Kinda old story but new to me.

City of San Francisco board of supervisors reject  allowing the USS Iowa to berth at Fisherman's Warf and become a floating museum as a protest to the Iraq war and the military's position on gays.

Opinions?

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/08/20/D8C3PH0G0.html

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Awesome!  Actually, Iowa is bordered by the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, so it's definately doable.  The Missouri river might not be deep enough but the Mississippi river definately is.

Also, Dianne Feinstein already raised the money to bring it to SF.

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From a PR/tourism point of view, this appears a case of "cutting one's nose to spite one's face". But in the end, it'll be Stockton's gain.

The current matter re: gays in the military was a policy formulated during the Clinton administration called "don't ask - don't tell".  What that means is gays can go about serving and not make their sexuality a known fact and all is well.  And the military will not ask them to reveal their sexuality.  But if they make their sexuality known, they may become involuntairily discharged.

Now, why San Fransisco?  During WWII in the pacific, the point of departure from the US mainland was the San Fransisco bay area.  Many a soldier, sailor, and marine have wistfully stared at the Golden Gate bridge as they sailed out to the war.  For service personnel fighting in Europe and North Africa, their landmark that represented home was the Statue of Liberty, for those fighing in the pacific, it was the Golden Gate.  SF has a special meaning to those who fought in the pacific.  Heck, Admiral Chester Nimitz retired in Alameda Ca.

I can't agree with their position, I remember Fishermans Wharf as a friendly place and home of some seriously good grub! But I feel a boat named after a State should be based in the State it is named after....

Interesting...
I know nothing of the history, but from referring to my maps of the Bay area, (and the Flight Sim!), I would be amazed if it was possible to float a full sized Battleship under the various bridges and islands and creeks on the Sacramento River up as far as Sacramento or Stockton...!

Stockton and the surrounding area seems to lie on a flood plain, with very shallow water.

...but I could be wrong...!
Enlighten me...LOL...!

Paul... ...!

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It would be almost impossible to put ships in all of the places they are named after. Iowa for example is land-locked. I doubt that the Mississippi is deep enough along its whole channel to get it all the way there.

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  Actually a ship as large as a Destroyer Escort can sail up the Sacrmento River almost to Sacramento itself!  And the city of Stockton has quite a port facility going alread.  But perhaps a better docking facility for the Iowa would be the old naval air station of the city of Alameda (my home town).  NAS Alameda was once the home port for the aircraft carriers Enterprise and Carl Vincent(sp), before the station was de-activated.  The deep water births and sea wall are still there and the base presently is the home for the carrier Hornet, which is now a floating museum.

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Not as a fleet (which is the situation while they're "mothballed"); although some are federally maintained in 'memorial' service, most are sold off, whether for scrap or for other than 'federal' memorials.