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
I know ocean going ships can sail as far as Tulsa. I guess California has it now anyway.
One-day Morton's Salt will reap a windfall in San Francisco... There will be tons of free salt in the form of people-shaped sculptures! ;-)
LLS
how are those anger management classes working out...?
San Fran-sicko.
Yes,, your right.
And the whole state. Rummy ought to move CA's bases to NC. IMOHO
"I haven't managed to find that one yet."
Its called the Tower Mart and is located in Lathrop:
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/CALATufo.html
It is really worth a short drive on a Saturday. The interior has aliens stealing milk and sticking doughnuts all over themselves and what not. High entertainment if you like that kind of stuff.
Actually its the country that should boycott San Francisco. There are only a few cities on the face of the earth that I would not miss if they were Sodomed and Gomorrahed. San Francisco is one of them!
I used to irk an old friend of mine, a battleship enthusiast, by calling the 16-inch guns her "secondary armament" (the Tomahawks being the main punch.)
My dad's 5-inch staff used a 3 shot technique. One over, one under, one dead on. They nailed a jeep with an inert 5-inch round from 30 miles away during tests off Vieques. It was the base commander's jeep. The Iowa was almost denied the "meatball" flag because the jeep was destroyed.
IMHO the Iowa and her sister ships are some of the most beautiful ships, of any kind, ever built.
I will be there opening day to salute her many crew members from over the years and the heroes that died on that terrible day.
Since I would be killed, I'd rather you didn't.
And I'd rather you remembered that there at least as many good people in San Francisco as bad...and many more on a typical workday, when a million or more people, including lots of Republicans, commute into the city to work.
Fleet Week in the city is always tremendously popular. This decision isn't going to sit well with the Bay Area, or even a lot of native San Franciscans - the freak show rejects who came here from Texas and Oklahoma after their parents kicked them out of the house may applaud it, but no one else will. Feinstein is right about that - it isn't the old timers who feel this way about the Iowa, it's the weird contingent who moved here from the rest of the country.
That said, I'm not sure Stockton is the best place for the Iowa - it's a bit too far out of the way and a river town, not an ocean port. I'd like to see the Iowa go to San Diego, near the aircraft carrier Midway, where it would be a welcomed and immensely popular attraction.
I wouldn't want to see a proud ship like the USS Iowa dishonored by being moored at Sodom-by-the-Sea. It would only function as a pickup spot for the queers.
It appears that Stockton is a pro-military area. I hope the Iowa goes there.
When my ship was in the yards in '82, one of the welders told me a story about the New Jersey in Vietnam. I've posted this before, but what the heck.
His unit was pinned down due to a mass of fire coming from a treeline. They radioed in for artillery, asking for 8-10 rounds of high explosive. They were asked if they wanted Naval Gunfire Support. They responded "I don't care what it is, I need 8-10 rounds, I need high explosive, and I need it RIGHT NOW!"
The call came back "three rounds inbound". He said that shortly afterwards it seemed like "the whole world exploded". Everybody in the unit was bounced off the ground from the impact and explosion. Over one hundred yards of treeline was completely gone. There was no more fire coming from the now non-existent treeline.
They radioed back "what the hell was that?" and the radio operator said "we've got the Jersey sitting off shore". They shouted back "WELL DON'T SEND ANY MORE!"
The radio operator called back "get your heads down, you've got three more inbound".
Bill the city for the 3 million and any other dime spent on the proposed project......phucm !
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...uuuhhhh... IIRC, the Iowa got 5 Battle Stars in Vietnam!!!
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