View Single Post
  #8  
Old 10-29-2011, 09:53 PM
mjp28 mjp28 is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: anytown, OHIO
Posts: 76
Default

ABOARD THE USS IOWA – This World War II-era battleship, whose speed, armor and 16-inch guns made its name as "The Big Stick" of the U.S. Navy, began the first leg of its final mission Thursday, departing a mothball mooring in Suisun Bay, Calif., toward a new home as a museum in Los Angeles.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...les/50968324/1

By Bob Riha Jr.,, USA TODAY

Out of retirement for now: Tugboats tow the USS Iowa, the last battleship from WWII era, away from the naval ghost fleet Thursday to Benicia, Calif.

The Iowa, which represents the peak of naval military power in an era from Franklin Roosevelt to George H.W. Bush, was nudged by tugs from its decade-long spot amid the Navy's fleet of retired ships.

In a carefully timed maneuver, the ship towed at a seasonal extreme high tide, the only way short of dredging that would allow the ship to pass beneath three bridges, one of which didn't exist when it was sent to storage in 2001.

The Iowa, the lead ship of its class of the biggest, fastest and most powerful battleships ever to sail, is also the last battleship to find a permanent spot for retirement. Its sister ships are museums: the Missouri, at Pearl Harbor; the Wisconsin, in Norfolk, Va., and the New Jersey, in Camden, N.J. The Navy no longer has battleships in its fleet.

"This is the world's last battleship's final voyage," said Robert Kent, president of the Pacific Battleship Center, after signing papers allowing the group to take custody of the ship from the U.S. government early Thursday, just hours before the scheduled noon departure.

"There are no more," said Kent, standing on the ship's warped wooden main deck. "This is the close of a chapter, the chapter of battleships."


The Iowa traveled about 5 miles through shallow shoals to the Port of Benicia docks. Along the way, people watched from bridges. Up to 20 smaller boats sailed alongside, people waving. A single-engine propeller plane buzzed the ship.

After an overnight stop, the Iowa is to be towed today to a pier at Richmond, Calif., where it will undergo an exterior scraping, including the hull, and repainting, said Kent, a military historian.

When that work is finished in January, it will be towed down the California coast to the Port of Los Angeles, where the city has provided a permanent spot for use as a museum and, it is hoped, tourist anchor for future waterfront development.

The Iowa, in retirement since 1990, was one of the scores of ships that are anchored and rusting in Suisun Bay, a shallow northern extension of San Francisco Bay. The federal government has reached agreement with environmental groups, which contend the ghost fleet is a toxic waste site, to remove the ships over several years. Most are to be towed away and cut up for scrap.

The Pacific Battleship Center has raised about $5million, including $3million from the state of Iowa, toward establishing the museum, Kent said. It hopes to raise another $5 million.

Jeff Lamberti, a former Iowa legislator and fundraiser for the project, said it has enjoyed bipartisan support in Iowa, even though the state does not stand to reap economic benefit from its namesake battleship's preservation.

"There's a lot of pride in Iowa for this," said Becky Beach, of Des Moines, who has raised money and was on board Thursday.

The USS Iowa had a storied history in World War II, Korea and more recent conflicts, but is perhaps best known today for the 1989 explosion of its No. 2 gun turret that killed 47 sailors and sparked a long, disputed inquiry into the cause.

After first blaming one of the dead sailors for deliberately causing the blast, the Navy was forced by Congress to reopen its investigation. Evidence of the potential for an accidental gunpowder explosion led the Navy to reverse its finding and apologize to the sailor's family.

Veterans who served on the ship hope it will be remembered for other reasons.

Bryan Moss, 78, joined the Navy at age 18, in 1951, and after boot camp was assigned to the Iowa. He boarded it in Los Angeles and sailed for Korea, where he served as a radioman.

"It's a great ship," recalled Moss, who was not on board Thursday but looks forward to seeing it in Los Angeles. He serves on the board of directors of the USS Iowa Veterans Association, which has helped push for its preservation.

"I was old enough to remember World War II and had seen all the pictures and newsreels and stuff," he said. "You don't know what you're getting into. But I had plenty of protection with that big guy," he said of the Iowa.

The Iowa has nine 16-inch, 50-caliber guns, capable of firing shells weighing a ton or more for 20 miles, in three, three-gun turrets. Kent said its speed, firepower and special angled armor were achievements at the time unmatched by other nations.

The Iowa was commissioned in February 1943 and deployed to the Atlantic and then the Pacific. President Franklin Roosevelt traveled on it en route to a conference with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin.

The Navy installed an elevator and bathtub for Roosevelt, who used a wheelchair. The tub and captain's wardroom where he stayed were the main attractions for the few workers and visitors allowed on board Thursday. Kent said it is the only battleship ever equipped with a bathtub.

The ship weighs 45,000 tons, is 887 feet long and 108 feet wide. It could travel at up to 38 mph and displaces 38 feet of water, leaving only inches to spare in parts of Thursday's journey.
Reply With Quote