The United States doesn’t do battleships anymore. Apparently if you want to blast something it’s better to use an airplane. So these days there’s a lot of battleships-turned-museums. I never would have known that the USS Iowa museum was in Long Beach if Nene hadn’t seen a sign from the freeway. So after breakfast in San Clemente, we headed back to Long Beach for a battleship tour.
The USS Iowa has a nice self-guided tour. You get to follow yellow arrows all around the ship, up and down the stairs to see all the awesome things. (The stairs are steep enough that the greeters recommend you go down backwards like a ladder.)
The Iowa had a canine mascot! Victory “Vicky” was considered the most traveled dog in the Navy. With the ship since its commission in February of 1943, Vicky spent six years on the USS Iowa, traveling to Japan and hanging out with President Roosevelt. When Vicky retired back to civilian life in January of 1949, he’d been promoted to Mascot First Class, had a Philippine Campaign Ribbon, and had two bronze stars. (He also had a special sailor’s suit.)
The USS Iowa’s claim to fame is that it served as home to President Roosevelt while he traveled to the Tehran Conference in 1943, a strategy session with Churchill and Stalin where they thought up ways to stop the Nazis. The USS Iowa was also present at Japan’s formal surrender in 1945.
After WWII the USS Iowa was decommissioned. But it was put back into service from 1951-1958 for the Cold War.
In 1984, the ship was recommissioned for humanitarian work in South America. Then in April of 1989 one of the turrets exploded during a firing exercise, killing 47 people–the largest post-WWII peacetime loss of life in Navy history. The Navy’s investigation suggested that Gunner’s Mate 2nd Class Clayton Hartwig, the man who was likely the first to be killed in the accident, had intentionally sabotaged the exercise in a suicide attempt. The Navy, through character witnesses, painted a picture of a troubled man wrestling with the fact that he was gay.

When the media, families of the victims, and members of congress complained about the Navy’s findings, a second Navy investigation came back as inconclusive–the cause of the explosion could not be determined. A separate team of scientists who looked into the blast determined that the likely cause was accidental overram of powder bags into the breech of the 16-inch gun. The USS Iowa was decommissioned for a final time the next year in 1990.
The shells that go in those huge guns weigh between 1,900 and 2,700 pounds. To find the distance to a target, you can use a stereo-optical rangefinder. It works using the depth perception that comes from having two eyes. When you first look through the eyepiece, the image will appear split. You turn the red knob until the image lines up, and however far you had to turn the knob is translated into yards-to-target and displayed below the image in the eyepiece. This was a working example, and it was so cool.
I couldn’t get over the spartan living conditions. Even the higher-ranking officers quarters were essentials-only. The men slept in bunks with a sort of seatbelt to keep them from falling out. They also got a locker for storage.
Some dinnerware and holiday menus in the officers wardroom. Menu items included things like giblet gravy, cauliflower au gratin, and chiffonade dressing.
A Marine WWII winter service uniform. The ship has a great museum that we had to sprint through because they were closing.
The men ate things like pork chops, Yankee pot roast, and simmered knockwurst. The Iowa’s storerooms could hold 834 tons of food, enough to feed 2,500 people for 119 days. The soda fountain produced 9,600 gallons of ice cream per month.
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