By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter
A Vallejo-based group that formed about 15 years ago is still on its mission to move the USS Iowa from its anchorage in Suisun Bay and turn it into a Bay Area museum.
That’s in spite of the U.S. Navy’s announcement May 13 that it plans to reopen bidding on the Iowa, though it’s limiting those bids to California-based groups.
It’s just another hurdle for the Historic Ships Memorial at Pacific Square in its long-term quest to rescue a battleship, said Marilyn Wong, president and founding member of the group.
HSMPS has undertaken the longest effort to preserve the Iowa since it decided not only to turn a ship into a museum, but also to create a development that would include other museums, a park, cafes and retail stores surrounding the historic battleship.
“I kind of started it,” Wong said, recalling a living room conversation about battleships. Someone said, “Wouldn’t it be cool to save a ship like that?” she recalled.
The group didn’t start out to save the Iowa, nor did it originally set out to move the battleship to Vallejo. Initially, the group tried to acquire the Missouri, a sister ship that ultimately was moved to Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
They didn’t succeed, but the work wasn’t in vain, Wong said.
“With our contacts and what we learned, we decided to ask, ‘What other ships do you have available?’ The Navy said, ‘We have the Iowa.’”
The ship became available for donation in 1996, Wong said, the same year she founded her organization to obtain a battleship. Then Congress mandated that the Navy keep two Iowa-class ships in service. Suddenly their targeted ship was unavailable. Undaunted, the group kept working on its proposal.
Members began meeting with the California congressional delegation, including Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, who helped win an appropriations to have the ship moved from the East Coast to Suisun Bay.
They’ve sought members throughout the country. They’ve won the support of the state of Iowa, the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Foundation in New York, and many veterans’ groups, including an organization of those who served aboard the Iowa. Author Tom Clancy agreed to be the honorary campaign chairman and has written an eloquent plea for the cause.
Through the years, Wong and her compatriots have met with people and encouraged them to work on the project “for the good of the community at large and a place in world history, too. It’s an opportunity to make a significant, positive difference.”
In 2006, the Iowa again became available for donation, and Wong’s group was ready for the year-long bidding process. “Ours was the only viable bid,” she said. She never expected to have to go through the bidding process again. But the project is too important, she said, to abandon.
Wong said the battleship’s rescue, as well as the larger development, is something that could perk up Vallejo, which recently has struggled with its finances and unemployment. “The ship can be a significant factor in economic development,” she said.
Her group has projected up to 400,000 visitors would go to south Solano County to see the ship. It could impact the city’s economy, education and charitable activities as well as revitalize the city’s waterfront, Wong said.
“You can teach on the ship — math, science, vocational and engineering,” she said. The ship itself is full of history, “and you can touch it.”
It also could help south Solano County in an emergency, Wong said. “It’s seismic-proof. You can use it as an emergency command center. It floats.”
Originally, the group planned to put the Iowa in San Francisco until the Board of Supervisors rejected the idea. The group switched its goal to Mare Island, hoping to berth the ship in the docks that now are under consideration for recycling the obsolete ships that will be moved out of the Reserve Fleet. But there’s also a site several ship-lengths from that area Wong said could work.
The Iowa, nicknamed “The Big Stick” because of its length, is moored in Suisun Bay in the same row as the covered barge that houses the stealth ship Sea Shadow; the two are bookends to the row, with the barge closer to Benicia and the Iowa nearer Contra Costa County.
Launched in 1943, the Iowa carried President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to the Cairo and Tehran conferences during World War II. Because Roosevelt was disabled by polio, the Iowa was equipped with a specially designed bathtub — the only one installed on a Navy war ship — to accommodate him.
While in service, it earned nine battle stars in WWII and two during the Korean War. The lead ship of her class, the Iowa was the only ship of her size to serve in both the Atlantic and the Pacific during WWII. The Iowa joined her sister ship Missouri to oversee the surrender of the Japanese.
That ceremony took place aboard the Missouri, but the Iowa served as Admiral William F. Halsey’s flagship during the event and remained in Japan until returning to Seattle, carrying American soldiers and liberated U.S. prisoners of war.
Afterward, the Iowa became a training ship, the flagship of several admirals and commanders, a participant in nuclear tests, a humanitarian operations vessel and a military presence protecting other nations. The ship set a record for the longest-ranged 16-inch shell ever fired.
The Iowa also is known for an explosion April 19, 1989, that tore through a gun turret and killed 47 crewmen. One gunner flooded a powder magazine, which may have prevented further damage. An initial investigation by the Navy suggested one of the dead crewmen might have caused the explosion to commit suicide, but prodded by Congress, the Navy contracted an independent examination that suggested an accidental powder explosion may have occurred because the powder hadn’t been stored correctly.
The Iowa had other duties, including participating in the Tanker War phase of the Iran-Iraq War, escorting Kuwaiti gas and oil tankers from the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz.
“It’s known for its armament and its sleek architecture,” Wong said. “Our group cares about these things. It’s important for future generations to know about the past. It challenges the future: ‘Why was this built? Why does it have 16-inch guns?’”
Their latest obstacle has been the economic downturn, which has made fundraising a particular challenge, she said.
“I’ve been involved in the financial end of a variety of projects,” Wong said. For some, getting the equipment was an issue, but the fundraising was easy. For other projects, fundraising was challenging, but getting the equipment was a breeze.
Acquiring the Iowa has no easy angles, she said.
“It’s a challenge. Some people thrive on what’s difficult, and I have an appreciation for it,” she said.
The Navy’s impatience with her organization’s fundraising disappoints Wong. “In 2008 and 2009, we had a recession. It’s not easy raising money for a turnkey process. We’re up against memorials, and we don’t have the ship yet.”
However, the group has pledges of $1 million. It also has a website, www.battleshipiowa.org, where people can learn about the Iowa, see the group’s supporters, make donations or buy Iowa-related merchandise that helps the organization. Those interested also may call 707-643-IOWA (4692) or e-mail HSMPS at infor@battleshipiowa.org.
If anything, the Navy’s new search for bids has made Wong’s organization even more determined, she said. Competitors who wanted to move the Iowa to Stockton and Long Beach have come and gone, Wong said. “We’re the only party with an active bid,” she said.
“We hope to raise $17 million,” she said. They’ll use it to dredge so that the 34 1/2-foot draft ship can be towed into place and to pay for the towing and the ship’s restoration.
“There’s no dull moment with this process,” Wong said.
“It’s a gargantuan task.”
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