Long a member of the Suisun Reserve Fleet, battleship to open as museum July 7

By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter

The USS Iowa is being prepared for its entry to Los Angeles Harbor, where the famous battleship will be transformed into a floating museum.

The ship, which for years had been moored in the Maritime Administration’s Reserve Fleet in Suisun Bay, was towed in October to the Port of Richmond, where it underwent months of examination and repairs in anticipation of its move south.

While in Richmond, workers replaced the damaged portion of the Iowa’s teak deck and reattached the mast that had to be removed so the battleship would clear the Benicia-Martinez Bridge when it left the Reserve Fleet.

The ship also received a scrubbing and a new coat of paint.

Weather delayed the great ship’s departure from Richmond, originally scheduled for May 20, until the 26th. But that delay gave Pacific Battleship Center, the ship’s new owners, the chance to tow the Iowa under the Golden Gate Bridge during Sunday’s celebration of that span’s 75th birthday.

Pulled by the Crowley Maritime Corporation’s 7,200-horsepower tugboat Warrior, the Iowa was saluted by officers and crew members of the USS Decatur as it passed by the St. Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco en route to the Pacific Ocean.

Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus announced in September that the Navy had chosen the Pacific Battleship Center, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization, over Vallejo-based group Historic Ships Memorial at Pacific Square. It was the last of the Iowa-class battleships available for donation.

The trip south “is the final journey for the USS Iowa on open water,” Robert Kent, president of the PBC, said.

Before the ship can be taken into the Port of Los Angeles, however, it must have its hull cleaned, said Bob Rogers, the center’s Northern California spokesman.

That scrubbing will take place several miles off the coast of Seal Beach before the Iowa is towed to its new home in San Pedro. Muldoon Marine Services is handling the hull cleaning, and the company’s president, Richard Barta, said his team of about eight commercial divers will need two to four days to finish the job, depending on how much marine life has accumulated beneath the battleship’s waterline.

He said the divers will use special underwater hydraulic tools to scrub the hull, propellers and rudders free of the marine growth. A compressor on the surface feeds air through an umbilical cord to the divers, he said, an arrangement that allows the divers to stay underwater longer than if they used back-mounted tanks.

Barta also was involved in the hull cleaning of the USS New Jersey 30 years ago. That ship, nicknamed the Black Dragon, also is an Iowa-class ship.

He said he has anticipated boater interest in the World War II-era Iowa, but the PBC has issued a statement that the U.S. Coast Guard is requiring those in other craft to remain at least 100 yards away from the vessel.

“Pacific Battleship Center requests that this perimeter is respected for the safety of the vessel and divers that will be cleaning the hull,” the statement
said.

Barta added, “It’s extremely important that everyone stay at least 500 feet away when we display the ‘Alpha flag,’ which means we have divers in the water. All watercraft should keep well clear at slow speed. We do not want any boats at close range, where they could cut the divers’ cords or harm the divers themselves.”

The Alpha flag is an international maritime signal that is white on its blunt end and blue on its forked end.

Once the hull cleaning is finished, harbor tugs will guide the Iowa into Berth 51 of the Los Angeles Outer Harbor, where it will remain until June 9, Barta said.

From there, the ship will travel to its permanent home at Berth 87 of the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro.

Those interested in the ship may follow its progress online.

Pacific Battleship Center media spokesperson Lisa Lacher said Wednesday the battleship will be the site of a reunion of USS Iowa veterans July 2-6, an event that also will encompass Independence Day July 4.

“The Veterans Association of the USS Iowa is extremely pleased and proud that our ship is being returned to her original beauty and glory as a museum memorial,” Association President Gerald Gneckow said.

“Many of our members who served aboard during World War II and Korea are now quite elderly. For them, the opportunity to set foot aboard their ship once again is the answer to a prayer.”

The ship’s grand opening as a museum is scheduled for July 7.

Admission to the Iowa will be $18 for adults, $15 for seniors, and $10 for those 6 to 17 years old and retired military personnel with valid ID. There will be no admission charge for active military personnel, including reservists, for children younger than 5 and for Iowa residents with valid identification.

The USS Iowa museum will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily except Thanksgiving and Christmas. Visitors will learn the ship’s history as it served in World War II, the Korean war and the Cold War, and participate in special programs on history, leadership, team building, character development and community service.

The USS Iowa, nicknamed “The Big Stick” for its length, was commissioned in 1943, 1951 and 1984. It carried President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to the Cairo and Tehran conferences with Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin and Chiang Kai-shek during World War II.

As a result, it is the only warship to have a bath tub, added to accommodate the president’s disability caused by polio.

The Iowa became Admiral William F. Halsey’s flagship for the surrender of the Japanese, and on its return to the United States carried American soldiers and liberated prisoners of war.

Called “the Battleship of Presidents,” the ship also carried Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

The ship is taller than a 15-story building, and is 887 feet long.

In addition to serving in other wars, the Iowa also escorted tankers in the Persian Gulf during the Iran-Iraq war before it was decommissioned in 1990.