Posted on 08/20/2005 10:25:19 AM PDT by Jet Jaguar
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The USS Iowa joined in battles from World War II to Korea to the Persian Gulf. It carried President Franklin Roosevelt home from the Teheran conference of allied leaders, and four decades later, suffered one of the nation's most deadly military accidents.
Veterans groups and history buffs had hoped that tourists in San Francisco could walk the same teak decks where sailors dodged Japanese machine-gun fire and fired 16-inch guns that helped win battles across the South Pacific.
Instead, it appears that the retired battleship is headed about 80 miles inland, to Stockton, a gritty agricultural port town on the San Joaquin River and home of California's annual asparagus festival.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., a former San Francisco mayor, helped secure $3 million to tow the Iowa from Rhode Island to the Bay Area in 2001 in hopes of making touristy Fisherman's Wharf its new home.
But city supervisors voted 8-3 last month to oppose taking in the ship, citing local opposition to the Iraq war and the military's stance on gays, among other things.
"If I was going to commit any kind of money in recognition of war, then it should be toward peace, given what our war is in Iraq right now," Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi said.
Feinstein called it a "very petty decision."
"This isn't the San Francisco that I've known and loved and grew up in and was born in," Feinstein said.
San Francisco's maritime museum already has one military vessel - the USS Pampanito, an attack submarine that sank six Japanese ships during World War II and has about 110,000 visitors a year.
Officials in Stockton couldn't be happier. They've offered a dock on the river, a 90,000-square-foot waterfront building and a parking area, and hope to attract at least 125,000 annual visitors.
After the Korean war, the Iowa was decommissioned and placed in reserve in a Philadelphia shipyard for three decades. In 1988, it was recalled to duty escorting oil supply ships safely in and out danger in the Persian Gulf. In 1989, 47 sailors were killed in an explosion that tore through a gun turret during a training exercise.
The warship, decommissioned by the Navy in 1990, is currently anchored with a mothballed fleet in Suisun Bay, near the mouth of the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta.
San Francisco's rejection of such a storied battleship is a slap in the nation's face, said Douglass Wilhoit, head of Stockton's Chamber of Commerce.
"We're lucky our men and women have sacrificed their lives ... to protect our freedom," Wilhoit said. "Wherever you stand on the war in Iraq ... you shouldn't make a decision based on philosophy."
Rep. Richard W. Pombo, R-Calif., has sponsored legislation authorizing the ship's permanent move to Stockton. Feinstein has countered with a bill to open bidding to any California city.
The two versions will have to be reconciled by a House-Senate conference committee considering the Pentagon spending bill.
AP-ES-08-20-05 1219EDT
Awesome pic Jeff......I have worked a few experimental 5"/38 ranges at Sandia Labs that were testing new nose and base fuzes. Each projo weighed 40 so pounds and I humped out of the surface clearance about 10K inert concrete filled rounds and destroyed another 2k of live rounds in place. My back spasms when I even read 5" 38......:o)
I have a couple of inert projos that just peeled from the nose fuze going off. They have been converted by girl friday to planters on my mantel in my office den......
They should have towed it up the Mississippi to Iowa and put some slot machines in it.
Or sold it to a tribe to put slot machines in it.
Regardless of their intent, the SF city fathers have made it clear that San Francisco opposes US involvement in WWII, the Pacific.
LOL...Awesome story ! Thanks for sharing it again.....
Glad to help :)
Should we have done the same to Montgomery Alabama after they removed the Ten Commandments monument from their state building?
Or is this just a California thing?
Thanks. I was in Long Beach Naval Shipyard when they brought the Jersey in for refit. She was right across the pier from us. I got to watch Reagan re-commission her.
When checking out the guns, they would do "T-checks". That is, swing the guns to 90 degrees. Which meant, of course, that they were pointing right at our little bitty Destroyer. Looking right down the throat of those massive guns was an awesome sight. It made you feel really small.
The lady is dangerous, the female version of Sen. Feingold.
They're too slow to keep up with modern battle groups. As beautiful and powerful as they are, they just can't keep up any more. They also consume massive amounts of fuel. I believe that it is correct to say that their time has come.
Personally, I would like to see them replaced with fully modern, fully armored, nuclear powered battleships. Nowadays, ships fight each other with cruise missles. I like the idea of a ship that just shrugs them off. Kind of like "hey, did you hear something" when a few exocets bounce off the hull.
Great story...tell it as often as you like please.
Wasn't she the mayor of 'frisco when it granted amnesty to any members of the armed forces that wanted to desert during the first gulf war?????
My Dad was a Lt. on an LCI,during WWII, PTO. He used to tell me that up forward, after the big guns fired some miles behind them, that they could literally see the big projectiles flying over.
That wouldn't surprise me at all. Those rounds are truly massive.
If I was on watch during a gunnery exercise on the Berkeley (DDG-15), I used to get a kick out of going over to the surface console and watching the 5-inch rounds. You can track them on radar.
Actually the Iowa class battleships were designed to keep up with the fast carrier task forces. They can make 33 knots if needed. They are some of the fastest battleships ever built.
The war is over.
Not to the thousands of soldiers still fighting in Iraq.
Great story. Thanks for sharing.
...of the 1940s. Nuclear carriers can go a whole lot faster than 33 knots. So can the Spruance class destroyers, the Burke's, the Ticonderoga crusiers, etc. The can I served on had a max speed of 32 knots (Adams class), and was pulled from frontline service (Med, IO, etc) in the late 1980s, simply because she couldn't keep up if the battle group had to move in a hurry.
33 knots doesn't cut it anymore. I've personally seen a Spruance class can doing nearly twice that, at 60 knots. No BS. The bow wave was obscuring the bridge, and she was throwing massive twin roostertails. Ships today are absolutely screamingly fast.
Go Stockton!
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