On the 70th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attacks, the National Park Service, the Pacific Battleship Center and the Craneway Pavilion will announce the official opening dates for the new The Rosie the Riveter/WWI Home Front NHP Visitor Education Center and The USS Iowa BB-61 Museum during a special ceremony honoring Pearl Harbor's anniversary. There is also a rumor that the San Francisco Giants will also make a special announcement at the event. The event will take place on December 7, 2011 on board the USS Iowa which is docked in the Port of Richmond here in the San Francisco Bay.
The special event will be hosted by The Craneway Pavilion and will mark the first time that a group of “Rosie’s,” VIP’s and officials have been onboard the USS Iowa since the historic battleship was taken out of the mothball fleet in order to be converted into an museum.
Robert Kent, President of the Pacific Battleship Center: “This is the world’s last battleship’s final voyage. During World War II, the Iowa carried President Franklin D. Roosevelt across the Atlantic to Casablanca for a crucial 1943 meeting in Tehran with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin. She was transferred to the Pacific Fleet in 1944 and saw action in the South Pacific. She also served as the Third Fleet flagship, flying Admiral William F. Halsey’s flag at the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay.”
The USS Iowa was known as “The Big Stick” of the U.S. Navy. The USS Iowa BB-61 represented the peak of naval military power during the era of Franklin Roosevelt through to George H.W. Bush. The USS Iowa is the last lead battleship of its’ class and was one of the biggest, fastest and most powerful battleships to have even sailed the seas and serve our country. She is currently undergoing extensive refurbishment and restoration in Richmond, California and will eventually become a museum docked in the Port of Los Angeles.
In addition to the USS Iowa becoming a museum, the new The Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front NHP Visitor Education Center, which will be an interactive museum, will be located across from the BoilerHouse Restaurant in a building which is part of the Ford Assembly Building complex.
The Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front NHP Visitor Education Center started out in 2000 in order to presence the tell stories from the home front during World War II. Rosie the Riveter is an American icon from World War II representing the women who built equipment for the war as well as earned money for their families.
Tom Leatherman, Superintendent The Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front NHP Visitor Education Center: “The Visitor Center and interactive museum will both interpret the national home front movement, and orient visitors to Richmond’s influential history from the era. The Center will feature interactive exhibits and learning experiences. Visitors will see, hear, and reflect on the stories and contributions of courageous home front Americans. They will both tell the local story and link to other representative sites across the country.”
The event will take place onboard the USS Iowa on December 7, 2011.
Comments