We Got the IOWA

I'm sure Rusty will let you know but when I was with him during an inspection she looked very very good inside. I'm sure electrical is working fine since our HORNET was retired in 1970 and when we got her we started to run some systems. Pumps, ventilation, lights, radar, bomb elevators, aircraft elevators, escalator and anchor windlass all worked. Some things needed rebuilding, some needed thousands of gallons of hydraulic fluids but the electrical never failed us.

thank you for the reply i just dont understand why people spread disinformation , i mean i cant see the iowa being in bad shape, all of the iowa class are beloved by everybody so i know getting a chance to keep them up & working on them when they got reactivated , would have been a labor of love
 
Is this pump very large? Could a new one be built? Perhaps machined from a custom made casting? Just an idea, I don't know if its practical, but if it is relatively small - it seems possible.

If "A Lube Oil pump from one of the engine rooms (the ONLY piece of machinery missing). It's motor is there, the motor foundation is there but the pump is missing." there's a motor there but no pump, my guess would be that it's a lube oil transfer pump and not the steam driven lube oil service pump which provides the main lubrication.
 
Yeah, I forgot the "C" though I watch both shows. It's just that I still have my souvenir patch from NIS when I did some research for them on a fraud case. We got the SOB too.

My souvenir is a S&W M66 .357 NIS one of 333 revolvers.
 
If "A Lube Oil pump from one of the engine rooms (the ONLY piece of machinery missing). It's motor is there, the motor foundation is there but the pump is missing." there's a motor there but no pump, my guess would be that it's a lube oil transfer pump and not the steam driven lube oil service pump which provides the main lubrication.

You are correct, as usual. Actually I think our identification by the POG is that it is an Auxiliary Pump. Meaning it's a back up pump should the main pump go out.
 
We searched the ship from stem to stern and from basement to attic. We know for a fact that the Washington Navy Yard Museum took our computer (they left their tags on the foundation) and another source told me they also took one of the helms plus and authenticated flage (that was on display at the Officer's Club on the Naval Base) that flew on the Iowa during a specific date.

But I read a posting (I think on this board) that when the ship was being decommissioned he took the other helm as a souvenir. Since the ship was going into Class B reserve, she was still part of the US Navy. Some over exubriant agent from NIS technically could charge him with theft of Navy property. We won't, of course. Instead we will officially thank him for saving that helm from scavengers once it is mounted back on board.

IMO, It takes some balls of stupidity to take a ships helm as a souvenier. Someone obviously felt entitled. I am glad though that you know where it went. IMO, It should have never left. Ive been abard plenty of ships (many different classes) in reserve including a heavy cruiser, carrier, destroyers etc and all of her helms were still in place.
 
I'm sure Rusty will let you know but when I was with him during an inspection she looked very very good inside. I'm sure electrical is working fine since our HORNET was retired in 1970 and when we got her we started to run some systems. Pumps, ventilation, lights, radar, bomb elevators, aircraft elevators, escalator and anchor windlass all worked. Some things needed rebuilding, some needed thousands of gallons of hydraulic fluids but the electrical never failed us.

*If you were running the real radars then you "should" have needed treated water as well. Some of the older WWII era radar sets were water cooled. Water that had to be treated first so it didnt leave deposites that would later rot holes in the cooling tubes.
 
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*If you were running the real radars then you "should" have needed treated water as well. Some of the older WWII era radar sets were water cooled. Water that had to be treated first so it didnt leave deposites that would later rot holes in the cooling tubes.

Of course I meant spin the radars on their mounts. Now having been through all the radar rooms I have found only one power supply (wave generation) that actually has a water cooled hook up and it is on the O8 Level.
 
Of course I meant spin the radars on their mounts. Now having been through all the radar rooms I have found only one power supply (wave generation) that actually has a water cooled hook up and it is on the O8 Level.

Are your power supplies still running vacuum tubes? Modern electronics use demineralized water to cool the units and the pump rooms use chill water to cool the demineralized water. The SLQ 32 antennas have demineralized water plus glycol cooling.
 
Are your power supplies still running vacuum tubes? Modern electronics use demineralized water to cool the units and the pump rooms use chill water to cool the demineralized water. The SLQ 32 antennas have demineralized water plus glycol cooling.

Lots of our old equipment dealing with radars and comm have tubes. Those systems have been disabled by the electrician. The motors needed to run the radars are ordinary electric motors same as the elevators, escalator, and all hanger/division doors. Below is one water cooled item and I believe O4 would have a few more.
 
Asked around on the ship today about our wheel and how we came to learn where it was. We knew that our scoreboard was removed so it could be sent to Pensacola where it hangs. No one knew how the wheel ended up at Lemoore Naval Air Station. We were tipped off, by someone in Bremerton, that Lemoore had our wheel. Told they denied it at first until Bremerton helped out. At that point they admitted they had it but weren't going to give it back. Well, as we know, they eventually saw the light.

Rusty, whoever has your wheel they maybe no more likely than Lemoore to say so. If it is on display somewhere then hopefully someone could tip you off as Bremerton did for us. Hopefully that since if hidden away it could be a long time.
 
The Iowa is certainly appearing on TV a lot lately. I watched the last half of the season opener of "Face Off" where aspiring make-up artists create fantasy critters with human models and are judged by some professional make-up artists. At the end of the episode was a trailer for an upcoming episode of "Face Off" showing the shows' hostess on the port 03 level aft Tomahawk deck. That shot was also apparently a drone as it zoomed away to show the entire ship.

On "The Last Ship", it was interesting to see Russian riflemen being shot down on the superstructure of (supposedly) a reactivated Kirov class Cruiser. But those twin 5"/38 mounts were a dead give-away it was the starboard side of the Iowa. I found that quite ironic. In a previous episode the crew of the American Arleigh Burke class Destroyer remarked that all the Kirov class Cruisers were mothballed in the 1990's. The irony is that it was the appearance of the USS Iowa and her three sisters coming back to life that drove the Kirov's into the ghost fleet.
 
Not all the Kirov's were decommissioned, Pyotr Velikiy was finally completed and entered service in 1998 and is still in service. The Admiral Nakhimov (ex Kalinin) is in the process of being reactivated.
 
Not all the Kirov's were decommissioned, Pyotr Velikiy was finally completed and entered service in 1998 and is still in service. The Admiral Nakhimov (ex Kalinin) is in the process of being reactivated.

I guess the Russians don't want to waste all those Nuclear Fuel pellets they have stockpiled for those ships. But it makes sense. Once they started that program to build those ships and the funding was available and saved, it does provide jobs and keeps the Russian Navy up to somewhat modern standards.

Though Nuclear may not be the way to go with a missile Cruiser. Just looking over the first photos of a Kirov with some of my NAVSEA counterparts we noted that one 5"/38 common in all those launch tubes up forward could blow that ship to smitherings -- including the reactor.

Hmmm. Maybe a 5-incher would cause us to be a tad too close. A 16" Hi-Cap would be much better. Or a Harpoon at a much greater distance. A Tomahawk might be considered overkill but it would work just as well.

Just get upwind from the mushroom cloud.
 
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