MARCH 2026
Hey, shipmates! Not sure how another month has passed already, but it’s March and time for another edition of… THE BROADSIDE, Battleship IOWA’s official crew newsletter.
Buckle up. Here we go!
Inbound Our Position
FYIs:
AA Meeting
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- They generally meet on the fantail, but if the weather turns too rough, they’ll take shelter in the Wardroom
- They have keys for that space and the gates they use, and they are expected to lock up said spaces
- They are not allowed to roam about the ship freely
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Cruise ship schedule
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- We’re only highlighting days on which we’ll see two ships, as they’re the most challenging to navigate
- The info we have comes from the cruise terminal and is always subject to change
- You can find the ship schedule here, but rumor has it that schedule is not always updated when things change (#BetterThanNothing)
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Everything else
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- This list is current as of the date of the publication of this newsletter. As with the ship schedule, ours can change without warning. You can find the information in it on our Google calendar, which now is conveniently available on the spiffy new screen mounted on the starboard side of the volunteer lounge
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Wardroom Round Up
The chiefs are back with news from a variety of angles. Here’s what’s up with IOWA’s exec team.
CEO Jonathan Williams
Our vision and growth plan are solid — but as we all know, the road is not always smooth.
Over the past several months, much of our focus has been on planning, resource management, and upgrading the way we operate. This has required discipline, alignment, and in some cases, difficult decisions. The framework guiding this work can be found in our Playbook and 2026 Plan in the Crew Portal. These documents are not just plans — they are our operational compass as we continue building toward the National Museum of the Surface Navy and the broader Freedom of the Seas vision.
We remain financially restrained. Improvement will come through increased revenue paired with tightly managed expenses and resources.
On the revenue front, we are seeing meaningful progress:
- Camp Battleship capacity is up 80% year over year
- Admissions are increasing, along with add-on conversions
- Vicky’s weekend revenue continues trending positively
These are not small wins. They reflect focused effort, smarter execution, and the strength of our programs.
Our capital maintenance and construction initiatives remain primarily funded through donations and reserves, reinforcing the importance of stewardship in everything we do.
On the expense side, we are tightening operations — reducing reliance on contractors, sharpening focus, aligning efforts, and making strategic staffing shifts. The goal is simple: operate as one strong, unified crew, maximizing impact with the resources we have.
I am seeing positive progress across the organization. I see stronger alignment. I see accountability. I see momentum.
Most importantly, I see a crew that believes in the mission.
Thank you for the commitment you bring every day. I look forward to reading the articles in this month’s Broadside and continuing this journey together.
CIO David Canfield
I recently met with the rest of the senior leadership team to address some of the concerns that have been raised by the crew and to walk through the “why” and the tradeoffs behind the decision to move away from Windows 11 and transition to a Linux based desktop. The primary driver is cost: staying on Microsoft would drive roughly $80k in required hardware upgrades plus $31k+ every year in licensing; those are retail costs, and I understand that discounts and donations are available, but even reducing that by 2/3 (which is overly optimistic at best) would result in a cost of nearly $40k. That is real money we’d rather put toward mission impact.
Practically speaking, most of our daily work already happens in browser-based tools (Gmail/Drive, Docs/Sheets/Meet, Acrobat, Zoom), so the transition is more manageable than it sounds. The biggest friction I’ve heard is PDF editing and signing; to be clear, that capability isn’t “native to Windows” either; it comes from having the right PDF software installed and supported (Adobe for windows, other tools for linux). We will get this fixed by installing the correct pdf tooling and providing training. We will also be hosting open office hours every Friday via an online meeting to assist with these and other questions—please show up, ask anything, and we’ll get you through it. The invite and meeting link are on the Ship’s calendar.
Change is uncomfortable, but it is also inevitable. I saw a sign in an office once that read “Change is not mandatory, Survival is not required” Please work with my team and the entire organization as we return to our roots of being lean and scrappy for the good of the ship.
