Posted by Bob Stopka n PCB [70.196.134.107] on Tuesday, August 13, 2013 at 20:10:56 :
In Reply to: Visited the Battle Ship Iowa in San Pedro Today posted by gmharris [71.129.108.57] on Tuesday, August 13, 2013 at 00:41:55 :
My Dad was one of the original crew, what is called a plankowner. He was assigned to IOWA BB61 before her commisioning at the Brooklyn Navy Yard (late 42) where she was built. There is a photo on the internet of all the sailors on the back deck in their dress blues at the comissioning. Somewhere in that photo is my Dad. He was on the ship from it's beginning until after Tokyo Bay and the surrender of the Japs on the Missouri. IOWA left Tokyo Bay and arrived on the west coast Jan 46, where he departed the ship and ended his career in the Navy. He was aboard 38 months, always assigend to the 16" gun turret 2, as the rammer for the shells and powder, for the left (port) gun. He was aboard when they took FDR to the Med in 43 for the first conference to plan the D-Day invasion. It was in Tehran and FDR met with Churhill and Stalin there.He had a great tatoo on his left calf, when they crossed the equator in the Atlantic after returning FDR to DC. I wish I had a photo of it. When I was a kid I used to admire it. It was to commemorate all the newby's trasitioning from being a pollywog into becoming a shell back. The whole ordeal of kissing the Bowsin's belly and what not. After that the went through the Panama Canal and out to the fun in the Pacific. He ended up with 11 battle stars. He would have been 89 this past may. I have he dress blue uniform, his Kabar Mk2 Navy Knife, and a Jap Bayonet he traded for with a Jap Sailor when they had shore leave in Japan after the surrender. I also have some shrapnell from a Jap shore guns shell that exploded against the side of turret 2 at the Battle of Truk Island. It put a walloed pock mark the size of a softball on one of the outer side walls of turret 2. I saw the mark when I went aboard IOWA for a visit in Newport RI when she was in service in 1987. A 27 year Navy Chief in charge of the gun batteries told me that was what the pock mark was, and I have the shrapnell from it. I was told by a former crew member, Elmer Snyder, that in turret 2 with Dad during WWII that after the battle, they had to go out on the deck and cleaned the shrapnel bits from up and under the ball bearings the turret turns on and that my Dad picked up some of the pieces. I met Elmer when he was in his 70's for dinner, after Dad had passed, and after I was aboard, and he told me that. When I was on IOWA in Newport, RI in 87 we were lucky enough to ride her to NYC and were on board for 9 hours. IOWA went to NYC for the yearly Navy Week event in May. We were allowed to go in Turret 2 where Dad worked even though it was off limits to most everyone else. That trip was a thrill of a lifetime. We went all over that ship, even the bridge, in that thick commanders battle turret, and the Combat Information Center. The main Turrets and 5 inch mounts were double or triple redundant from where they could be controlled from. I forget for sure. In the CIC were amazing Analog Computers in the center of the floor, Like 4 foot by 4 foot by waist high heavy steel gray cabinets that housed all the for then very sophisticated controls to rotate the 16" gun turrets left or right and the barrels up and down. These archaic looking computers were still used to calculate the trajectory of the shell they were going to fire. It was all amazing. Full of vacume tubes, big old electrolytic caps and other old style electronic components. They all still worked and it was quite amazing. In fact the whole trip was amazing. The next year, we took the train from New Haven Ct to NYC and got to go aboard IOWA once again as she was tied up at pier 50 on the West side of Manhattan. She was parked right next to the WWII Carrier Intrepid. That was cool, as they were in some of the same battles in the Pacific in WWII. I miss seeing IOWA. I hope to make it San Pedro in the next couple of years. Since I am a family member of the Iowa Vets Assoc I am hoping I can volunteer on her for a week. On another note, the closest Battleship to me is the USS Alabama BB60 in Mobile, 180 miles west. They just started a living history group. I joined and will be assigned to 16" gun Turret 2, just like Dad. Not the IOWA, but close enough for now. If we could get her to move under her own power and ead south many miles, I would consider getting a tatoo on my left calf like Dad. PW content - None. Wonderful memories content, one near the top of my personal list.
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