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The battleship USS IOWA firing its 16-inch guns during a firepower demonstration in August 1984. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Battleship USS Iowa nearing final voyage

Tom Hoepf
Tom Hoepf

The battleship USS IOWA firing its 16-inch guns during a firepower demonstration in August 1984. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
The battleship USS IOWA firing its 16-inch guns during a firepower demonstration in August 1984. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
RICHMOND, Calif. (AP) – The final voyage of the USS Iowa is near.

The last surviving World War II battleship without a home is docked at the Port of Richmond, where it is being prepared for its journey to the Port of Los Angeles for a new mission as a museum and memorial to Navy might.

The San Francisco Chronicle says it will be towed beneath to Golden Gate Bridge and into the Pacific for its last voyage to Los Angeles in February or March.

The Pacific Battleship Center raised $8 million to rescue the 68-year-old ship from the Ghost Fleet in Suisun Bay.

The 800-foot Iowa, commissioned in 1943, served in World War II and the Korean War. It last sailed in 1990.

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ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

The battleship USS IOWA firing its 16-inch guns during a firepower demonstration in August 1984. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
The battleship USS IOWA firing its 16-inch guns during a firepower demonstration in August 1984. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.