Qualla: USS Iowa Museum https://qualla.com/uss-iowa-museum en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:03 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/9/m/g/z/uss-iowa-museum-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: USS Iowa Museum https://qualla.com/uss-iowa-museum USS Iowa Museum: Introduction https://qualla.com/uss-iowa-museum/ Photo credit Jonathan Williams, CC BY-SA 3.0. On May 27, 2012, the USS Iowa passed beneath the Golden Gate Bridge for the last time. It was the bridge's 75th anniversary, and crowds gathered to watch the battleship - 887 feet of steel that had served three wars and three presidents - make her final voyage south to Los Angeles. The Iowa opened as a museum on July 4th that year, greeted by over 1,500 supporters and veterans at Berth 87. She had come home: San Pedro was the base of the United States Battle Fleet from 1919 to 1940, and a battleship belonged here again.

Read more: USS Iowa Museum on Qualla

Image: Jonathan Williams | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 22 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/m/g/z/uss-iowa-museum-wp/9mgz-uss-iowa-museum-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full USS Iowa Museum: The Last of Her Kind https://qualla.com/uss-iowa-museum/ Photo credit Jonathan Williams, CC BY-SA 3.0. The USS Iowa (BB-61) was commissioned in 1943 as the lead ship of the Iowa class - the last class of battleships the United States would ever build. She measured 887 feet in length and carried nine 16-inch/50 caliber guns, the largest weapons ever mounted on a U.S. Navy ship. The...

Read more: USS Iowa Museum on Qualla

Image: Jonathan Williams | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 22 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/m/g/z/uss-iowa-museum-wp/9mgz-uss-iowa-museum-the-last-of-her-kind.mp3 0:06 2 full USS Iowa Museum: Presidential Warship https://qualla.com/uss-iowa-museum/ Photo credit Jonathan Williams, CC BY-SA 3.0. Three American presidents sailed aboard the Iowa. Most famously, Franklin D. Roosevelt crossed the Atlantic on her in November 1943, traveling to the Tehran Conference where he would meet with Churchill and Stalin. The ship carried a specially modified bathtub to accommodate FDR'...

Read more: USS Iowa Museum on Qualla

Image: Jonathan Williams | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 22 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/m/g/z/uss-iowa-museum-wp/9mgz-uss-iowa-museum-presidential-warship.mp3 0:06 3 full USS Iowa Museum: Resurrection in Richmond https://qualla.com/uss-iowa-museum/ Photo credit Jonathan Williams, CC BY-SA 3.0. For years after her final decommissioning in 1990, the Iowa languished in the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet - the mothball fleet northeast of San Francisco where aging warships await their fate. Many battleships ended at the scrapyard, but advocates formed the Pacific Battleship Cente...

Read more: USS Iowa Museum on Qualla

Image: Jonathan Williams | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 22 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/m/g/z/uss-iowa-museum-wp/9mgz-uss-iowa-museum-resurrection-in-richmond.mp3 0:06 4 full USS Iowa Museum: Walking the Decks https://qualla.com/uss-iowa-museum/ Photo credit Jonathan Williams, CC BY-SA 3.0. Today's visitors walk the same decks where sailors served across five decades of American history. Tours explore the officers' wardroom, the armored bridge, missile decks added during 1980s modernization, enlisted berthing where hundreds of sailors slept in stacked bunks, the mes...

Read more: USS Iowa Museum on Qualla

Image: Jonathan Williams | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 22 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/m/g/z/uss-iowa-museum-wp/9mgz-uss-iowa-museum-walking-the-decks.mp3 0:06 5 full USS Iowa Museum: Harbor Guardian https://qualla.com/uss-iowa-museum/ Photo credit Jonathan Williams, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Iowa rests at the Los Angeles World Cruise Center, her massive hull a permanent fixture of the San Pedro waterfront. Hollywood has recognized her photogenic potential: the battleship has appeared in NCIS: Los Angeles, The Rookie, and various films. But her most important role...

Read more: USS Iowa Museum on Qualla

Image: Jonathan Williams | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 22 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/m/g/z/uss-iowa-museum-wp/9mgz-uss-iowa-museum-harbor-guardian.mp3 0:06 6 full