At the crucial stages of the Second World War the United
States Navy was relying more and more on heavy artillery warships like the
battleship as beach landings in the Pacific and aerial bombardment became vital
to retaking the islands from the Japanese. The Iowa
class battleship was some of the largest warships in the navy and consisted of
the Iowa , Missouri ,
New Jersey and Wisconsin . The building of two more
were cancelled.
After serving in both the Atlantic and Pacific fleets, the Iowa was in Tokyo Bay
for the official Japanese surrender on 2nd September 1945. She was
decommissioned in 1949 but brought back into service to serve in the Korean War
just two years later. Serving for another 7 years she was once again
decommissioned and entered the reserve fleet in Philadelphia where she would be left alone.
In 1984 it was decided to once again place her into active
service and despite being mothballed for 26 years she was upgraded and brought
into the modern day combat initiative.
On 19th April 1989 she was in the Caribbean sea
off the island of
Puerto Rico and, after
training with the drill rounds had taken place, it was scheduled in for the
ship to conduct a live firing of her main turrets.
At 0953 that morning turret number two suffered a massive
explosion. At first they were unsure of how bad the damage was, until they
managed to enter the area and found that a fireball had ripped through several
decks and set off further explosions several minutes later.
All 47 members of the gun crew of Turret Two were dead. Fire teams entered the damaged area cooling the turret and extinguished the fire inside.
In what became a scandalous investigation, the US Navy lay
the blame on a suicidal crew member deliberately sabotaging the exercise using
a chemical or electronic detonator on the explosives and killing his shipmates.
The first reports suggested it was because he was in a homosexual relationship
with another crew member that had gone sour, although they could find no
evidence of any of this.
The relatives of the deceased piled pressure on the
government to reopen the investigation and after further inquiries it was
finally agreed that it was NOT the result of a suicidal killer but in fact
accidental detonation caused by an over ram of the powder bags in the gun. The
US Navy disagreed with the findings and stated that the cause was in fact a
mystery. They have never apologised to the relatives of the men blamed.
The USS Iowa was finally decommissioned for
the final time in 1990 and struck off the navy register in 2006. So began a
campaign to have her preserved as a museum by enthusiasts and ship lovers.
After several years of legal wrangling she was towed to San Pedro in California to be opened
as a museum ship in 2011 where she is berthed to this day. She is a work in
progress and continues to gather funding, maintenance, volunteers and work to
keep her looking pristine. Together they make sure that this fine battleship is
preserved for everybody to see and enjoy.
I came to visit the Iowa
in February 2016 with my wife and found the ship spellbinding. She has a
fascinating history which is told by the veterans and volunteers that are still
on board to tell the visitors of her glory days gone by. Shiny new paintwork
and the original equipment makes this ship a marvel for anybody who takes the
time to look around her decks and imagine what life was like when she was brand
new over 75 years ago.
Walking over to Turret Two there was a memorial plaque to
the 47 crew who died in the explosion and wreaths to remember them most likely
laid by the families of the victims. This ensures that this disaster is also
part of her history and that despite the tragedy of it, nobody can turn a blind
eye to what happened here.
surrender was signed on sister Missouri in Tokyo Bay Iowa was next to her as Fleet radio broadcast ship , Iowa was mothballed in 1958 at Philadelphia in 5 years Wisconsin&New Jersey came there & berthed together until Aug 1967 when N.J. was pulled out to reactivate for VN Iowa left Philly in 1983 to reactivate , at Mississippi shipyard so did Wisconsin , 4 years later
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