USS Iowa like the boll weevil. Looking for A home.
 

Apparently, the USS Iowa, orphaned by both San Francisco & Stockton's rejections, sits forlornly at the Suisun Reserve Fleet off my old home town of Benicia.

All, however, is not lost. Vallejo is bidding to permanantly homeport her on the site of the old Mare Island Naval Shipyard, where USS California(BB-44) was built. Below is a link to the organization trying to get here there.




http://www.battleshipiowa.org/





http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/8431/ussiowadu0.jpg

I'll take it since nobody else seems to want her :arrgh!:

Looks like a job for the Intrepid Museum in NY.

I agree. That museum is great:arrgh!:

It used to be docked here in Narragansett bay next to the Saratoga which they are planning to make into a museum. The Iowa would have made a fine addition to it but those California jerks made the government haul it all the way over there only to reject her at the last moment.

The worst part is what it cost to transport it would have been enough to fit both the Sara and the Iowa up. :nope:

It should be re-commisioned. That ship is the only military weapon to silence Iran in the past. All it did to silence Iran is to simply sail into the Persian Gulf.

Something to be said for Battleship diplomacy.

-S

Yeah, it's a really big version of listening to a pump shotgun shell be chambered.

I lived in Benicia when I was about 12 for like 3 years...small world.We lived outside of town and could see that place where they park those ships from our house.

Where & when? I lived at 470 East O St. Right off the 5th st offramp behind King's Market/auto parts store. I went to Mills School for 4th & 5th grades & Robert Semple for 6th. 7th & 8th at the old Intermediate School across the street from Mills. Graduated BHS in 1972.

Strangely enough, while living in Pasadena, I lived 1/2 block off of Colorado Blvd near Sierra Madre for 8 years. So I could watch the whole parade on TV as the cameras were all up on Orange Grove Ave. by the Norton Simon Museum. Then, when it was over, I could walk up 1/2 block just in time to see it coming down the street. One year I woke up late for the telecast after a libatious New Year's Eve party and just had time to get my wife & I up there with our stepladders(a must for any Rose Parade). So, imagine my surprise to see the Benicia High School Panther Marching Band coming down the street.
It was a great scene.

Agreed ...

It's so well built it should be kept updated and made nukepowered also.
A Nukepowered Iowa Class Battleship.... with all the bells and whistles....:rock: :rock: :rock: :rock: :rock: :sunny: :sunny: :sunny: :sunny: :sunny:

Did the Iowa go through a refit? From the looks of that picture its still in its 1940s configuration :hmm:

This is the USS Wisconsin in her post-1980s refit configuration (sorry for oversized image) Looks different from Iowa

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...sconsin_bb.JPG

Agreed. And as Oliver North poited out, a terrorist attack like that on the USS Cole is impossible against the Iowa class. They can blow up all the boats they want right next to it and the Iowa would be impervious to it. Sailors might get upset at having to repaint the area is all.

-S

It got outfitted with cruise missiles.

You can clearly see the 2 pair of Tomahawk launchers on the port and starboard sides 2/3 down the ship.