As always, ship tours start at 10:00am.
9:45am, a perfect Thursday morning in San Francisco and still no line to visit USS Somerset.

San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock,

The ship was named after UA Flight 93 that departed SF and crashed in Somerset County.

This year the tours were surprisingly well organized; no more free roaming around the ship.

On the good side we were able to visit the bridge.


The bridge of course looked very modern and hi-tech.

"I do not want to sound crazy but I flew one of these 40 years ago"

I guess the guy on the right was a pilot during the Vietnam war and I am sure helicopters do not change that much, at least on the outside.

And it is always good to be a captain.

LPD-25 is a fairly small ship but still 14 stories high and capable of launching two MV-22s simultaneously.

That is good that streets have names here.

A very important room; I think they call it CIC or Combat Information Center.

Not sure where Marines sleep on the ship but I spotted quite a few of them.


Great posture, officers.

And so that the ship does not get stolen, the entire motorized SF police department was awaiting us at the exit.