16 May 2019 at 09:00PM
2019.05 May Flagship Meeting - USS IOWA Project Slides
After a rainy start and excessive traffic from all directions, attendees had a blustery tour of the Battleship USS Iowa. It was a very interesting sample of what life on a battleship was like, even for the President of the United States in a wheelchair crossing the ocean! The logistics alone of a steel reinforced ship carrying enough ammo and gunpowder for combat, as well as enough fuel to Cross the Pacific and back, was enthralling.
After a wonderful Italian dinner in the wardroom catered by Raffaello’s Ristorante in San Pedro, attendees were given a glimpse into the Project that enabled the USS Iowa to become a floating museum in the Port of Los Angeles. David Canfield, VP and CIO of the Pacific Battleship Center, caretakers of the USS Iowa, spoke to a packed house giving us an interesting spin on the triple constraints of Battleship- Pier-Money, where instead of one impacting the results of the other it was a catch-22 where one could not exist without the other, but in order to get one you had to have the other. Risk Management entailed dealing with Mother Nature as well as the US Government – both equally unpredictable and demanding. The end result was how a 100% volunteer organization, made up of many sailors whose first ship was the USS Iowa, came to her rescue to transform the battleship into her final commission, a tribute to an era of military service that no longer exists.
Equally interesting is the fact that the maintenance and upkeep of the USS Iowa depends on donations, ticket sales, and her volunteers. We discussed the logistics of bringing a steel vessel into the modern age of wi-fi, where the donation money is currently spent (below the water line on the hull), lessons learned from other similar endeavors, and how the USS Iowa came to accept a bid for a port from the Los Angeles government that had no electricity, no water, no sewer, and no structures on the pier.
The USS Iowa has been in Los Angeles since 2012. Not quite back to her former glory, the restoration is a work in progress.
Click here to see a PDF of the the Presentation: Bringing-the-Battleship
Look for other PMI-LA Chapter Military Outreach events on the USS Iowa coming up later this year.
Don’t miss the next one!
