From the 2012 Silicon Valley (Ca) Mercury News "rare chance to visit battleship in Bay Area" by Thomas Peele.
This was on the USS Iowa before it moved to the Los Angeles area to be made into a museum ship.
John Wolfinbarger, 87, served on the USS Iowa in every Pacific battle. At the Battle of Saipan in 1944: "I was up there (pointing at the ship's superstructure). We were bombarding all night long." The next morning there was a massive Japanese air strike against the U.S. fleet and a torpedo bomber made it through "a sea of fire and flew right over the Iowa but didn't drop its torpedo. "His mechanism must have jammed. Either that or he saved it. What they were really after were our carriers. He never got the chance though, seconds later a 3-inch shell blew him out of the sky."
Getting these words from a sailor who was there, it one great story.
The USS Iowa docked at the Port of Richmond, California, for cleanup work and painting. In the spring it was towed to the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro.
While at Richmond the ship was open for limiting touring on Saturdays and Sundays. Mr. Wolfinbarger volunteers his time for the tours.
--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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