VanC
Well-known member
dun":f48zthq9 said:How many of the 4 that were built are still around?VanC":f48zthq9 said:There are many things I'd like to do before the clock runs out, but two things came to mind right away. One, I'd like to see a ball game in every major league park during the course of one season. Two, I'd like to see all four of the Iowa class battleships. I've been fascinated with them since I was a kid.
All four, but none have been active since 1991. The Iowa is with the Naval Reserve Fleet at Suisun Bay near San Francisco. It's the only one that hasn't been made into a museum yet. The New Jersey is in Camden, NJ, the Wisconsin is in Norfolk, VA, and the Missouri is at Pearl Harbor. Work on two more was begun towards the end of WWII, the Illinois and the Kentucky, but work was stopped when the war ended. By that time the aircraft carrier had become the Navy's main battle weapon, so no more battleships were ever built. The end of an era. After the bow of the Wisconsin was severely damaged in a collision with a destroyer in 1956 they grafted the bow of the uncompleted Kentucky onto the Wisconsin. The rest of the Illinois and Kentucky were eventually sold for scrap.
Here's the only known picture of all four steaming together, taken in 1954. Left to right: New Jersey, Missouri, Wisconsin, Iowa.
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/imag ... 638938.jpg