Veterans excited to see USS Iowa in new home

The USS Iowa sits docked in Richmond, Calif. in May 2012 while workers, both volunteer and paid, work to restore the battleship. It was saved from the scrap yard when the Navy gave it to the Pacific Battleship Center last year. It will be towed to Los Angeles Sunday and is scheduled to be dedicated July 4.(Mark Benischek/The Gazette)

From the moment the Navy approved a plan to turn the USS Iowa into an interactive museum, veterans from around the nation who served on the battleship have been flocking to California to help with the massive restoration project.

Iowans are interested in seeing the ship saved, and they should be, said John Wolfinbarger, 87, who served on the Iowa during WWII. This ship is named after that state.

The restoration, which carries a price tag of up to $12 million, got under way shortly after the ship was moved from the ghost fleet of Suisun Bay to Richmond, Calif., in October.

Wolfinbarger has spent more than a dozen weekends on the Iowa while it has been docked at the Port of Richmond, where the first leg of the project is nearing completion. During weekend tours, Wolfinbarger served as the ship historian.

One weekend more than 3,000 people came aboard, he said. People want to see it.

On Sunday, the ship will be towed to the Los Angeles area. It will officially open to the public in San Pedro Bay in early July.

When the ship is towed into San Pedro Bay, three flags will by flying from her mast: The American flag, the California state flag and the Iowa state flag.

While the Navy still owns the vessel, the Pacific Battleship Center (PBC) will run, possess and maintain the ship. The PBC is a nonprofit organization established in 2009.

Its exciting, its stressful, its pretty much perseverance, said Robert Kent, president of the PBC. We run into blocks pretty much on a weekly basis, but we just punch through them and keep going.

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Veterans excited to see USS Iowa in new home