page_title: USS Iowa (BB-61)
section_title: Reserve Fleet and museum ship (1990–present)
hierarchical_section_title: USS Iowa (BB-61) / Reserve Fleet and museum ship (1990–present)
caption_attribution_description: English: A flag hoist lies on the deck near the bow of the battleship Iowa (BB-61) following the ship's decommissioning ceremony at NAS Norfolk, VA., 26 Oct 1990. The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) is at right. Official U.S. Navy Photograph # DN-ST-91-01564, by PH3 John Bivera, from the Department of Defense Still Media Collection, courtesy of dodmedia.osd.mil.
context_page_description: USS Iowa (BB-61) is a retired battleship, the lead ship of her class, and the fourth in the United States Navy to be named after the state of Iowa. Owing to the cancellation of the Montana-class battleships, Iowa is the last lead ship of any class of United States battleships and was the only ship of her class to have served in the Atlantic Ocean during World War II.
  During World War II, she carried President Franklin D. Roosevelt across the Atlantic to Mers El Kébir, Algeria, en route to a meeting of vital importance in 1943 in Tehran with Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Britain and Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union. When transferred to the Pacific Fleet in 1944, Iowa shelled beachheads at Kwajalein and Eniwetok in advance of Allied amphibious landings and screened aircraft carriers operating in the Marshall Islands. She also served as the Third Fleet flagship, flying Admiral William F. Halsey's flag at the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay.
  During the Korean War, Iowa was involved in raids on the North Korean coast, after which she was decommissioned into the United States Navy reserve fleets, better known as the "mothball fleet."
context_section_description: With the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s and the lack of a perceived threat against the United States came drastic cuts to the defense budget and the battleships were deemed uneconomical. As a result, Iowa was decommissioned for the last time on 26 October 1990, after a total of 19 years of commissioned service. She was the first of the reactivated battleships to be decommissioned, and this was done earlier than originally planned as a result of the damaged turret. Iowa was originally berthed at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard and later at Naval Station Newport in Newport, Rhode Island from 24 September 1998 to 8 March 2001, when she began her journey under tow to California. The ship arrived in Suisun Bay near San Francisco on 21 April 2001 and joined the Reserve Fleet, where she remained in reserve until struck again from the Naval Vessel Register in March 2006. (She and her sister ships had been struck previously in 1995.) She remained at the Suisun Bay anchorage until November 2011.
  Section 1011 of the National Defense Authorization Act of 1996 required the US Navy to reinstate to the Naval Vessel Register two of the Iowa-class battleships that had been struck by the Navy in 1995; these ships were to be maintained in the United States Navy reserve fleets (or "mothball fleet"). The Navy was to ensure that both of the reinstated battleships were in good condition and could be reactivated for use in the Marine Corps' amphibious operations. Due to Iowa's damaged turret, the Navy selected New Jersey for placement into the mothball fleet, even though the training mechanisms on New Jersey's 16-inch (406 mm) guns had been welded down. The cost to fix New Jersey was considered less than the cost to fix Iowa; as a result, New Jersey and Wisconsin were reinstated to the Naval Vessel Register and placed back in the reserve fleet.
  New Jersey remained there until the Strom Thurmond National Defense Authorization Act of 1999 required the United States Secretary of the Navy to list and maintain Iowa and Wisconsin on the Naval Vessel Register. The Act also required the Secretary of the Navy to strike New Jersey from the Naval Vessel Register and transfer the battleship to a not-for-profit entity in accordance with section 7306 of Title 10, United States Code. It also required the transferee to locate the battleship in the State of New Jersey. The Navy made the switch in January 1999, allowing New Jersey to open as a museum ship in her namesake state.
  On 17 March 2006, the Secretary of the Navy struck Iowa and Wisconsin from the NVR, which cleared the way for both ships to be donated for use as museum ships; but the United States Congress remained "deeply concerned" over the loss of the naval surface gunfire support that the battleships provided, and noted that "navy efforts to improve upon, much less replace, this capability have been highly problematic." As a partial consequence, Congress passed Pub.L. 109–163, the National Defense Authorization Act 2006, requiring that the battleships be kept and maintained in a state of readiness should they ever be needed again. Congress ordered that measures be implemented to ensure that, if need be, Iowa could be returned to active duty. These measures closely mirrored the original three conditions that the National Defense Authorization Act of 1996 which laid out for the maintenance of Iowa while she was in the "mothball fleet".
  In March 2007, the Historic Ships Memorial at Pacific Square (HSMPS) of Vallejo, site of the former Mare Island Naval Shipyard, and a Stockton group submitted proposals for the ship to be a museum. The HSMPS, which had attempted to place the ship in San Francisco, supported the Mare Island–Vallejo site. In October 2007 the Navy informed HSMPS that they were the only viable candidate to acquire Iowa, and their application would be further reviewed after evidence was presented that financing was in place, and when the Stockton and San Francisco groups withdrew or failed to submit a final application respectively. On 25 April 2009, Iowa Senate Resolution N
caption: A flag hoist lies on the deck near the bow of Iowa following the ship's decommissioning ceremony at Norfolk, Virginia
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