Krag Collectors Association Forum

One of the biggest mistakes made IMHO was decommissioning of the four Iowa Class Battleships without a viable replacement. Although they were considerably aged, they all were in serviceable condition... and although they no longer aimed their 16 inch guns at other ships, their value for shore bombardment was unmatched, and was successfully demonstrated during Desert Storm. Believe it or not, they still occasionally test 16 gun barrels at Dahlgren!

Awesome photo, Paul!

Here's a couple more: USS Iowa again, and USS Missouri firing shells at Iraqi positions in Kuwait at night during Operation Desert Storm!

One of my favorite battleship pictures: USS Iowa.



This picture was used inside the LP album cover of Vol 2 of the "Victory at Sea" suite by Richard Rogers and Robert Russell Bennett.

Note the guys to the right of the 40mm quad Bofors AA mount in the foreground. They're plugging their ears.

You can tell that this is from WWII... the bridge is not yet fully enclosed, which happened during retrofit before Korea. I love Richard Rogers "Victory at Sea"... and I have the entire series on VHS (which I should convert to DVD).

While I was in the army I have been on many of the ones that are left, Battleships, Texas, Massachusetts, North Carolina, I have seen but not boarded the New Jersey and Montana all great ships, the Navy needs to drop nuke turbines in them and return them to service!!!!

Amen to that Dean!

My best friend, passed away in 2002, was a retired Chief Machinist's Mate, served 1956-1976, with several tours keeping WW-2 era cruisers operational. He often said that the real problems were with pumps and valves, mostly of 1930s design, no longer in production and with the last spares manufactured in 1945. If you needed a replacement part, you often had to make it yourself.

yes I know what you mean there I use to make many items for my equipment to improve it or make it safer, as there was never anything in the system to do it with!