Q&A: Historic Iowa Battleship
Q: How is the U.S.S. Iowa battleship to become a museum?
A: The U.S. Navy announced this month that this historic battleship will be donated to the Pacific Battleship Center, a non-profit organization, for permanent berthing and public display at the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro, California. The Navy donates historic ships to promote public interest in national defense, to commemorate naval history and heritage, and to honor the men and women who built and sailed these ships. In 2005, I worked with a coalition of senators to get a provision included in the annual National Defense Authorization Act to put the U.S.S. Iowa into donation status. This allowed private groups to compete for the opportunity to preserve the ship as a museum though the Navy's ship donation program. I have closely followed the process ever since as various groups sought to prove to the Navy that they had the necessary plans, berthing location, and funding to operate a viable ship museum. The U.S.S. Iowa was decommissioned in 1990. It has been in the Navy's reserve fleet, which is sometimes called the mothball fleet. Had the ship not been placed in donation status, and had a group not come forward that was willing and able to preserve the ship as a museum, then our state's namesake ship and all the history she represents could have been sold as scrap. It’s very good news that the Navy has now determined that the Pacific Battleship Center has met the requirements for donation, meaning the U.S.S. Iowa will be preserved so that the public will be able to visit the ship and learn about its illustrious history.
Q: What makes the U.S.S. Iowa so special?
A: The U.S.S. Iowa was a leader of a class of powerful and heavily armed fast battleships known as the Iowa Class, the last of their type constructed for the U.S. Navy. Other ships in this class were the U.S.S. New Jersey, the U.S.S. Missouri, and the U.S.S. Wisconsin. Much of the U.S.S. Iowa’s original crew was made up of Iowans, including its first commanding officer, Captain John McCrea. This ship transported President Franklin D. Roosevelt across the Atlantic Ocean for the first part of his trip to conference with Allied war leaders in Tehran, Iran, in 1943, and had a special bathtub built for the President's use. The U.S.S. Iowa served in fast carrier task forces in the Pacific Fleet and conducted shore bombardments during World War II and the Korean War. It participated in U.S. Navy operations to protect Kuwaiti tankers from Iranian attacks in 1987 and 1988.
