All Aboard! CBS2 Gets Exclusive Look At USS Iowa
LOS ANGELES (CBS) — CBS2 is getting an exclusive look at the USS Iowa, which docked at the Port of Los Angeles last weekend and will become the a floating museum on July 7.
KNX 1070's Pete Demetriou reports the 887-foot, 45,000-ton ship, which was built in 1943 and decommissioned in 1990, served in World War II as well as the Korean and Gulf wars.
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The Pacific Battleship Center raised $8 million to preserve the country's last World War II-era battleship so its rich history can be shared with the public, according to president Robert Kent.
The museum will include a tour of the captain's cabin where President Franklin D. Roosevelt once stayed for 33 days.
"President Roosevelt did use the ship as a means of travel and he had a bathtub put on the ship," veteran Bryan Moss tells CBS2. "It's the only ship in the United States Navy with a bathtub in it."
Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush also spent time on the ship.
"We're absolutely elated to have her on the West Coast," Capt. Michael Ploegar, who's in charge of security and safety for the ship, told CBS2.
