Jonathan Williams, president and CEO of the Pacific Battleship Center and president of the L.A. Fleet Week Foundation, received the Distinguished Public Service Award from the Department of the Navy earlier this month.
Today, the massive USS
Iowa (BB-61) calls the Port of Los Angeles home, where she is a museum ship and serves as a testament to the might of the United States Navy from World War II to the end of the Cold War.
The largest and most powerful battleships built for the U.S. Navy, the
Iowa-class were also the final battleships that entered service with the Navy.
Unlike slower battleships of the era, this class was also designed to travel with a carrier force, and even be able to transit the Panama Canal, enabling the mighty warships to respond to threats around the world.
Navy leaders hoped they would not have to answer questions about the underlying causes of the disaster.
Here s What You Need to Know: The military often looks for scapegoats when people die rather than admit their mistakes.
It s been over 30 years since an explosion inside the number two gun turret on the USS
Iowa killed 47 American sailors, but for Mike Carr, it still feels like yesterday. I knew all 47 guys inside that turret because as part of the ship s policy we had rotated between all three turrets, Carr, who served as a gunner s mate in the Iowa s aft 16-inch turret, told Task & Purpose. We all knew each other rather intimately.