Posted on 08/20/2005 10:25:19 AM PDT by Jet Jaguar
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The USS Iowa joined in battles from World War II to Korea to the Persian Gulf. It carried President Franklin Roosevelt home from the Teheran conference of allied leaders, and four decades later, suffered one of the nation's most deadly military accidents.
Veterans groups and history buffs had hoped that tourists in San Francisco could walk the same teak decks where sailors dodged Japanese machine-gun fire and fired 16-inch guns that helped win battles across the South Pacific.
Instead, it appears that the retired battleship is headed about 80 miles inland, to Stockton, a gritty agricultural port town on the San Joaquin River and home of California's annual asparagus festival.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., a former San Francisco mayor, helped secure $3 million to tow the Iowa from Rhode Island to the Bay Area in 2001 in hopes of making touristy Fisherman's Wharf its new home.
But city supervisors voted 8-3 last month to oppose taking in the ship, citing local opposition to the Iraq war and the military's stance on gays, among other things.
"If I was going to commit any kind of money in recognition of war, then it should be toward peace, given what our war is in Iraq right now," Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi said.
Feinstein called it a "very petty decision."
"This isn't the San Francisco that I've known and loved and grew up in and was born in," Feinstein said.
San Francisco's maritime museum already has one military vessel - the USS Pampanito, an attack submarine that sank six Japanese ships during World War II and has about 110,000 visitors a year.
Officials in Stockton couldn't be happier. They've offered a dock on the river, a 90,000-square-foot waterfront building and a parking area, and hope to attract at least 125,000 annual visitors.
After the Korean war, the Iowa was decommissioned and placed in reserve in a Philadelphia shipyard for three decades. In 1988, it was recalled to duty escorting oil supply ships safely in and out danger in the Persian Gulf. In 1989, 47 sailors were killed in an explosion that tore through a gun turret during a training exercise.
The warship, decommissioned by the Navy in 1990, is currently anchored with a mothballed fleet in Suisun Bay, near the mouth of the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta.
San Francisco's rejection of such a storied battleship is a slap in the nation's face, said Douglass Wilhoit, head of Stockton's Chamber of Commerce.
"We're lucky our men and women have sacrificed their lives ... to protect our freedom," Wilhoit said. "Wherever you stand on the war in Iraq ... you shouldn't make a decision based on philosophy."
Rep. Richard W. Pombo, R-Calif., has sponsored legislation authorizing the ship's permanent move to Stockton. Feinstein has countered with a bill to open bidding to any California city.
The two versions will have to be reconciled by a House-Senate conference committee considering the Pentagon spending bill.
AP-ES-08-20-05 1219EDT
LOL
it's pretty funny that the democratic party has moved even further left than FEINSTEIN !!
ROFL !
I wonder how long it will be before she is speaking at the Republican convention blasting her party !
ROFL !
Iowa sitting in Suisun Bay.
yup , you nailed it,post #4 , thanks FreedomPoster , its like leftie parents , overly permissive with their children's upbringing , aren't given even simple respect from their children
Hey, Feinstein! Give Wisconsin 3 Million and you can permanently dock it somewhere along Lake Michigan. We in the "Flyover States" have a respect and appreciation for our military history.
San Fran doesn't DESERVE a ship that grand docked on her shores!
What a totally asinine statement. You must visit parts of town I haven't yet.
I've only lived in Stockton 7 years.
"This isn't the San Francisco that I've known and loved and grew up in and was born in," Feinstein said.
You have made it what it is today, Diane.
Very cool pics! Thanks.
Self-righteous prig. The AIDS virus that was spread--peacefully, of course--in your bathhouses has already killed more people than the wars in Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq put together.
BULLSHIT !
I worked in Stockton until 1996. So if they've ungone a major redevelopment of the downtown, eastside and south side, I apologize. Perhaps you can give us an up-to-date list of all the tourist attractions which are more popular.
Thanks for the ping!
Better yet, close any military bases , Navy bases, and withdraw any military from San Francisco, withdraw any military funding that goes to S.F. and let them fend for themselves economically, and militarily, let them be sitting ducks.
With nothing against the good people of Stockton, but why didn't the Intrepid Museum in NYC grab the Iowa?
San Franthithco is unworthy of this great battleship.
Heck, let's get it back here to NY -- It would be wonderful to have the Iowa docked next to the Intrepid. Besides, Iowa was built in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. It would be a homecoming.
Psst,..they already did that.
About time Feinstein woke up and realized that San Francisco has become the bowels of the nation. Bitter Marxist ideology will do that to a person, a city, a political party and, as the Soviet Union finally learned, to an entire people if left unchecked.
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