Vallejo is completely and absolutely broke. I don’t see how any bid from the city can possibly be taken serious now. I doubt if any city in California can make a true bid at this point.
There’s still lots of 16” ammunition left for the guns. Why not park the Iowa off the coast and lob them all into San Francisco?
Refit it AGAIN.
Put it off the US East Coast.
Those gun can shoot down ICBMs 100 miles up in space.
Far cheaper than missiles.
It should go to San Diego, near the aircraft carrier Midway.
At the same time the Iowa was being refitted and taken back into commission, I was also “being refitted” and returned to active AF reserve status.
In the office where I worked there was also a Naval Reserve officer. He would sometimes get the secretary to type up some of his paperwork, if they had no company work at the moment.
I got her to type up some of my paperwork as well. She is a very nice lady, and both of us knew how to treat nice ladies. :)
Anyway, when she finished with my typing, she said, “There’s going to be a war, isn’t there?”. Of course she was wrong, but only because we were both part of the Reagan buildup. Being stronger than the other guy, and clearly so, prevented that war she was worried about. :)
Sail her up and down the coast of Red China 24/7, 365/year.
Long ago it was standard practice to send an old decommissioned ship to ship-breakers who would tear it apart so that the scrap steel could be re-used. In the process, valuable history was literally destroyed.
By the 1960s enlightened people were able to save a few of the remaining ships, mainly those from the WW2 era, making them into museums. I’ve toured the USS Alabama and the USS North Carolina, and there are few things more awesome than an old battleship.
Sad to say, not only is California broke, but it has long been unenlightened where AMERICAN history is concerned. A battleship is politically incorrect, especially to state legislators, excepting perhaps a few Republicans.
The USS IOWA would be rather difficult to transport to the State of Iowa, for obvious reasons, but there is no reason why it has to end up in California.
I was fortunate enough to have a tour of the Iowa shortly before the #1 turret blew up. They took us into the second turret and explained the process. A pretty amazing ship and I wish I had been allowed to take pictures.
And to move the Iowa to Mare Island, the channels and approaches will have to be dredged, a time-consuming and costly impediment.
That alone will be used by environmentalists to kill the plan.
-PJ