Senator Feinstein Announces Navy Order to Transfer USS Iowa from 'Reserve' to 'Donation' Status

California communities will now have a chance to bid on the historic battleship.

Stockton, Calif. - U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) today announced that the USS Iowa has been transferred from “reserve” to “donation” status, which will enable interested California communities to apply soon to win the right to receive the battleship as a floating museum.

I was notified today that Donald Winter, the Secretary of the Navy, has signed the order to transfer the USS Iowa from reserve to donation status,” Senator Feinstein said. “This is great news for California. The USS Iowa is one of the greatest battleships in U.S. naval history, and now a California community will be home to this floating museum. It is a fitting memorial to the thousands of sailors who served aboard this battleship over the past six decades.”

The Navy will post an official notice within the next few days in the Federal Register announcing the donation status. All interested California communities will have 45 days to send a “letter of intent” stating their desire to obtain the USS Iowa. After this 45-day period, those communities who have filed letters of intent with the Navy will have up to six months to complete the full application process.

The action by the Navy comes after Senator Feinstein and Representative Richard Pombo (R-Calif.) sponsored a provision in the FY ’06 Defense Authorization conference report to ensure that the USS Iowa was made available to a California city through the Navy’s Ship Donation Program.

Senator Feinstein earlier introduced legislation to assist in transporting the USS Iowa from Newport, RI, to the San Francisco Bay Area, where it now sits today as part of the Navy’s Reserve Fleet. She also secured $3 million in the FY ‘00 Defense Appropriations bill to pay for moving the battleship from Rhode Island to California. The Iowa arrived in California in April 2001.