Kind Regards,
CFO Ross O'Brien
This past week, and this coming week, a couple of things are getting a lot of our time and attention: cash flow and insurance. You’ve heard me talk about how were a business, like most others, except we don’t have to pay dividends or income tax. Last week I talked about Restricted versus Unrestricted Donations. Just like any business or household, you can’t spend what you don’t have. So we’re constantly monitoring our Unrestricted cash to ensure we have enough to pay salaries, rent, utilities, etc. And, just like any business or household, we’ve recently begun tightening our belt, pinching our pennies. There are two ways to deal with this situation: increase revenue, and decrease expenses; we’re working on both. Our revenue comes from many sources: donations, tour tickets, Vicky’s, the gift shop, overnights, and field trips are our main ones. As noted above, our expenses include salaries, rent, and utilities. We can control salaries by managing headcount, but can’t control rent, utilities, insurance, and out other major expense categories as easily.
Regarding insurance, we’ll be talking to our insurance broker tomorrow to review our policies and risk exposures. As you know, we’re not a normal business in an office building or a warehouse. Being a business on a ship, or a “watercraft” in insurance-speak, brings additional levels of risk. Even walking on or off the ship is subject to the tides (as those of you with bad knees already know). It’s a common misconception that “bean counters” like me are looking to avoid all risk. That’s overly simplistic, not to mention impossible. You can’t manage your risk unless you know where your risk is coming from. Even if you know where your risk is coming from, you may not be able to avoid it, just minimize it. My favorite example is “crossing the street”, something we all do almost every day. There is always a risk some careless driver will hit you. That doesn’t mean you don’t cross the street, it means you wait for the green light, check in both directions, and move as quickly as you can. Even after all that, you might still get injured through no fault of your own. We manage risk, but we can’t avoid it.
I’ll return in a couple of week, on March 8th which, by the way, will be the 1st day of Daylight Savings Time, when we “spring ahead” an hour. It can’t come too soon. Until then, please take a moment to remember that, no matter how bad of a day you may be having, someone else is having a worse one. So let’s enjoy what we have, and not worry about what we don’t have.
CHENG Mike Getscher
From the desk of the Chief Engineer,
Another exciting note from the world of engineering and capital projects!
We missed our missive last week for a special reason…our annual Richmond reunion was held last Saturday evening at the San Pablo Bay Yacht Club, just a hop, skip, and a jump from the location in Richmond Inner Harbor where the ship resided those many months. We had perhaps 35 people in attendance for dinner that night, and it was wonderful to see everyone. It is indeed remarkable that we still gather each year to renew our friendships and reminisce about this extraordinary project.
While in the Richmond neighborhood, some of us stopped by the old dock where IOWA stayed, and walked around the old Craneway Pavilion building, formerly the Ford assembly plant which dates to 1930. Converted to the building of Jeeps, half-tracks, and armored personnel carriers during the war, it was refurbished in 2008 after the Loma Prieto earthquake and converted to retail and event venue use. It currently sits partially empty, along with the attached “Boiler House” restaurant, now closed, which was our favorite haunt. It was cool to see the place, but times have changed.
The Pavilion Project is coming along with several challenges being met this last week. Additional CEQA paperwork was obtained and transmitted, parking requirements discussed, and multiple important meetings with the LADBS occurred. One new issue which is being addressed, is the rather arcane rules surrounding “lot ties” or the combining of parcels within the property. It seems our parking lot is comprised of many lots, and the new building sits across three of them, one of which already has an address that we don’t need. This causes a curious problem wherein the planning department doesn’t really know what to do. We have engaged multiple people at the Port of LA and city government to find and communicate a solution.
The expansion joint project continues, but torrential rain and high winds caused a mess this last week when the expansion joint was uncovered. The office from which I’m writing was extensively flooded, by some accounts with more than 1 inch of water. A large team of people from several departments came to the rescue, including Captain Pitkin of the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station, Jonathan, Chief Moser, and many others. Many thanks to those who contributed to cleaning things up. It is deeply appreciated.
