August 21, 200521 yr The USS Iowa joined in battles from World War II to Korea to the Persian Gulf. It carried President Franklin Roosevelt home from the Teheran conference of allied leaders, and four decades later, suffered one of the nation's most deadly military accidents. Veterans groups and history buffs had hoped that tourists in San Francisco could walk the same teak decks where sailors dodged Japanese machine-gun fire and fired 16-inch guns that helped win battles across the South Pacific. Instead, it appears that the retired battleship is headed about 80 miles inland, to Stockton, a gritty agricultural port town on the San Joaquin River and home of California's annual asparagus festival. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., a former San Francisco mayor, helped secure $3 million to tow the Iowa from Rhode Island to the Bay Area in 2001 in hopes of making touristy Fisherman's Wharf its new home. But city supervisors voted 8-3 last month to oppose taking in the ship, citing local opposition to the Iraq war and the military's stance on gays, among other things. "If I was going to commit any kind of money in recognition of war, then it should be toward peace, given what our war is in Iraq right now," Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi said. Feinstein called it a "very petty decision." "This isn't the San Francisco that I've known and loved and grew up in and was born in," Feinstein said. San Francisco's maritime museum already has one military vessel _ the USS Pampanito, an attack submarine that sank six Japanese ships during World War II and has about 110,000 visitors a year. Officials in Stockton couldn't be happier. They've offered a dock on the river, a 90,000-square-foot waterfront building and a parking area, and hope to attract at least 125,000 annual visitors. After the Korean war, the Iowa was decommissioned and placed in reserve in a Philadelphia shipyard for three decades. In 1988, it was recalled to duty escorting oil supply ships safely in and out danger in the Persian Gulf. In 1989, 47 sailors were killed in an explosion that tore through a gun turret during a training exercise. The warship, decommissioned by the Navy in 1990, is currently anchored with a mothballed fleet in Suisun Bay, near the mouth of the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta. San Francisco's rejection of such a storied battleship is a slap in the nation's face, said Douglass Wilhoit, head of Stockton's Chamber of Commerce. "We're lucky our men and women have sacrificed their lives ... to protect our freedom," Wilhoit said. "Wherever you stand on the war in Iraq ... you shouldn't make a decision based on philosophy." Rep. Richard W. Pombo, R-Calif., has sponsored legislation authorizing the ship's permanent move to Stockton. Feinstein has countered with a bill to open bidding to any California city. The two versions will have to be reconciled by a House-Senate conference committee considering the Pentagon spending bill. What a bunch of horse s***.
August 21, 200521 yr Kind of strange if you ask me. They don't like the war and military's "stance on gays" so they move the ship. What does that ship have to do with current action in Iraq? And why overgeneralize about the many in the armed forces and their philosophies towards gays? Wow, just wow. Talk about going to an extreme.
August 21, 200521 yr That's pretty strange. The battleship had nothing to do with the Iraq war at all.
August 21, 200521 yr Good, if they don't want it for petty reasons let a farm town have it where they'd appreciate a gift like that.
August 21, 200521 yr Good, if they don't want it for petty reasons let a farm town have it where they'd appreciate a gift like that. 909714[/snapback] Yup, Stockton is more deserving. The Sacramento-Modesto-Stockton area is always in need of attractions.
August 21, 200521 yr Good, if they don't want it for petty reasons let a farm town have it where they'd appreciate a gift like that. 909714[/snapback] Yup, Stockton is more deserving. The Sacramento-Modesto-Stockton area is always in need of attractions. 909760[/snapback] ...i take it you've been to stockton?
August 21, 200521 yr Good, if they don't want it for petty reasons let a farm town have it where they'd appreciate a gift like that. 909714[/snapback] Yup, Stockton is more deserving. The Sacramento-Modesto-Stockton area is always in need of attractions. 909760[/snapback] They had the Lacy Peterson case. :plain
August 21, 200521 yr Good, if they don't want it for petty reasons let a farm town have it where they'd appreciate a gift like that. 909714[/snapback] Yup, Stockton is more deserving. The Sacramento-Modesto-Stockton area is always in need of attractions. 909760[/snapback] They had the Lacy Peterson case. :plain 909810[/snapback] Yeah, but that was a few years ago. :cool
August 23, 200521 yr The Peterson case was in Modesto. 912566[/snapback] I don't think I'll ever be able to forget that, just because of how badly the media pounded that story into my brain.
August 23, 200521 yr San Fransisco is such an awesome city. It's too bad most the people who live there are idiots, and they screw up the whole damn city.
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