Iowa (BB 61) - Naval Cruise Book

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T ..?.,'g,,, , 'ep--up ,J , xv vi' ' 1' The U.S.S. Iowa N 27 August, 1942, the fourth IOWA was born into the Naval service. The USS IOWA IBB 615 had been on the drawing boards since 1930 and was the first of her 45,000 ton class. On 22 February, 1943, the IOWA was ofhcially baptized as one of the United States Fleet commanded by Captain john L. McCrea, USN. The rest of the lighting ladies in the IOWA class are USS YVIS- CONSIN QBB-64j, USS MISSOURI QBB-63j, USS NEW jERSEY QBB-621. In order to impress your friends, here are a few statistics you should know. The IOWA is 887 feet long, just 12 feet short of three football fields laid end to end, 108 feet broad, and her tallest point is 186 feet from her keel. She has a speed of 32 knots and carries 2,582,000 gallons of fuel, enough to float a Liberty ship. Her electrical generators can handle the industrial and domestic demands of a city of twenty thousand. Her eight turbines produce 200,000 horsepower which drive four propellers. Her nine 16-inch guns and 20 five-inch guns have a devastating fire power at ranges up to 23 miles. She is capable of cruising for 67 days without mooring. The first war assignment for IOWA came in August of 1943, when she embarked for Newfoundland for the Tirpitz Watch. In November of 1944, she carried the late president Franklin D. Roosevelt to his conference in Teheran with Winston Churchill and Stalin. Following that she was sent to the Pacific to participate in the bombardment of Truk in the Caroline Islands. From the battle of Truk, IOWA hustled over to assist Vice Admiral Mark C. Mitscher on Tinian Island in the Marianas. Finally she got a soft duty chit in October of 1944 when she was assigned as press ship for the fleet. In October of 1945, she came home and in 1946 was made flagship for the First Fleet. IOWA then took part in the traditional drills, cruises, and maneuvers of a peace-time Navy. The middies were taken aboard in 1946 for a west coast summer cruise. In 1948, the ship was put into the moth ball fleet in San Francisco. IOWA was recommissioned in August of 1951 and went on her shakedown cruise from San Diego. After advanced training in Hawaii she relieved her sister ship USS WISCONSIN as Hag ship for Vice Admiral Robert P. Briscoe, USN, Commander of the Seventh Fleet stationed at Yokusuka, japan. On 20 May, Vice Admiral Briscoe was relieved by Vice Admiral joseph j. Clark, USN, and the ship left immediately for Korea. She spent seven months in Korea, furnishing fire support for more than 50 gun strikes. Her strikes were concentrated in the Chongjin, Koje, Wosan, and Sonjin areas where she fired over four thousand 16-inch and more than eight thousand Hve-inch shells. During this seige she steamed more than forty thousand miles. After her tour of tluty in Korea, Vice Admiral joseph j. Clark sent this message to IOWA: The high morale and steadfast devotion of duty aboard the IOWA have been an example and inspiration to all units of the Seventh Fleet. To Captain Cooper, the officers, and crews-WELL DONE AND GODSP1-LED. On 5 February, 1953, she entered the Norfolk Naval Shipyard for an overhaul. Fourteen weeks later IOWA left for Guantanamo Bay, Cuba for a six weeks refresher training cruise. She returned to Norfolk on 3 july, and on 8 july, Captain joshua W. Cooper, USN, was relieved by Captain Wayne R. Loud, USN, as Commanding Oflicer. On 13 jttly, IOWA embarked on Midshipman Cruise Baker.

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J- 'W I ri.. -fm ,-I -A. MIDSHIPMAN STAFF OFFICERS :als Row l 1l.cfI. l0 riglilj: l.'l' lj. Swank. Am. linginucring Training Ofliccr ljl' li. Kingxliuiy, N2lXlg1lIl0l1 'l ruining Ollircr l.'l' Ci. W. fi2lll2lgllL'l', Supply 'lrziining Officer 5,3 lfl I.. S. C.liznnhcrs. .MSL Gunnery 'liruining Ofliccr Row 2 fI,cl'r to riglllj lfli R. Hunks, lixcculivc Uflimcr, Asst. Navigation Training Oflifcr X LCIDR l . While, Oflircr in fillliligl' ICDR I L' Hummel Ulliccr in Clizn c En inccrin lraining Ll ll. M. Durkcc, C-unncry Training Officer l l l l 1.1 Q i f S1 md MIDSHIPMAN STAFF ENLISTED Row 1 qLcfL lo flglllll QMCL W. j. McCarthy-U. of Texas YNI C. H. Ruwscll-Ohio Slalc YNC C. H. Rhoaclcs-Cornell Row 2 lLell LO riglnj: DKC P. li. Taylor-Tufts SKC R. W. I.awrcnrc-Vanrlcrlmilr PNC R. G. O'Connor-ll. of California YNC K. F. FOI'Clll3H1-Y2ll1ClCl'lJill YNCZSS K. G. Harrington-Ulali 'in-vi T-fl

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pu- ' Now bear a hand! The Admiral shows 'em how. The main objective of our Y.l.l'. tontingeut was observation and evalu- ation of shipboard lile. We saw them everywhere, from the bt1ll sessions to the higltline , and we worked and lived under their survcilance. lVe lound that it is not a mist ol iutellettual detachment which surrounds the dictionary of alert intelligence and xixid personal interest. As we listened to Dr. A. Roy Olpin and his views on the importance of the individual in society, or as we shot the breeze with Dr. Nlatomber on detkg we began to realize that the direction ol' this personal interest was toward each one of us. llnlortunately, many ol' us didn't have the opportunity ol' meeting the X'.l.l'.'s personally bttt those of tts who did profited by the touvetszttion and association. lfrom the X'.l.l'.'s standpoint the cruise was one ol exploration and ex- perienre. They found themselves an integral part ol shipboard life. We had university presidents, deans, department heads, regents, newspaper edi- tors and publishers. All of these men were working and playing, doing and seeing, searching and finding aboard USS IOYVA this summer. On the lighter side we saw many ol' our V.l.l'.'s elevated into the ranks of the chosen few as they were initiated into the 5 JV' .1 1 mer 0 lfwffllif M!'f4FEf',r li-1 S FJ .. 1 ' - 1 1 r. . I v ' ' - K . . ,f -1 , ' . 4 fi ' 1 I ,-' MUTICA J f n W- X j-,rp ill' I Q 1 ' Q - t 'A M 3 . ' at ,. fi ft - A ,Q T N , i n t 1 l t , . A u : Wg- , - 1 : 1 at : 1 ' I - - I H ' I 2 ' tt , Z u 1 A ' . ' F I u I , ,, 1 1 .Z .rx fk.f 1 - i V N- . J fV 'x 4.11 . Q. f r , -, 1 I' I I g I 4 '. 1 I' n 1 A ' ' I 1 u . 1 .a 0 ' ' ' '