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Does this make sense?
Posted: Sat Sep 19, 2009 7:55 am
by Mark
I just read in today's local newspaper that the US Navy is going to spend 18 million to upgrade the USS Missouri. They are going to restore the guns, the propellers, and "refurbish" the ship for future generations. I was trying to find the article online, but can't seem to locate it.
Does this make sense to ANYBODY? That kind of money on a decommissioned ship? Now, if you were putting her back into active duty that's one thing, but for gods sakes its a FLOATING MUSEUM!!!
Re: Does this make sense?
Posted: Sat Sep 19, 2009 8:00 am
by Mark
Found it. This doesn't have as much detail as the one in the paper, but you'll get the idea.
USS Missouri To Get Pearl Harbor Shipyard Makeover
AUDREY McAVOY, Associated Press Writer
POSTED: 8:00 am HST August 30, 2009
UPDATED: 12:15 pm HST August 30, 2009
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii -- The "Mighty Mo," the World War II battleship best known for hosting the formal surrender of Japan in 1945, is heading to the shipyard for repairs.
The USS Missouri, now a decommissioned vessel called the Battleship Missouri Memorial, will leave its historic spot at Battleship Row at Pearl Harbor in October.
The move will come shortly after the vessel on Wednesday hosts a ceremony marking the 64th anniversary of Japan's surrender. U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii, and Ret. Lt. Gen. Wallace "Chip" Gregson, newly sworn in as Assistant Secretary of Defense, are scheduled to speak at the event.
At least 20 World War II veterans are expected to attend, including 89-year-old Pearl Harbor survivor Edward F. Borucki of Southampton, Mass.
"It's a sentimental journey," Borucki said, who lost 33 shipmates when a Japanese torpedo and bombs hit the USS Helena.
The 65-year-old ship is in good shape, but it still needs to go to Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard for repairs because rust is protruding from peeling paint in areas and the teak wood deck is warped and bent in others.
The warship's exterior is due to be sanded down and repainted in a $15 million overhaul paid for by memorial reserve funds and a Department of Defense grant.
"Rust never sleeps as they say," said Michael Carr, the memorial's president. "It's a big job. It has to be done."
Most of the work will be done after the 887-foot ship is put into a closed dock and the water around it is drained. This will allow workers to paint the entire hull, even parts that are normally submerged. Some of the repairs have already begun pierside, however. Tourists visiting the ship now can see scaffolding encircling the ship's mast.
Memorial officials have started warning Hawaii tour operators they'll be shut down for three months starting mid-October. The historic ship is due to return to Pier Foxtrot 5 in early January and resume welcoming visitors shortly after. More than 400,000 visitors tour the vessel each year.
The Missouri was last in dry dock in 1992, just after it was decommissioned for the second and last time. It's been moored at Pearl Harbor for the past decade after local supporters beat out groups in Bremerton, Wash., San Francisco and Long Beach, Calif. for the right to host the memorial.
The "Mighty Mo" was launched in 1944 and fought in the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. It was decommissioned in 1955 but revived in the 1980s, after which it fired the first shots of the Gulf War in 1991.
Today, the ship is moored just a few hundred yards away from the USS Arizona, a battleship that sank in the Dec. 7, 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor with more than 1,100 sailors and Marines on board.
Visitors to the USS Arizona Memorial -- a white open-air structure straddling the sunken hull of the Arizona -- have a view of the Missouri's bow.
"The juxtapositioning of us in such proximity with the Arizona is a really startling and dynamic symbol of the beginning and the end of World War II, and all the sacrifices that were made in between," Carr said.
Japan surrendered Sept. 2, 1945, during a solemn ceremony in Tokyo Bay that lasted just 20 minutes. Gen. Douglas MacArthur signed for the Allied powers, while Pacific Fleet Commander Adm. Chester Nimitz, signed for the U.S.
Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and Gen. Yoshijiro Umezu, Chief of the Army General Staff, signed for Japan.
