Vallejo is certainly more deserving than San Francisco, but USS Pampanito has done exceptionally well at San Francisco’s Fishermen’s Wharf.
Too bad it is next to San Francisco resident looneys.
They could have had a good exhibit: able to grow in the future, with the WWII battleship, WWII Liberty Ship, WWII submarine ... SFO is world-famous for its bases and airbases, (former) shipyards and construction (like the Kaiser yards, NAS Alameda, SF Naval Shipyard, Treasure Island, Oakland, Vallejo Naval Shipyard, the air bases and blimp stations in San Jose, the naval weapons depots up the Sacramento river, etc.
But the current residents?
They'd be honored in Kamchatka in the Siberian gold mines under Stalin.
I think the Navy should recommission the ship for a short stint about three years , and really address the problems that need to be fixed I have seen pictures of the ship in the mothballed fleet their is damage to the underwater part of the bowl and also the stern mainly to hull plating the 16 “ turret that exploded needs to be completely removed from the ship and torn down and rebuilt and why not do all three 16 “ turrets the 5 “ 38 centimeter twin aa guns turrets that were removed need to be replaced and put back in order those cruise missile launchers need to go you could keep the ciws though in a three year refit in some areas only a token refit would be needed the Navy could afford to do this and at the end of her short tour she could be presented to the Mare Island Battleship Commission for a museum ship this would make the memorial commissions job a lot easier the ship is still the best of her class although the other three ships are nice by an act of fate this turret explosion accrued on her could have been any of her sister ships or even a south Dakota those are retired in a peace time world even with Irag you cant fire enough ordinance from the main batteries to train a crew the Navy could afford the a munitions at least 12000 rounds and train three full time crews those guns had to be tlc`d and they had to be learned they each have a personality I think thats why they have names written on some of them their are Strong points and weak points firing those guns was always a risk under great circumstance but once they are learned they become really decent its a terrible thing that this happened on Iowa and the lives were lost but believe me it could have been any one of the other three sister ships this occurrence almost happened on the Missouri in the 50`s when a shell exploded to close to the ship those guns can never be fired enough today for a sailor to learn them you would wear out a set of gun barrel liners and would expell a minim of 12000 to 15000 rounds for proper training learning all the quirks in those guns ... all the powerder needs to be thrown out its probably dry and well over the rated limit when this happens you put in a 700 lb. powerder load and it could in fact be 2000 lbs. because the powerder has dried out ... the fuses need to be thrown out as well too old and the ammo was made in the late 30`s for the 16 “ guns. like I said this disaster could have been aboard any of the ships its to bad in that regard the Iowa is a really good old ship despite what some may believe.