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USS
Lake Erie
BY CAPT. TONY DENSLOW
MEGA BITES CHARTERS
 While
my latest topic has nothing to do with fishing, it does involve
Lake Erie. Well, sort of. Anyhow, I thought readers would be interested
to know what the Navy’s USS Lake Erie is up to these days.
Well, it appears the Lake Erie is up to it’s gunwales in
top secret national defense.
Many of you probably heard the news a few months ago there was
a successful test of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System.
In that test, a ballistic missile fired down range over the Pacific
Ocean, was intercepted and destroyed by a second missile.
Turns out, the killer missile was fired from the USS Lake Erie.
In multiple tests so far the Lake Erie is the only war ship of
68 cruisers to score a hit.
See, I told you that this would be interesting. After stumbling
across this tibit on the Internet recently, I did a little extra
research on the Lake Erie. The ship, built by Bath Iron Works
in Main, was commissioned on July 24, 1993.
It is the 24th guided missile cruiser equipped with the Aegis
weapons system and the eighth of the
Ticonderoga class. She is the second ship to bear the name. The
first one was a battle cruiser during the War of 1812.
The Lake Erie carries a crew of 340 enlisted men, 33 officers
and 27 chief petty officers. Home port is Pearl Harbor, although
the ship and crew have seen duty around the world including the
Middle East. The ship is 567 feet long and 55 feet at the beam.
Four gas turbine engines power the Lake Erie to speeds in excess
of 30 knots. In landlubber terms, that’s about 35 mph.
There was no way to find out if any of the crew are from around
the Lake Erie area and are fellow walleye fishermen. The ship
has a website at www.lake-erie.navy.mil/ if anyone wants to check
her out.
TREMORS
In case you missed it, there were two earthquakes under Lake Erie
earlier this month. On Oct. 17, a 3.2 magnitude quake occurred
about four miles northwest of Mentor-on-the-Lake and was widely
felt along the Lake Erie shore east of Cleveland. No wonder the
fishing’s been slow.
The earthquake occurred at 4:04 p.m. EDT and reportedly caused
some alarm among residents of Mentor, Willoughby, Eastlake, and
other communities and resulted in numerous calls to local law
enforcement agencies, news media, and the Lake County Emergency
Management Agency. Many described a booming sound and a sharp
jolt. The day before there was a tremor that registered a magnitude
of 2.4.
Since Feb. 1 of 2005, there have been more than two dozen earthquakes
in and around Lake Erie. And I haven’t felt one yet! Can
a tsunami occur on Lake Erie?
IT’S OOOOO-VER
My fishing season is just about over and the Mega Bites will come
out of the water in 10 days or so. After Jan. 1, I plan to write
a series of articles on Lake Erie fishing made simple. I’ll
have some basic tips on equipment and techniques.
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