And now for Richmond…
We left off with well crap…
My heart sank when the lights went out and I will readily admit that my initial response was very selfish. All I could think about was that I would not be sleeping in a warm rack that night. My mind raced to possible causes including blown fuses (bad), popped breaker (easy), or some utility-level problem that I couldn’t define. I dropped our padlocks and ran to the shore power connection on the starboard side to investigate. We were all so tired of being cold and I was extremely bummed.
Quickly finding that we actually had power coming to the ship on deck, I ran below to the #3 switchboard to find one shore power breaker tripped. What the heck?
I checked things out, reset the breaker and lights were restored. Yay! I’m gonna be warm tonight! But I still didn’t know what had happened and I was a little concerned that it could happen again. It is at this point that we can share an important feature of the shore power system.
IOWA has ten shore-power connections on each side of the ship, and these are cross-connected in specific ways. For example, the #1 plug on the starboard side is directly connected to #1 plug on port, thus allowing the ship to be ambidextrous with respect to shore power when it ties up to a dock; power can flow to a connection on either side of the ship. Each pair is also connected by a “shunt trip” between them, thus ensuring that if the unused side is opened, the breaker trips off so power is not available to the one which was exposed.
Unbeknownst to me initially, it worked as designed on that day, and the entire system tripped off. All hail Marty Palmiere for his help on the phone.
Come to find out, a former Navy sailor, not from IOWA, had decided to show off to his family during an unauthorized tour and had opened one of the shore power covers on the port side, completely out of sight of the crew, thus tripping the system. I was rather hot when I found out, but fortunately, Dan Pawloski kept things under control.
We were warm that night.
March is coming…and in 2012, the money and the rains came. More on that next week.
As always, I am grateful to be here,
Mike
In the J.O. Jungle
February 2026 Highlight Reel
Engineering from Chief Moser
Mooring
This month we tightened 4 mooring lines which helped reduce the ship’s movement considerably. George Musulin and Alan Scardera have revitalized a worn-out mooring line by removing the failed section and splicing an eye. This will provide a spare replacement for the future and save Battleship IOWA $12,500.
IOWA Water Park
Winter made a recent comeback and dumped lots of rain over San Pedro. With the work progressing on the expansion joint, over 150 gallons of water made its way into the ship (much of it concentrated in Mike Getscher’s office). It took a few days to totally dewater and dry out the ship, Mike now has the cleanest carpet on the entire ship. If you would like your carpet deep cleaned, please make arrangements with Engineering and mother nature.
Fire alarm
Our fire alarm system is finally fully functional thanks to several days of troubleshooting and repairs by the ship’s crew. Parts were ordered and installed by the fire alarm company which rounded out the exhaustive repair efforts. Now we are scheduling our annual fire alarm testing which will be conducted soon.
Development from Kyle Aube
Made progress planning for this year’s Leadership Summit at LA Fleet Week, which will convene leaders from government, military, industry, and beyond to build relationships, strengthen cross-sector communications, and learn about collaborative efforts to prepare Los Angeles for world stage events. Glenys celebrated her first year on board!
Programs from Mike Nguyen
– 960 students served in the month of February (overnights, STEAM At Sea, and field trips)
Tours with VJ Alcomindras
15% increase in add-on tours!
Marketing from Hall Roosevelt
– Starting LA Fleet Week prep for real (lots of meetings and planning)
– Rolling on Life of a Sailor campaign
– Helped bail Mike Getscher’s office on the day of The Great Flood of ’26
… and MUCH more!
Tech from Troy Vail
N/A
IE&T from Gary Lopes
John Pakusich has provided his excellent carpentry skills and built a display case to show the specialized cryptology equipment that was used on the Iowa in the 1980’s The equipment is on loan for the next year from the National Cryptologic Museum and will be displayed in FACCON 1.
More Programs with Anna Borough
– Overnight attendance has gone up 80% thanks to the hard work of the sales team and programs staff!! Holy cow, let’s keep it going!!
– Our annual Gravely Student Luncheon happened on 2/24. We hosted approximately 104 students and school administrators, panelists from our corporate partners Port of LA, APM Terminals, and Marathon Petroleum. It was inspiring to hear our panelists stories overcoming challenges, about Admiral Gravely’s legacy, and see students so engaged!
