Scuttlebutt S02 E12: Are We Cutting Through The Armor In Our Hull? 

I served in the 80's in the firerooms. I'd be glad to be a burnerman or checkman if they decided to make the engines operable again! I'd even be glad to be a messenger and lug oil cans!

You face the dilemma of nostalgia and the desire to keep her in the state she was in during the most significant event of the 20th century, vs disabled veterans now not being able to board her and enjoy what HAS been preserved. The passage of time is another important factor in an artifacts value and story. We can’t be so precious about the ship that we now limit who can visit and take in its story.

I think you are making the right decisions so far. When I found out about the ship becoming a museum, I was worried that it would become trashed by visitors like I have seen one become over the years. The biggest plus the ship has now is people who care about the preservation and I hope it continues with future generations that the helm.

I was a member of the then Brand Air Carrier USS John F Kennedy CVA 67 from 1963 to 67 as a Data Systems Tech sitting next to the Capitan until he died.

With so much technology and virtual reality options I think cutting on the ship isn't a good choice. You could have an onboard VR experience maybe in a ward room etc getting some experience being onboard and traveling by VR to other areas the physically challenged could not go. Even if you put an elevator in it or escalator, most of the spaces still won't be accessible anyways; and would be limited close to where the accessibility mods were made. I mean how far could you go before there are another set of stairs or a watertight bulkhead to climb through; not far. Reactivating parts of the ship to make it more lifelike is a really cool move the other museums are not doing or advertising. Even when Wisconsin turned on power to the ABLs to open they didnt make a video or demo it. It was a let down to a lot of people. Its a Cold war ship and we like to see the mixture of what it is today. We have plenty of 100 percent WWII ships to see. We love the Iowas.

The Iowa was the Battleship that received all the modern prototyping. Leave it in its modern condition.

Would love to see a video of you loading a video of loading the shells into turret 3 and seeing all the mechanicals loading into turret 3 would be awsome

There are WW II battleships as museums in WW II configuration

So the USS New Jersey is going to be dry-docked within this year or next. What is the plan for the USS Iowa going into dry dock, and dry docks are there on the West Coast to accommodate the USS Iowa?

Don't .....

Why the actual hell would you build a "museum of the surface navy" on a battleship which has lots of small compartments and armored areas, and not put the museum on one of the 2 aircraft carriers in California which both have gigantic wide open spaces? It just really seems like you guys are going to hammer a massive square peg into a tiny round hole and in the process ruin one of 8 battleships left in the world, when there are two massive square holes rifht next to this tiny round one.