Heads, Holiday Parade, Pearl Harbor Day, and the future

It has been about a week and a half since we last posted on our blog.  In that short period, a lot happens.  I want to start out by thanking everyone that gave me an outpouring of support when my young son ended up in the hospital for appendicitis.  His perforated appendix was removed by a great pediatric surgeon and I am happy to say he went home this afternoon.  His mother stood by his side 24 hours a day and he is doing great today!  When visiting him in the hospital, I noticed all of the young kids that are struggling to get healthy again from a variety of illnesses.  I ask everyone to keep these young people in your thoughts over the holidays, as they will definitely need it.

Massive rain at the Port of Los Angeles

We have heads on board the ship!!!  The ops team pulled long, hard hours to get us to the point that we can actually use a toilet on board.  This is a major accomplishment that we are all very proud of.  We kept much of the heads the same as they were in the 1980's, but upgraded systems that were out of order to eliminate leaks and make them work.  As with everything on the ship, we do our best to make it an authentic experience and the heads are no different.  Thank you to everyone involved over the past year to bring this to fruition.


As many of you know, we had a massive rain storm blow through the past week.  As always, we find minor leaks throughout the ship that we have to fix and clean up.  This rain storm was no different and our crew has been hard at work cleaning up the water and fixing the leaks.

Holiday up-lights on Turret 3.
Photo by Ross Tipps.

In addition to the heads and leaks, the crew came together to install Christmas lights.  The ship looks great!  On Saturday, December 6th, we hosted over 400 people for the annual Holiday Light Parade event.  We had Santa on board, crafts with kids by Crafted, numerous holiday decorations, and a firing of the 5" gun by the safe gun crew!  A big thank you to the entire Battleship IOWA team and a special thank you to Jamie Perez, Todd Caleca, the Ops Team, the Gun Crew, Security Team, Tour Team, Kohls (for donating decorations), Georges Trees (for donating a beautiful tree), and our loyal supporters.  We plan to see everyone again next year!

A great video put together by Battleship IOWA 

Crewmember Cesar Olivera

On Sunday, December 7th, we hosted our annual Pearl Harbor Remembrance service on the bow.  It was a wonderful event that featured Pearl Harbor Survivors Nelson Mitchell and Howard Bender.  They participated in the ceremony with the presentation of our memorial wreath and Nelson joined us in the annual San Pedro Holiday Parade.  It was a great day to honor these individuals and our other veterans present.  A big thank you to Brenda for coming through with her 2 1/2 ton truck to help show off the crew in the parade.

Pearl Harbor Survivor Howard Bender
with a Pearl Harbor Survivor Son and
 IOWA Crewmember JJ Johnston.
Photo by Ross Tipps.

Getting ready for the Holiday Parade.
Photo by Ross Tipps.

Pearl Harbor Survivors Nelson Mitchell
and Howard Bender on Battleship IOWA

We also received a couple of significant contributions this week.  One from an anonymous donor that will go towards the materials necessary to replace our deck on the starboard aft quarterdeck.  In addition to this contribution, Teak Decking Systems was kind enough to send us the required epoxy and joint material to replace portions of our deck.

As we begin our focus on youth education programs in 2015, we have already received a small amount of funding towards our programs.  Our education programs will be in partnership with regional schools and include components of remotely operated vehicles, STEAM programs, and Vicky the Dog scavenger hunt.  A big thank you to the Whitney Young Children's Foundation and Harbor Community Benefit Foundation for their recent grants to fund a portion of our education program in 2015.

Pearl Harbor Special Exhibit.
Photo by Ross Tipps.

Our plans for 2015 include a focus on electrical infrastructure, ship maintenance, tour & museum improvements, and our education programs.  It will be a great year for growth as we rotate from infrastructure improvements to guest experiences.  As always, our off season is difficult for us to continue our rapid pace of growth and your contributions continue to allow us to expand at the Battleship IOWA.  Please consider a year end contribution to the Pacific Battleship Center to assist in providing our great programs.

Coming up this week, we will see a brief slow down from our recent fast pace.  Our Board of Directors will be assembling this coming week for our quarterly meeting and high on the list is the growth of our organization, relationship building and fundraising.

In closing, I ask that our local supporters remember to vote in the special election this coming Tuesday.  Part of Celebrating the American Spirit, is protecting our rights that we were granted by the US Constitution which include voting.

Thank you again for being a loyal supporter and for minute by minute updates, please visit our Facebook page!