascinating ships, but of a bygone era. They wouldn't last long in modern warfare where a (relatively) cheap air-launched missile could send it to the bottom in a matter of minutes.
All the world’s a stage, but obviously the play is unrehearsed and everybody is ad-libbing his lines. Maybe that’s why it’s hard to tell if we’re living in a tragedy or a farce.