From the March 8th Norfolk (Va.) Daily Press "USS Missouri gun barrels on the move."
For about twenty years, gun barrels of the battleship USS Missouri have been on the ground at the St. Julien's Creek Annex of Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Virginia.
They are historical, of course, and even more so because the Japanese surrender at the end of World War II took place by them.
Organizations from three states: Virginia, Delaware and Arizona each have plans to display each one of them. And these are the kind of guns you could just pack into a car trunk. Each one is 16-inch diameter, 68 feet long and weigh in at 118 tons.
March 7th, Lockwood Brothers of Hampton, Virginia, arrived with a crew and a heavy-lift crane to load the cannons on transportation.
The Fort Miles Historical Association in Delaware has been looking for a 16-inch gun for some time now. The same type of gun was installed at the fort during World War II to protect the strategic Delaware River. It is barrel number 371. The Japanese delegation passed it on its way to surrender.
Cape Charles, Virginia, is getting another one to be installed at an old coastal battery.
The last one is going all the way out to Arizona and will complete a World War II Memorial in Phoenix which will include a list of Arizonans killed in the war with the Missouri barrel on one side and a 14-inch one from the USS Arizona on the other, the beginning and end of World War II for the US.
Great Memorial Gifts. --GreGen
The USS North Carolina (BB-55) My all-time favorite warship. As an elementary school student in North Carolina, I donated nickels and dimes to save this ship back in the early sixties.
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