to Pearl Harbor
The mighty USS Missouri shows off her guns in this 1988 file photo.
Photo by Terry Luke, Star-Bulletin
The Navy chooses Hawaii
over three other locations
By Gregg K. KakesakoStar-Bulletin
The mighty USS Missouri shows off her guns in this 1988 file photo.
Photo by Terry Luke, Star-Bulletin
Ed Carter, spokesman for the Missouri Memorial Association, said he hopes to have the ship brought here and ready for visitors by Oct. 1.
The Missouri is one of four remaining battleships in the U.S. Navy.
The other three are the Iowa, Wisconsin and New Jersey. Several older battleships are already on display: the USS Alabama is in Mobile, Ala.,; the Massachusetts in Fall River, Mass.; the North Carolina in Wilmington, N.C.; and the Texas in Houston.
Under a plan submitted by the memorial association to the Navy, the group hopes to raise $15 million to $25 million to permanently moor the battleship at Pearl Harbor.
The association already has raised $7.5 million to cover the cost of towing, preparing the ship for visitors and to take care of general maintenance before the ship is placed on exhibit.
Plans now call for a memorial park to be built near the Bowfin Museum at the Halawa end of Pearl Harbor with visitors shuttled by boat to Ford Island where the Missouri would be moored.
The 997-foot ship, which was decommissioned in 1992, would be anchored near the memorial to the USS Arizona, sunk during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, making the two ships the bookends of World War II.
Hawaii beat out three other cities - San Francisco, Long Beach, and Bremerton, Wash., where the Missouri is presently located.
Sen. Daniel Inouye, a World War II veteran and longtime supporter, said putting the Missouri within sight of the Arizona would represent "both the beginning and the end of World War II."
Dalton's decision now has to be reviewed by Congress.
The USS Missouri steams past Diamond Head during a 1986 visit.
Photo by Irwin C. Malzman, Special to the Star-Bulletin