Monday 2 February 2026
In Los Angeles, California aboard Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 we berthed at San Pedro immediately forward of the famed USS Iowa. We hadn’t made any plans for our first day in port and that worked well for us since everyone on board needed to disembark and to go through US Customs which turned out to be a lengthy process. We were able to stay aboard until last call for guests which meant that our wait in the Customs queue was pretty short. Once that was accomplished we left the terminal and just a short walk later we were aboard the amazing USS Iowa BB-61. Our self guided tour of this lead ship of the Iowa class battleships, gave us an opportunity to learn a bit of her storied history from one of her veterans who serves as a volunteer. She was ordered in 1939, entered service in 1943, transported President Franklin Roosevelt to Morocco for the Casablanca Conference, then transferred to the Pacific Theater in early 1944 and was among the most heavily armed of the US battleships in World War II and played a significant role in the Battle of the Pacific. She was featured on the cover of Life Magazine in 1944 and was present in Tokyo Bay alongside her sister ship the USS Missouri for the signing of the Japanese Instrument of Surrender in 1945. Subsequently she served in the Korean War, was refitted in 1984 with cruise missiles, and played a role in the First Gulf War before being decommissioned in 1990. She opened as a museum in Los Angeles on 4 July 2012 and continues to serve her country as a platform for education and community building.
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