Save A 16" Gun Barrel Fundraiser

K

Ken_NJ

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Howell, NJ
Came across this...

https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/411WA8?psid=66dcbd60802447b9bc0b485385188f32&fb_ref=share__f3Dx7e

"Please help save historic 16" barrel #270 from the USS Iowa and enhance the memorial in Norfolk, VA for the 47 sailors of Turret Two lost on April 19, 1989. Barrel #270 will be scrapped this year without your support." (Barrel was once installed on Iowa, now in storage at Julianne's creek)

Tried spotting them on Google maps, no luck yet.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/U...0x89baa2eeffffffc3:0xa190b0dbfe0b131d!6m1!1e1
 
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Found them here... https://goo.gl/maps/IcQms

Only 5 remain, Google maps probably not current so there may be less than 5 there. They are harmless sitting there, plenty of open space. The navy should not rush getting rid of them and give organizations more time. They know the importance of such relics.

This got me wondering, I recall Rusty mention the 5" guns may be at Navsea Crane? Wonder if the 5" turrets removed from the Iowa's still exist sitting in an overgrown field.
 
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Get the facts straight guys. Fearsome scuttlebutt is not allowed on MY watch.

Here's the answer directly from the Pacific Battleship Center:


It is a spare gun barrel in Julian creek. Folks should read the description.

7####### 23#######
President & CEO
Pacific Battleship Center

PS: I know of two more barrels even closer to me. But I'm not telling where because I want one in my front yard (live in a corner house) standing upright on the breech. There's no law against having a 68-foot tall flagpole. Decorating it as a Christmas tree however will have to be done by people younger and more acrobatic than me. Now THAT kind of sea story is okay because it's done obviously with far fetched humor.
 
Well they took four mounts from each Iowa and they gotta be around here somewhere right? Lots of good parts in them to help some of the other museums out.

I'll donate some to the barrel when I get paid.
 
You can try it if you want to. Don't forget each barrel weighs 118 (standard) tons EACH. The flat bed trailers that hauled off two of the New Jersey's spare barrels had 24 wheels EACH. Strength of bridges and overpasses have to be reviewed and the route may have to be quite long to take the strongest roadways. There are special sway-back cars that railroads have but that could be just as expensive as a truck trailer.

On the Iowa we were lucky enough to get the muzzle cut off one of the spare barrels and it is mounted on display on the 2nd deck museum area. Since all other barrels are out in the weather, they have tampions fitted into the muzzles for protection. The barrel section on 2nd deck does not have a tampion so the visitors can actually see the rifling.

Yes, that "plug" is technically titled TAMPION. Don't forget the letter "I". The item without that letter is part of a Corpsman's or Medic's kit for reducing bleeding from bullet wounds (besides bleeding for its original design).
 
I'm not an expert obviously, but what about Dahlgren, VA or Crane, IN Dick? I know there's a lot of interesting stuff just sitting around both installations.
 
RustyBattleship said:
On the Iowa we were lucky enough to get the muzzle cut off one of the spare barrels and it is mounted on display on the 2nd deck museum area. Since all other barrels are out in the weather, they have tampions fitted into the muzzles for protection. The barrel section on 2nd deck does not have a tampion so the visitors can actually see the rifling.
Click to expand...

Thanks Rusty should of posted these pictures months ago.
Here are install pics of that muzzle section.
The section was from barrel #287; ironically it was the center barrel of the #2 turret.
The barrel sat at the Navy ammo depot at Hawthorn Nevada since 1955. In 2011 the Navy decides to scrap about 3,000,000 pounds of big guns it probable had something to do with the Navy awarding the USS Iowa to the Pacific Battleship Center because they would never need those 16 inchers again.
A central CA metal dealer John Kinney saved that muzzle end that I acquired and donated to Iowa for our museum space. He also sliced off (6) 1.5 inch sections, one of which I turned into our "Volunteer of the Quarter Award".

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Great photos. Thanks a bunch. I've forgotten how to post photos on this forum as the procedures keep changing. I'm also in BIG trouble trying how to make a power point slide show of the Iowa for my Model Train Club.

Never did a slide show before (except with 35mm slide films) and there's nobody in the neighborhood (including family) who knows how or available enough to help me. So Dave Way is going to have to burn a DVD of that film we show in the wardroom.
 