– We expanded the Gravely contest from just a pure essay contest, to a multimedia project. In the long run, this allows us to include more student participation with interests and talents from many disciplines.
– In the last week of February, we focused on enhancing our overnight program with an experience mindset by incorporating more hands-on activities that leave memorable and inspirational impressions on our guests!
Sales from Catherine Moreno
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Curatorial with Dave Way
IOWA celebrated her 83rd first commissioning birthday: February 22, 1943
Communications with Marann Fengler
Feb 2026 review:
- Relaunch of Scuttlebutt podcast, launch of Scuttlebutt Afterparty, and an influx of new content on our YouTube channel pushed us over 33,000 subscribers
- Episode 2 from both entities comes out this week – Scuttlebutt on Thursday and Afterparty on Friday
- The addition of lavalier (clip on) microphones just made recording much easier and more flexible. Pretty short learning curve on the set up, too. Big time thank you and shout out to the IT team for setting us up with them (lookin’ at you, David Canfield!)
Crew Services from Hershell Hardimon
– Volunteer department transitioned to Salesforce
– Safety team has three (3) new recruits and is looking for more
Accounting & Finance from Nui Valletta
I feel January was longer than 31 days and February was skipped. Anyone feel that too?
Volunteering with Sue Schmidt
– We’re making progress on the change over from Volgistics to Salesforce. Please be patient and be sure to keep track of your hours. We’re still wrapping up assignments and will be adding schedules soon.
– We had a wonderfully successful reunion of the Richmond crew up in the Bay Area at the Point San Pablo Yacht Club. All hands are welcome to join us for future reunions!
What They're Planning For March 2026
Engineering from Chief Moser
– More work on the expansion joint
– Continued prep for cofferdam operations on port
Development from Kyle Aube
– We will be awarding the 3rd annual USS IOWA Lamberti Service Award to our Board Member Becky Beach at the Iowa State Capitol on March 10.
– We are fully steam ahead on securing supporters for LA Fleet Week, our Capital Campaign, and special projects. If you or someone you know wants to be involved in a high-visibility project, let me know!
Programs with Mike Nguyen
– Introducing “Action Stations” to the overnight program
Tours with VJ Alcomindras
Adding “on and off ramps” along the tour path to assist guests in navigating the ship.
Marketing with Hall Roosevelt
– More work on Life of a Sailor and LA Fleet Week
– Prepping outreach materials for Long Beach Grand Prix and other events
– Reorganizing events department
And much much more!
Tech from Troy Vail
N/A
IE&T from Gary Lopes
Bruce Richards will be providing in-depth guidance and training for the Battleship Simulator.
Programs with Anna Borough
Programs events:
– StudentsBuild Summit hosted by LA Promise will take place on 3/11. We will be attending to do some outreach in order to promote all our programs onboard to an estimated 4,000 students, teachers, and school administrators.
– K9 Veterans Day will be taking place here on the fantail. Last year we saw approximately 200 guests for this event, so we are excited to recreate it again this year. Stop by and come see the dog teams!
– On 3/21 we are hosting our first ever NJROTC drill competition, this is an event we are hoping becomes an annual one with at least 7 teams competing from around southern California.
Sales from Catherine Moreno
N/A
Curatorial with Dave Way
Nothing anticipated yet……..
Communications with Marann Fengler
– More fun content on our socials and podcasts (did I mention one comes out tomorrow and another Friday?). Expect to see your friendly neighborhood comms team out and about with cameras.
– Working on plans for LA Fleet Week’s social media presence.
Have fun stuff you’d like to share in this newsletter or on socials? Drop us a line! marketing@labattlehip.com
Crew Services from Hershell Hardimon
– Volunteer department field trip is scheduled for mid-March
– Safety is transitioning from Delta Bravo to Taurus Security Force
Accounting & Finance from Nui Valletta
N/A
Volunteering with Sue Schmidt
– Next month we’ll continue to be heads down on data transfer and clean up in Salesforce. Reminder to please send us your needs and concerns in writing.
