Historic battleship to become museum.

[powderman]

http://www.yahoo.com/_ylt=ArJdlsvEsCRxxDwKHaIi9WWbvZx4;_ylu=X3oDMTVsNmRqYzFzBGEDSGlzdG9yaWMgYmF0dGxlc2hpcCB0byBiZWNvbWUgbmF2YWwgbXVzZXVtIGluIENhbGlmLgRjY29kZQNwemJ1YWxsY2FoNQRjcG9zAzMEZwNpZC0yMjgwNzUwBGludGwDdXMEbWNvZGUDcHpidWFsbGNhaDUEbXBvcwMyBHBrZ3QDMgRwb3MDMQRzZWMDdGQtbndzBHNsawN0aXRsZQR0ZXN0AzcwMQR3b2UDMTI3NzUxNTA-/SIG=1383un2v0/EXP=1336934868/**http%3A//news.yahoo.com/historic-battleship-becoming-naval-museum-socal-150141738.html
 
 
 Historic Battleship Becoming Naval Museum in SoCalBy ERIC RISBERG | Associated Press – 3 hrs ago    Related Content     
 

• View Gallery AP

    RICHMOND, Calif. (AP) — Firing its 16-inch guns in the Arabian Sea, the U.S.S. Iowa shuddered. As the sky turned orange, a blast of heat from the massive guns washed over the battleship. This was the Iowa of the late 1980s, at the end of its active duty as it escorted reflagged Kuwaiti oil tankers from the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz during the Iran-Iraq war.
Some 25 years later, following years of aging in the San Francisco Bay area's "mothball fleet," the 887-foot long ship that once carried President Franklin Roosevelt to a World War II summit to meet with Churchill, Stalin and Chiang Kai Shek is coming to life once again as it is being prepared for what is most likely its final voyage.
Not far from where "Rosie the Riveters" built ships in the 1940s at the Port of Richmond, the 58,000-ton battlewagon is undergoing restoration for towing May 20 through the Golden Gate, then several hundred miles south to the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro. There it is to be transformed into an interactive naval museum.
On May 1, ownership of the Iowa was officially transferred from the U.S. Navy to the Pacific Battleship Center, the nonprofit organization that has been restoring the boat for its new mission.
"This means everything — it's going to be saved," John Wolfinbarger, 87, of San Martin, Calif., who served aboard the USS Iowa for almost two years in the mid-1940s and recently began giving public tours of the old ship during repairs here.
"When it gets down to San Pedro, it's going to be the happiest day of my life, like coming home!" he said, watching the mast being reattached.
For the past decade, the lead ship of her battleship class known as "The Big Stick" has sat in the cold and fog, anchored with other mothballed ships in nearby Suisun Bay. This spring, workers began scrubbing and painting the Iowa's exterior, replacing the teak deck and reattaching the mast in preparation for the museum commissioning on July 4.
Jonathan Williams, executive officer of Pacific Battleship Group, has been overseeing the project, which will exceed $4 million upon completion. Williams credited his dedicated his staff and volunteers, along with the financial contributions from the state of Iowa, for making the restoration possible.
"The U.S. Navy, MARAD (United States Maritime Administration) and the crew that mothballed the battleship over the past 22 years did an excellent job and kept the heart and soul of Iowa alive," said Williams.
"Things are on track and we are following our schedule as planned," he added. "We are trying to make sure nothing is missed as the process is complex."
The fast Iowa-class battleships, ordered by the Navy in 1939 and 1940, could travel at a speed of 33 knots. The Iowa, first commissioned in 1943 and again in 1951 and 1984, saw duty in World War II and the Korean War. It took part in escorting tankers in the Persian Gulf during the Iran-Iraq war before being decommissioned in 1990.
During World War II, when transferred to the Pacific Fleet in 1944, the ship shelled beachheads at Kwajalein and Eniwetok in advance of Allied amphibious landings and screened aircraft carriers operating in the Marshall Islands.
It was one of two ships of its class camouflaged during World War II— and it also was the only one with a bathtub, which was put in for President Roosevelt. The Iowa also served as the Third Fleet flagship, flying Adm. William F. Halsey's flag as it accompanied the Missouri at the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay.
A dark part of the ship's history took place in 1989, when 47 sailors were killed in an explosion in the No. 2 gun turret. After the blast, the Navy alleged a crewmember caused the explosion as a result of a failed relationship with another male crewmember. A follow-up investigation found the explosion was most likely the result of human error.
Most visitors are immediately drawn to the sight and firepower of the Iowa's nine16-inch guns, which could send an armor-piercing shell the weight of a small car 24 miles. When the ship was modernized during the 1980s, it was outfitted with Tomahawk cruise missiles, Harpoon anti-ship missiles and Phalanx gun mounts. It was also one of the first ships outfitted to carry a drone for reconnaissance flights.
Future plans for the Iowa include an interactive tour experience that will allow the visitor to experience what life at sea was like during active duty. Among the highlights will be viewing the inside of one of the main gun turrets, seeing the 17.5-inch armored conning station on the bridge and viewing Roosevelt's stateroom.
There will also be tours of secondary weapons, missiles, engineering, armor and special spaces. An ADA accessibility plan calls for an elevator to be installed from the main deck to one below for access to the main exhibit areas. The museum is scheduled to open

[yellowtail3]

Iowa... oh yeah... that's the ship where the Navy tried to Blame It On The Gay Guy. Small prob was, he wasn't gay, and the navy gundecked the investigation. I was very ashamed of my navy (and I was in it at that time).


