Battleship USS Iowa is pushed stern first by tugboats on Suisun Bay Thursday, Oct. 27, 2011, in Benicia, Calif.
Battleship USS Iowa is pushed stern first by tugboats on Suisun Bay Thursday, Oct. 27, 2011, in Benicia, Calif.
Great news, a lot of us had written off Iowa.
los angeles is a dump now.
so, so what?
Anyone think we will ever see another platform similiar to a battleship, but with nuke propulsion and the Navy’s railgun system?
Hell...I say put in a pair of nuke reactors, replace one of her turrets with a high pwer laser, load her up with every type of missile and cruise missle we have and run her up and down the coast of Red China 24/7.
Oh, and replace all that old 16 inch ammo with new.
Trivia question(s): How often does one of these relic battlewagons require repainting below the waterline, and where can such drydocking be accomplished?
But I hope they keep her in a state of readiness, according to Law, the Navy is too keep Two Iowa Class Battleships (Iowa and Wisconsin) in Military Reserve should they ever be needed again, or fire support has advanced too the navy's need, which hasn't happened yet.
Anyway, here is picture of Me when she first arrived in the Mothball fleet back in June of 2001 (I was just a kid) the nice harbor master, who said he served on Missouri during Korea, was kind enough to take me and my dad on his boat to get up close to her. My Internet is being slow as hell, so Here is just one Picture. I will try to get more up later.
It's good she'll get proper care in her old age.
There's no substitute for a 21 inch keel, over 12 inches on the sides and 5 inches on the deck...of Class A armored steel.
She could do 35 knots and cruise 12,000 miles on her own without refueling...delivering Satan's own hell once she arrived.
A ship like this would be difficult to take out today, much less over 60 years ago.
I was a pilot aboard the USS Coral Sea in the summer of 1989. Iowa joined us in the Med later in the deployment. One of the most memorable moments of that cruise was walking up on deck and seeing her plying the water next to us.
