USS Iowa Bell

I received these photos by e-mail. The USS Iowa ship’s bell was returned from the Iowa State House to the USS Iowa Museum. Under a loan agreement with the Navy’s History and Heritage Command, the bell will remain on the ship for three years with an option to extend that loan.

My thanks to F. L. Farrar and Ed Nystrom for the photos of the bell.

USS Iowa Museum, Los Angeles, CA

Iowa (BB-61) was the lead ship of the last class of U.S. Navy battleships. The battleship was originally commissioned in 1943, and served during World War II, the Korean War, and through the Cold War. Iowa earned 11 battle stars during her career and hosted three U.S. Presidents, ultimately earning the nicknames Battleship of Presidents and Big Stick. Iowa was awarded to the Pacific Battleship Center on September 6, 2011 for display at the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro, California – home to the United States Battle Fleet from 1919 to 1940.

On October 27, 2011, the battleship was relocated from Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet to the Port of Richmond, California for painting and refurbishment. On May 27, 2012, Iowa was towed underneath the Golden Gate Bridge on its 75th anniversary for final placement at the LA Waterfront. Iowa opened in Los Angeles on July 4, 2012 to a crowd of over 1,500 supporters and veterans at Port of Los Angeles Berth 87.

Ready for uncrating

Lowering the bell

The final display. The Iowa Bell was placed on display aboard the Battleship Iowa in San Pedro Thursday, February 22, 2018.

USS Iowa 1943

Honey Bee and Stick Dogs

By Larry Fordyce

Well you know, some things have changed in Yokosuka over the years but the last stop for every drunken sailor still stands with neon lights as bright as ever…

Thank you, Honey Bee for feeding drunken sailors. Who knows how long it has been there? It was there in 79 when I arrived… it looked old at that time. I sometimes wonder how many sailors before me bought them corn dogs before stumbling back to their ship in the late night or early hours of the morning.

Butterfly

By Garland Davis

A description of butterflies from Wikipedia

Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly colored wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprises the large superfamily Papilionoidea, which contains at least one former group, the skippers (formerly the superfamily “Hesperioidea”) and the most recent analyses suggest it also contains the moth-butterflies (formerly the superfamily “Hedyloidea”). Butterfly fossils date to the Paleocene, which was about 56 million years ago.

Butterflies flutter from flower to flower feeding…

A description of butterplies from Angela, a hostess at an unnamed Olongapo club.

“A Butterfly is a Snipe Somamabitch who steadies with you and tells you he lubes you only you and the next time his ship comes to Subic he sneaks around to see that pucking Melly who works at Marilyn’s. Everybody knows why sailors go to that place. If that was what he wanted, I would try.”

“Pucking Butterply Somamabitch no good Goddamn sailors.”

“Oh, well. That is lipe.”

“Oh, that sailor is new. He is cute.”

“Hi, oh you snipe…I like snipe! You buy me drink?”

Butterplies flutter from hostess to hostess…