RustyBattleship said:
Great photos. Thanks a bunch. I've forgotten how to post photos on this forum as the procedures keep changing. I'm also in BIG trouble trying how to make a power point slide show of the Iowa for my Model Train Club.

Never did a slide show before (except with 35mm slide films) and there's nobody in the neighborhood (including family) who knows how or available enough to help me. So Dave Way is going to have to burn a DVD of that film we show in the wardroom.
Click to expand...

Learned how to be a PowerPoint god on the Joint Staff. Made them for SECDEF and CJCS. If you want, I can give you a call tomorrow and discuss how I might help from long range. I still need to look at that shaft too. R/Mike
 
RustyBattleship said:
Great photos. Thanks a bunch. I've forgotten how to post photos on this forum as the procedures keep changing. I'm also in BIG trouble trying how to make a power point slide show of the Iowa for my Model Train Club.

Never did a slide show before (except with 35mm slide films) and there's nobody in the neighborhood (including family) who knows how or available enough to help me. So Dave Way is going to have to burn a DVD of that film we show in the wardroom.
Click to expand...

Rusty, I use Power Point every day for my job. Lots of photography and PhotoShop too. I live in Anaheim and would be happy to help. Just let know via PM or something.
 
SharkPilot said:
Rusty, I use Power Point every day for my job. Lots of photography and PhotoShop too. I live in Anaheim and would be happy to help. Just let know via PM or something.
Click to expand...

I've only got a couple of weeks left. I've downloaded most of the photos as JPEGS in Adobe Photo Shop. I think I still have to resize them so all are 6-inches wide. I'm numbering them from 001 on up. I have just a few more photos to load. If I upload them to you, could you burn them onto a DVD and mail it back to me? Or just come by the house. Anaheim is just down the 91 & 5 freeways from my home in North Long Beach (the 91 is just a rifle shot north of me ---- if your are firing a Barrett).
 
desertswo said:
Learned how to be a PowerPoint god on the Joint Staff. Made them for SECDEF and CJCS. If you want, I can give you a call tomorrow and discuss how I might help from long range. I still need to look at that shaft too. R/Mike
Click to expand...

Thank you very much for the offer Captain. Fortunately Shark Pilot lives only about 20 minutes or so from me and has offered to help out.

As for the shaft leak, we have way too much other stuff to keep the crew busy. This will be the 3rd week the ship will have to close to some (or all) visitors because of TV shows being filmed aboard her. Fortunately this is near the end of the tourist season so we are not getting that many visitors anyway.
 
RustyBattleship said:
As for the shaft leak, we have way too much other stuff to keep the crew busy. This will be the 3rd week the ship will have to close to some (or all) visitors because of TV shows being filmed aboard her. Fortunately this is near the end of the tourist season so we are not getting that many visitors anyway.
Click to expand...

No worries shipmate; I believe I can effect repairs on the shaft seal, as well as document the status of the other three shafts. I suspect that I can . . .

larry-the-cable-guy.png

. . . "git-r-done" with no one even aware that I'm there!!!:Dancing-Banana:
 
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surfgun said:
16" off Missouri has been freshened up and placed into a carriage at Fort Miles, DE.

http://www.wboc.com/story/33006391/artillery-park-opened-at-fort-miles-in-cape-henlopen-state-park
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You will need a specially built railroad car to carry it. Or, if by truck, the trailer bed requires 24 wheels to hold that 180 tons of steel. I know because when two barrels where trucked up the China Lake Naval Test Station from LBNSY, that's how much rubber on the road was required - for EACH barrel.

CLNTS was going to use them for some special tests, but the project got cancelled. So, to my knowledge they are still there but I've only spotted one of them with GOOGLE EARTH.
 
 
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The above Cape Charles Wave link shows a 48 wheel flat bed moving a barrel into the Eastern Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Refuge.
 
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surfgun said:
The above Cape Charles Wave link shows a 48 wheel flat bed moving a barrel into the Eastern Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Refuge.
Click to expand...

That is an enormously WIDE flat bed. I can only assume that the roads were not strong enough to take the narrower 24 wheel flat bed that I mentioned earlier. So going to 48 wheels (with escorts) was the wise thing to do.

Oh, by the way, there is a gun barrel in front of the Los Angeles Maritime Museum in San Pedro. And it'w basically within walking distance from the Battleship Iowa.
 
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