Lessee... Iowa makes... what, six battleships to tour? I say scrap it before we get battleship overload... well... alright, the west coast needs one. We've got two more interesting South Dakotas preserved, and they're pretty much the same except shorter and still in near-original configuration. Then there's the magnificent North Carolina.



And if you really want to get your dreadnought on, see the Texas.

[scratcherky]

The explosion on the IOWA also was not human error, at least not aboard ship. It was a powder problem.

[streak]

The explosion on the IOWA also was not human error, at least not aboard ship. It was a powder problem.

My youngest son was standing watch on the U.S.S Yorktown and actually saw the explosion on the Iowa.

[two-blocked]

I'll second the Texas!
They let you wander all over the ship. Little scary with kids on the exposed stairs and little handrail

[powderman]

We toured the N Carolina years ago at Wilmington NC, loved it. From what I remember about the explosion if I remember correctly an xtra bag of powder was the culprit. When it was shoved in the pressure set it off. Deliberate?? Who knows. I'd sure like to see those big guns fire. POWDERMAN. 

[scratcherky]

An extra bag of powder was NOT the culprit and it was certainly not deliberate or intentional.

[yellowtail3]

An extra bag of powder was NOT the culprit and it was certainly not deliberate or intentional.

True... despite what the Navy said at the time.

[Cuts Crooked]

1989 turret explosion Main article: USS Iowa turret explosion    Heavy smoke pours from Turret Two following an internal explosion on 19 April 1989.
 
During a gunnery exercise, at 0955^[37] on 19 April 1989, an explosion ripped through the Number Two 16-inch (410 mm) gun turret, killing 47 crewmen. A gunner in the powder magazine room quickly flooded the #2 powder magazine, likely preventing catastrophic damage to the ship.^[38] At first, Naval Investigative Service (N.I.S., later renamed Naval Criminal Investigative Service or NCIS) investigators theorized that one of the dead crewmen, Clayton Hartwig, had detonated an explosive device in a suicide attempt after the end of an alleged affair with another sailor.^[38][39] To support this claim, naval officials pointed to several different factors, including Hartwig's life insurance policy, which named Kendall Truitt as the sole beneficiary in the event of his death,^[40] the presence of unexplained materials inside Turret II,^[41] and his mental state, which was alleged to be unstable.^[42][43]
Although the Navy was satisfied with the investigation and its results,^[39] others were unimpressed,^[42] and in October 1991, amid increasing criticism, Congress forced the Navy to reopen the investigation.^[38] This second investigation, handled by independent investigators, was hampered by the fact that most of the original debris from Iowa had been cleaned up or otherwise disposed of by the Navy before and after the first investigation,^[39][40][44] but it did uncover evidence pointing to an accidental powder explosion rather than an intentional act of sabotage.^[38][43][45]
While Iowa was undergoing modernization in the early 1980s, her sister ship New Jersey had been dispatched to Lebanon to aid the peacekeeping forces by providing offshore fire support.^[46] At the time, New Jersey was the only commissioned battleship anywhere in the world, and it was found that, in an effort to get another battleship commissioned to relieve New Jersey, the modernization of Iowa was stepped up, leaving her in poor condition when she recommissioned in 1984.^[40] It was also determined that Captain Fred Moosally was more concerned with the maintenance of the missiles than the training and manning of guns.^[47]
Powder from the same lot as the one under investigation was tested at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division. Spontaneous combustion was achieved with the powder, which had been originally milled in the 1930s and improperly stored in a barge at the Navy's Yorktown, Virginia Naval Weapons Station during a 1988 dry-docking of Iowa.^{[38][39][40][43]} As it degrades, gunpowder gives off ether gas, which is highly flammable and could be ignited by a spark. This revelation resulted in a shift in the Navy's position on the incident, and Admiral Frank Kelso, the Chief of Naval Operations at the time, publicly apologized to the Hartwig family, concluding that there was no real evidence to support the claim that he had intentionally killed the other sailors.^{[38][40][43][48]} Iowa captain Fred Moosally was severely criticized for his handling of the matter, and as a result of the incident the Navy changed the powder-handling procedures for its battleships.^[45] The incident remains the surface Navy's worst loss of life during peacetime operations, surpassing the loss of life incurred from the attack of an Iraqi Air Force jet on the Oliver Hazard Perry-class guided missile frigate USS Stark.^[49]

[yellowtail3]

I was on one of the ships that New Jersey relieved off Beirut. She had bigger guns than we did. A note: her gunfire support, while an impressive display from a distance, was terrible - very ragged, accuracy-wise. The navy had remixed powders, crossed lot numbers, and so had big velocity variations shot-to-shot. Took a while to get that sorted out for the 16"/50 in the 80s.


Nice photo on the Texas - I'll guess that's one of the pre-war 3"/50s that she got in the late 20s and kept forever. All the WW1 standards after her got the 5"/25cal during their modernizations...

[powderman]

CUTS. Thanks for the info. POWDERMAN.