East Iowans join in rededication of USS Iowa

George Cavanaugh and George Milligan, both of Cedar Rapids, served on the USS Iowa at the same time during the Korean War.

But the men never met until Tuesday, as they toured the restored battleship at the Port of Los Angeles.

“It's fun,” Cavanaugh, 80, said of meeting Milligan and other former crew members the day before the Iowa is officially dedicated as an interactive museum.

Gov. Terry Branstad and Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, will join hundreds of veterans on the battleship today for what's being described as a “final commissioning” ceremony. More than 500,000 visitors are expected to visit the Iowa annually at its new home in the Los Angeles suburb of San Pedro.

“This is a very special ship,” said Cavanaugh, who hadn't seen the Iowa since he left the Navy in 1954. “I really do think people will come to see it.” (story continues below gallery)

Bob Rogers, a California veteran who has worked to publicize the restoration effort since the Iowa was towed out of a the “ghost fleet” of Suisun Bay in northern California last year, agrees. The ship had been docked there for the past decade with dozens of other Navy ships in the reserve fleet.

“We want to honor the Iowa, point to the Iowa and thank the people of Iowa for helping to save the ship,” Rogers sad. “The people of Iowa all should be very, very proud, she's a mighty ship.”

The Iowa is widely known as one of the most powerful ships in world history. It has been called the Battleship of Presidents because Franklin D. Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush have all spent time on its deck. Roosevelt lived on the Iowa for more than a month in 1943. Julianna Roosevelt, Roosevelt's great-granddaughter, also will attend today's dedication.

The ship was docked in California's Port of Richmond in the San Francisco area for the $12 million restoration project - Iowa contributed $3 million - and was towed to the Port of Los Angeles in a trip that began May 26 and ended June 9.

Sharp green road signs along Interstate 110 just south of Los Angeles now point to the exit that will take drivers to battlewagon that served during World War II, the Korean War and the Cold War.

At night the ship is illuminated with dozens of flood lights, making the Iowa stand out like a lighthouse to thousands of drivers passing over the Vincent Thomas Bridge, a major connection between San Pedro and Long Beach.

Cavanaugh and Milligan are among the thousands of USS Iowa veterans who are on hand this week for the dedication. A handful of Eastern Iowans made the trip and will participate in the ceremony.

“It was a real honor to be on the Iowa,” said Milligan, 82. who flew to southern California with his wife, Marlene.

The couple, who also attended the ship's second recommissioning in 1984 in Pascagoula, Miss., are excited to see the Iowa turned into a museum.

“I've never sat up here,” Milligan said with a laugh while sitting in the captain's seat Tuesday afternoon. “I never dreamed I would be sitting here.”

“It's great for these guys,” Marlene Milligan said of the hoopla over the ship's opening as a museum, which officially happens Saturday.