Friends and Family:

Happy Thanksgiving from my family to yours!  With the holidays rapidly approaching, we have an opportunity to reflect on the past year and enjoy time with family and friends. 

Thanksgiving aboard USS IOWA

During this time of year, we see a variety of activities aboard the Battleship IOWA including holiday parties and events, Camp Battleship overnight programs, veterans support services and activities, increased tours during school breaks, closing of our 2022 books, and approval of our 2023 plan and budget.

These activities are our most visible, but I would be remiss if I didn’t recognize the tremendous support team including those in operations, janitorial, food and beverage, volunteer services, development, security, information technology, retail, sales and marketing, accounting, and administration.

At the beginning of October, we began preparing our 2023 plan and budget. We went through numerous iterations before receiving final approval at the annual board of directors meeting in December.

In conjunction with the plan and budget, we renew our annual attorney general filings within each state. These elements allow us to raise funding across the nation and prepare to brief our department managers on their roles in preparing objectives and implementations.

It is always challenging to balance growth with efficiency and available resources to achieve the goals. There is no doubt your contributions are deeply appreciated and essential to ensuring that we continue to achieve our mission objectives in education, veterans, and community resiliency.

Our two top line primary objectives in 2023 are focused on:

• Expanding nationally and opening the initial phase of the National Museum of the Surface Navy at the Battleship IOWA on October 13th, 2025.

  •  Are you a veteran of the US Armed Forces? If so, please consider participating in a short survey to assist us in understanding and refining the important story of the museum. The survey can be completed online.

• Achieve measurable progress.

  • This calculation can be defined in a variety of ways depending on objectives unique to each department. The entire management team will participate in preparing their specific objectives.

As a platform for community engagement, we are honored to host numerous programs such as our recent Veterans Day events, which were planned and supported by the veterans department – Veterans West. 

The day started with an incredible program of speakers with a focus on women veterans and was followed by a resource fair pierside as well as music on the fantail. During the evening we were thrilled to host an AppleTV screening of Causeway and panel discussion in affiliation with the LA County Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, Veterans Peer Access Network, and AppleTV. 

We showed the movie on our large outdoor LED screen, a fairly new addition to the fantail which was made possible due to support from the Port of Los Angeles. Of course, our IT team showed up in force to manage the audio-visual components of the show. Thank you to them for putting on a flawless show!

Powerful and impactful events such as Veterans Day are only one small part of our overall mission driven-programs, funded by supporters like you and earned revenue generated through tours, events, overnights, retail, and food and beverage. 

Today I received a note from our volunteer services team highlighting the impact we had on a group of youth volunteers this past Saturday. The group was organized by a 14-year-old student who quickly learned that, as with many endeavors aboard a historic battleship, things don’t always follow to plan. 

The entire operations team stepped in with IOWA generosity and organized a tremendous effort which left these kids with smiles. Special kudos to Dave Moser, George Musulin, and Jim Ohr for going above and beyond. Sue, our volunteer manager, capped the day off with a cake celebrating one of the kids’ birthdays! This will be a day to remember and thank you to the team for rallying.

Our crew is proud to be a positive community engagement platform and educate future generations knowing that they have your support. As we begin to close out 2022, I hope you will join me and our board in celebrating a wonderful year with a generous financial contribution, sharing our e-blasts and social media with your networks, reviewing us on TripAdvisor, visiting the ship, dining at Vicky’s Doghouse Cafe, and letting us know how we can make your experience with our organization better.

My deepest gratitude to you and your family for your continued support. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Jonathan Williams
President & CEO

P.S. You can make your tax deductible year end donation by clicking one of the buttons below.

World Cup Soccer Aboard Battleship IOWA

Join us this Saturday (November26th) at 11 AM for World Cup action! We’ll be showing the Mexico vs. Argentina game on the fantail video wall.

Scuttlebutt Podcast | Episode 131

Battleship IOWA has an uncanny knack for attracting historical treasures of all shapes, sizes, and several eras. From a guest book signed by FDR and his war cabinet to a Mark-48 bombardment computer, we’re always on the lookout for things with relevance to the ship.

And opportunities to acquire such priceless artifacts and missing pieces seem to fall into our laps.

When we have these chances, what types of items are we eyeing? For example, at the end of 2020, COO Mike Getscher and a couple of our volunteers were given permission to go aboard a decommissioned ship at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard that held the Navy’s last remaining cache of spare parts for battleships. What was our team looking for and what did they bring home?

Find out in this week’s Scuttlebutt!

• Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3PfuFr3
• Apple: https://apple.co/3Lkr47D
• Google: https://bit.ly/uss-iowa-google-podcast
• Amazon: https://amzn.to/3GYgR0g
• Buzzsprout: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1971056/11722716

Or click below to access the YouTube version.

Support Veterans | Get Coffee

The Gaviña Family – founders and third-generation owners of Don Francisco’s Coffee – is committed to supporting the veterans and families we serve. They are generously helping us meet our goal of raising $25,000 by the end of the year in support of Veterans West, the military and veteran affairs department of Pacific Battleship Center, to help us provide important, impactful programming.

Click the link below to learn how your donation to Veterans West can result in coffee being delivered to your door for a year, so that you can enjoy the rich, bold, smooth taste of Don Francisco’s Coffee.