User Panel
Posted: 1/31/2006 6:20:19 AM EDT
USS Iowa could be minority museum
Turning a battleship around is never easy — especially in the politically roiled waters of the San Francisco Bay. Last July, San Francisco’s county supervisors voted 8-3 against bringing the vintage World War II battleship Iowa to San Francisco as a permanent tourist attraction. Some opponents said they were taking a stand against both the war in Iraq and a military that boots out gays and lesbians, a powerful faction in local politics. But now, advocates of the move are trying to woo the supervisors with a promise to create a privately funded dockside museum that will tell the story of minorities in the military, including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender troops. “Our feeling was that this would make it a better fit for San Francisco,” said Jim Maloney, director of the Military Education Initiative, a group that supports the lifting of restrictions on gays in the military. “Adding in the component of LGBT service would be obviously quite unique,” he said. The new plan also calls for an annual peace symposium on the Iowa, which has a storied record of combat in the South Pacific and off the Korean coast. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s favorite battleship, the Iowa carried him to Casablanca, Morocco, in 1943, en route to a conference of Allied leaders in Tehran, Iran. In 1989, 47 crew members were killed in a shipboard explosion that officials blamed on a sailor who they said was involved in a failed gay relationship. The Navy later backed away from that explanation, ruling that the explosion was an accident and apologizing to the family of the dead sailor. “That’s a story that deserves to be told,” Maloney said. |
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Sell her to the Chinese before we let her rest in Frisco. |
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That seems to sum it up. Some people just NEED to protest EVERYTHING. So I guess WWII never happened cuz they don't agree with something today. |
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Best solution yet |
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I can't say I will be upset when the "big one" hits and the western half of California becomes an island.
This is pathetic. |
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It'd certainly quiet down the 'BRING BACK TEH BATTELSHIPS!1' crowd. |
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Better to scuttle her proudly, then allow her to be captured by the enemy. |
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I would rather see the old girl sunk and used to establish a coral reef.
How about if we just give her to the Iraqis?? That would make more sense!! |
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I'll be the people of Iowa would love this idea! And they would take proper care of her too. Not this sick shit SF has in mind. |
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Right, they're going to come up with the millions and millions to create the museum right after they get approval to paint it pink. You can't support a tourist attraction of that size on the couple tens of thousands of queers in San Francisco. The gays are rich but I doubt a bank it going to back such an adventure. It does make for great press for the American haters though.
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Island, try underwater property. Arizona will be beach front property. |
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Im down, we need to sink her if this happens. Like the proud german WW1 navy we should sink her before the enemy gets her. |
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Sink it in <100 ft waters and take off all the doors and turn it into an artificial reef / wreck dive site.
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Bring her to the coast of Virginia and make a museum out of her.
But it would be far more dignified to scuttle the ship in the deepest part of the Pacific before allowing it to become a floating monument to political correctness. |
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+1, give the old girl an honorable death, rather then succumbing to some perverted agenda. |
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We should get Tommy Lee Jones and his gang to take it over for us ala undersiege.
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+2 A big IF, but if a gay monument is needed, there is no reason to soil the Iowa for it. |
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I counter your pic with mine. General Characteristics: Keel laid: June 27, 1940 Launched: August 27, 1942 Commissioned: February 22, 1943 Decommissioned: March 24, 1949 Second commissioning: August 25, 1951 Second decommissioning: February 24, 1958 Third commissioning: April 28, 1984 Third decommissioning: October 26, 1990 Builder: New York Naval Shipyard, Brooklyn, NY Propulsion system: eight boilers, four geared turbines Propellers: four Length: 889 feet (271 meters) Beam: 108 feet (32.9 meters) Draft: 35,7 feet (10.9 meters) Displacement: Light: approx. 46,000 tons Displacement: Full: approx. 57,000 tons Speed: 33 knots Aircraft: no hangar, but parking area for four SH-3 or four SH-60 Crew 1984 - 1990: 65 officers and 1,501 enlisted WWII Crew: 134 officers and 2,400 enlisted Last armament: eight armored box launchers for Tomahawk, four Mk 141 Harpoon missile launchers, nine 16-inch / 50 caliber guns, twelve 5-inch / 38 caliber guns, four 20mm Phalanx CIWS This is where she should be laid to rest. Not in SF. btw, Retired aircraft carriers Forrestal and Saratoga eta: this is for you SF |
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What they should look for is something long, hard and full of seamen. Hmmm, what could that be?
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I would rather spend my taxes to dismantle that son-of-bitch, ship it to Des Moines and reassemble it there in a goddamn koi pond.
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Yep. Right in SF harbor just to fuck with their shipping. One last act of defiance. |
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+1. WTF????? Well.... I remember when all that happened. The Navy's at fault for that one. In order to take the heat off the Navy for old, defective equipment, they tried to make the now-dead Clayton Hartwig out to be gay....then, when it turned it not to be true, the whole thing blew up in their faces, so to speak.... |
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Ummm...would it actually make it up the Mississippi to Iowa??? |
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Muddy bottom or mud sharks. I think she'd rather face the Mississippi. |
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On the remote chance that something like that DID happen to the Iowa, I would gladly form a small strike force to liberate the Iowa with some limpet mines.
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Break her up and use the steel to make missles......................or make a couple 100 thousand ASSAULT RIFLES!!!!
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Pack her full of C4, tie her up at Alameda and send out invitations. One last Hurrah!
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Draft: 35,7 feet (10.9 meters) I doubt she'd make it all the way to Davenport, but it would be interesting to see how far up the Mississippi she would make it. |
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We'll take the USS Iowa here in Arizona, not sure where we'd put her though, it would look awkard sitting on the bottom of the Salt Riverbed, or in the Tempe Town Lake.
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should have the battleship open up on San Francisco.....help solve the problem.
dont we have some nukes we need to test out... |
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Less awkward than being painted pink with a bunch of homos cruizin' her deck. |
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I would love to see the Iowa come to the state it is named after. Maybe we could get in on a AR15.com group buy? |
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That's why we'd love to take the Iowa, the Arizona will never be able to come home :( |
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Again, I'd rather my tax money go to finding a way to make that happen. Remove all possible unnecessary weight, even devise some sort of system to increase her buoyancy for the trip. No price is too high to uphold her glory and honor. |
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Id rather see her scuttled than as a monument to PC Libtard BS
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+1 |
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