Posted on 05/19/2012 10:45:12 AM PDT by SmithL
After seeing service in three wars and hosting more American presidents than any other battleship, the Iowa will take its final journey Sunday down the California coast to Los Angeles, where it will live out its days as a floating interactive museum.
When the Iowa leaves the Bay Area - its home for the past decade - it will mark the last time a World War II-era battleship passes under the Golden Gate Bridge, said Bob Rogers, Northern California spokesman for the nonprofit Pacific Battleship Center. The Iowa is the last of its kind.
"She was built to go to sea and to simply engage enemy ships and slug it out until one sank," said Rogers, whose group will run the museum. "She and her sisters - the Missouri, the New Jersey and the Wisconsin - they were the mightiest and the most powerful battleships the United States ever made."
The Iowa first saw service in 1943 and transported President Franklin D. Roosevelt to Iran late that year for the Tehran Conference, at which the Allies agreed to open up a second front against Germany.
The battleship served as Adm. William Halsey Jr.'s flagship during the surrender of Japan and broadcast the surrender ceremony from its sister ship the Missouri to the world
...The ship had been docked in the Suisun Bay mothball fleet since 2001, and some naval enthusiasts hoped to transform it into a museum on San Francisco's waterfront. The city's Board of Supervisors voted against the idea in 2005, however, with opponents saying such a museum amounted to an endorsement of sorts for the Iraq war and for the ban that existed at the time on gays and lesbians in the military.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
The city's Board of Supervisors voted against the idea in 2005, however, with opponents saying such a museum amounted to an endorsement of sorts for the Iraq war and for the ban that existed at the time on gays and lesbiansThe SF Board of Stupidvisors is disgusting!
I used to do computer maintenance at Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, and they showed me all of the facilities that they built to support the USS Missouri, which of course, never happened due to the anti-military environment in the "Special City".
Should have offloaded her ordnance before she left. Just sayin’.
I was in the navy and spent time at Hunters Point.
Good. Find a better place for the ship. SF is Sodom reincarnated.
just a darn shame she is not coming to stay in Texas where we would love her like she deserves! She could be parked next to the USS Texas until she needs to be reactivated.
I do remember the sister ship Missouri was being considered for home porting in SF. Diane Finestein was Mayor at the time and supported it. Guess u know how it turned out.
Lots of good pics of her, here:
But, LA is Mexico. How about Iowa? /sarc
fyi
I toured her sister ship the Wisconsin, which is tied up at Naticus, a maritime museum in Norfolk. I’d never been on a battleship before, nor even close to one, and truth be told, it was much smaller than I expected. I guess that the legend of these ship has created a picture in our imagination that real life could never match.
Wife and I toured the Missouri two years ago at Pearl. The BB had just been in dry dock and came out with fresh paint and looked ready to rumble.
I’m pleased that the Iowa will also be treated to this kind of care.
ok, on the cedar river then..
To C_R; I've toured the New Jersey, the ship itself is humongus, what gives you the "smaller than I expected" reaction is the tiny spaces within. Just remember, they jammed a fair sized city inside that hull and worked it 24/7 to meet the crew's needs.
Oh, yeah, that and three or four feet of armor all over the place.
I saw the USS New Jersey fire her main guns in Lebanon 1983. It was a spectacle for sure. She made the Bekaa valley rumble.
We went aboard the Midway at San Diego in March of this year. The tour takes a full day.
Now, that is a city of steel...
Any chance she can fire one last salvo at Sodom on the Bay?
Same thing in Vietnam. The Media ridiculed these "old fossils" as being a "WWII Admiral's toy". Turned out the Air Force was pushing for them as they could lob nine tons of HE inland for 20 miles. Why risk a valuable aircraft and crew to take out a stationary bridge when a ship could stand off shore and do the same thing?
As much of awesome sight the main battery is to watch the secondary 5 inch battery salvo is nothing to sneeze at either.
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