FDR, CHT, Holiday Boat Parade, and Thoughts

71 years ago President Franklin D. Rooselvelt and US military leadership was on board IOWA for the transit to the Teheran conference.  As many of our followers know, our curator was able to locate photos of this voyage last year during his visit to the National Archives.  We also were able to locate the butler record from the 1943 voyage to identify where his entourage stayed.  It is quite incredible to look in the staterooms where the likes of General George Marshall, Admiral William Leahy, Admiral Ernest King, and General Hap Arnold stayed.  To many of us, this is one of the most historic areas of the ship.

Today's crew of the IOWA continues to focus on bringing alive both the ship and stories of her service.  The stories are too numerous to mention, but are not possible without the dedication of our visitors and previous crew of USS Iowa.  Please continue to send in your stories and photos or post them on our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pacificbattleship.

One such story that we will begin to focus on next year will be Victory the Dog.  Victory was the mascot on board from 1943 to 1949 and was a mischievous little dog.  Today, we highlight his voyage on board through the Victory the Dog scavenger hunt.  Next year, we are looking to introduce new education and tour programs for youth and families to enjoy the IOWA through Victory.  To learn more about Victory, please visit http://www.pacificbattleship.com/page/victory.

Stan Sato busy at work on the deck.
Photo by Ross Tipps

George Musulin getting
ready to enter CHT

This week began with a high level of excitement because we are very close to having heads on board. Potable water / CHT system testing and adjusting continued with the OPS team activating CHT pumps for the first time in 24 years.  I am proud to see the dedication by crew members that are focused on bringing alive our Camp Battleship program.  You can see George getting ready to enter a CHT tank to the right.  This is a process that requires confined entry training, constant monitoring, and two people at all time to prevent an unsafe condition.  Our operations team is dedicated to being safe and bringing alive the Battleship IOWA.  Not only was the team working on CHT but they have the water system live all of the way to the CHT tanks!  Way to go team!  They also continued there work on painting the berthing areas, maintaining the wood decks, fire alarms and sprinklers, and the daily tasks of operating the museum.  A big thank you to the entire OPS team for what they do.  I know we don't always mention everyone, but you are appreciated!

I want to complement the entire crew for maintaining the ship and keep it up to snuff.  This is very difficult to do on our tight budget, but everyone on the crew continues to pitch in.  This past Monday I took a tour of the ship from 011 level down to 4th deck.  A complete walk that takes quite a bit of time.  I have to commend the veterans that served on the ship for running around all day on this massive vessel.  What a work out!  She looks great and is under constant maintenance.

Not only does the crew perform the normal tasks of security, tours, administration, education, marketing, and operations - they also come together to help spread the word of our museum.  This is a difficult task in a populated area such as Los Angeles.  Thank you to the crew, our supporters, and members for handing out literature, telling their friends, and helping us spread the word to future visitors.


A few of the latest reviews on TripAdvisor highlights our commitment to a great experience.  We provide both a positive experience for veterans and families with reviews such as these:

"Had a great time visiting the USS IOWA! We took my father who is a Vietnam veteran and not only did they announce his arrival thanking him for his service over the PA system but they were nice enough to track down the key to one of the gun mounts so my dad could show us where he sat. It was very moving for him and ment a lot to us. Thank you for a beautiful moment!"  Tawnya Thurman

"Took my Grandkids here for the tour. They took a real good interest on the visit here and was amazed by the size of the ship and the history around it. They really enjoyed the video clip that was shown. I would recommend taking the family there and I would definitely go back as they open up other sections up."   jOrtega058

Reviews like this have made us #9 on TripAdvisor.  We have a long way to go to spread the word and increase our visitation, but every little bit helps.

This week in the Captain's Cabin, we had a few supporters of the IOWA join us for a special evening to help increase awareness among the donor community.  A few of our board members joined us in welcoming this group of people and soliciting feedback in our future programs.  It turned out to be a great brainstorming session that will lead to future relationships.  Thank you to our supporters for putting on this event.

On Wednesday, the San Pedro Chamber of Commerce voted to support our recent lease amendment for permanent shore power at the IOWA.  We have been working over a year with the Port of Los Angeles to get permanent power installed and bring us in compliance with SCAQMD.  Part of this process includes providing Business and Marketing Plans to the Port, which we did so this week.  These plans will help us stay focused and on track in the future.  We expect our lease amendment to go before the Harbor Commission the first half of December and we will need all of the support we can muster to show how important IOWA is to the Waterfront.

We continued our work on building relationship with potential education partners.  This week we worked with ITEP and LAUSD in assembling a guiding document for our future programs.  We are excited about these programs coming together next year.  Our program will have a focus on STEAM education and help expand our reach to youth.  We are still looking for donors to these programs and hope to have this solidified early 2015.

Please join us for our Holiday Boat Parade on December 6th.  We have started pushing hard for this event, as we light up the ship for all to see.  This will be an exciting event for all to participate in.  For more information, visit http://www.pacificbattleship.com/page/holiday.

In closing, I ask everyone to keep those crew members and supporters that are going through difficult health and family challenges during the holidays.  The past week has been especially challenging for numerous crew members and their health.  These folks are important to our crew family and I ask that we keep them in our thoughts.

Please enjoy the photos below by Ross Tipps this past week.

Photo by Ross Tipps

Photo by Ross Tipps