– Our Field Trip to the All Era Western Railroad has been rescheduled for Sunday, March 8. Please let us know if you need to cancel your reservation.
– On other fronts, planning and preparations are ramping up for the Long Beach Grand Prix, April 17 – 19, and LA Fleet Week, May 22 – 25. Mark your calendars!
Saved Rounds
Spotlight: BIG SPLICE ENERGY
If you went wandering down to the tent on the dock last week, you saw George Musulin leading a team of intrepid splicers in an epic project: putting an eye into an old dockline so we can use it as a back up.
George had help from Alan Scardera, Scott Dennis, Peter Paluck, Ron Nakamura, and others.
Do you have any idea how much WORK that was? Those things are HEAVY and cumbersome and uncooperative. They are braided and they have a core that has to be integrated with an outer layer.
These guys did an impressive job. Next time you’re at the ship, go check it out and ask them about it.
Lock It Down
Safety Manager Bob Watkins wants you to know…
In an effort to bring down costs, we’ve got a new schedule for locking up the ship at the end of the day.
Our contract security team will now be working with us seven days a week, but only five hours per day. This change will necessitate locking up the ship after our final guest sweep at around 1645.
If you open a door after that lock up, you are responsible for closing and locking it.
These changes went into effect Monday, March 2, 2026. Thanks for your understanding, and please help us spread the word.
Noah's Ark...?
That might be the wrong metaphor. You don’t lead animals two by two onto a ship that’s taking ON water…
Did you hear about all the excitement the week of Valentine’s Day and Presidents Day? Mother Nature UNLEASHED on us, and with the expansion joint undergoing repairs, things got a bit… soggy. Especially in Mike Getscher’s office.
Water an inch deep, torrential downpour inside, bucket brigade. Presidents Day was intense… but our team was up to the challenge. Two days later, when it rained again, not a drop to be seen.
But wait… that wasn’t all. Winds. Gale force. This time no damage to the ship, but a toppled power pole somewhere in San Pedro caused not only traffic nightmares, but an hours-long blackout on IOWA.
Those of us aboard that day would like to issue a warning to those who weren’t: do not trust Chief Moser when the lights go out. This list of shipmates he materialized out of the darkness to startle out of their skins is fairly long.
Click here for video of all the shenanigans and to hear more, tune into Scuttlebutt Afterparty Episode 2 when it premieres on our YouTube channel on Friday.
Speaking of that… did you catch the first episode? Or the return of Scuttlebutt podcast with Victor Vescovo? You really should check them out. Good stuff!
SPRING DEALS from FunExpress via Catherine Moreno
- Alan Scardera, Scott Dennis, Peter Paluck, and Ron Nakamura: Team Dockline Eye Spice for the win!
- Tour Department volunteers who helped with the Northrop-Grumman Engineering tour: a lot got thrown at them pretty last minute and they absolutely killed it
- Cesar “Oscar” Olvera: doing all sorts of thankless work to make overnights a success
- Catherine Moreno: having a can-do attitude and unrivaled talent to solve complex problems
- Glenys Rich & ABH3 Cole Porter: helping obtain uniforms for the Life of a Sailor photo shoot
- Troy Vail: supporting the Gravely luncheon – flawless execution helped the program start and end on time… to the minute!
- William Upshaw, Brian Clune, Jake Perry, and Anthony Menses: adapting and having attitudes that helped make the overnight program on 2/24 a positive experience for our guests
- Henry Wynne: tour department newbie fully committing to his new assignment. In barely more than a month since starting, Henry has donated almost 75 hours of volunteer time! Be sure to swing by the Quarter Deck and say hello
- John Zastoupil: being quick to respond to IT requests and always having a positive attitude
Over And Out
That wraps this month’s edition of The Broadside. Want to share something cool with the crew? Give a shout out to a shipmate? Ask a question? Drop a line to marketing@labattleship.com. We’ve got ya covered!
We’re gonna rack out. See you on deck.