Copies of the surrender documents are on display today on the deck where they were signed.
Re: Does this make sense?
Posted: Sat Sep 19, 2009 8:26 am
by Tsukiyumi
$18 million?
That's about how much it costs for a six-pack of beer nowadays, right?
Re: Does this make sense?
Posted: Sat Sep 19, 2009 12:52 pm
by sunnyside
They're just doing maintenence on a mueseum. I'd probably enjoy the USS Missouri more than a lot of the things supported by the millions of dollars from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Re: Does this make sense?
Posted: Sat Sep 19, 2009 12:57 pm
by Aaron
She needs major work to her deck, most of the teak has deteriorated so that will be a big pat of the expense.
Re: Does this make sense?
Posted: Sat Sep 19, 2009 2:52 pm
by Mikey
It sure seems like an awful lot of money, but remember that the Mighty Mo was taken out of mothball (she had never truly been decomissioned at that point) and put into service as recently as the eraly '90's. There are certain things that a battleship can do that all our high-falutin' fancy new missile cruisers can't - and the Mo was the only one available.
Re: Does this make sense?
Posted: Sat Sep 19, 2009 7:49 pm
by Lazar
$18 million? That's probably the money that had fallen under the couch cushion.
Re: Does this make sense?
Posted: Sat Sep 19, 2009 7:58 pm
by Uzume
yeah, they can spend that kind of money on a museum, but they're gonna lose all of the money they spent recently on the space program, 'cause they can't afford to move forward. This is crap. I'd love to see a museum of its kind one day, but don't you think our priorities are a little off?
Re: Does this make sense?
Posted: Sat Sep 19, 2009 8:35 pm
by Mikey
I don't see the problem. It's not like this is money that can be used for, well, anything else at all, really. Did anyone see the terms "memorial reserve fund" and "grant?" Legally, grant money can't be used for any purpose other than was specified in the grant abstract; and funds from the memorial reserve - which very likely, BTW, are in the majority based on capital gains and not budgeted gub'mint money - aren't anyone's to use except the beneficiaries of the reserve fund.
Complaining about this being a waste of money that could go elsewhere would be like me getting an inheritance and people complaining that the money didn't go into the Social Security Trust.
Re: Does this make sense?
Posted: Sat Sep 19, 2009 8:39 pm
by Uzume
Good point. thanks
Re: Does this make sense?
Posted: Sun Sep 20, 2009 4:22 am
by Tyyr
Mikey wrote:It sure seems like an awful lot of money, but remember that the Mighty Mo was taken out of mothball (she had never truly been decomissioned at that point) and put into service as recently as the eraly '90's. There are certain things that a battleship can do that all our high-falutin' fancy new missile cruisers can't - and the Mo was the only one available.
It's not a lot of money when you consider that the factories that produced her parts haven't functioned in the last 70 years or that the craftsmen who knew how to build her and work on her have died decades ago.
Re: Does this make sense?
Posted: Sun Sep 20, 2009 7:07 am
by Monroe
I was there in Winter 07 and it didn't seem to be in that bad of shape. And while there they were talking about the new fire sprinkle systems that W had them install. So it wouldn't be the first time the ship had an overhaul as a museum. Its got a pretty cool history. Been through three or four wars and never had a single death.
Re: Does this make sense?
Posted: Tue Sep 22, 2009 4:09 am
by Mark
So they are restoring her guns and propulsion WHY again? Makes sense if they thought she was gonna see some more action, but it seems a bit strange to do a refit on a museum ship.
Re: Does this make sense?
Posted: Tue Sep 22, 2009 4:23 am
by Sonic Glitch
Mark wrote:So they are restoring her guns and propulsion WHY again? Makes sense if they thought she was gonna see some more action, but it seems a bit strange to do a refit on a museum ship.
"Historical accuracy"? In case we ever need a kick-ass battleship fleet again?