Our Story

Pacific Battleship Center

A story of perseverence, passion, and committment

Pacific Battleship Center is a an award-winning 501(c)3 non-profit founded in 2008 to ignite curiosity, connect communities, and enhance understanding of America’s role in maritime peace and prosperity.  Pacific Battleship Center’s family of brands include Battleship IOWA, National Museum of the Surface Navy, Freedom of the Seas, LA Fleet Week, Camp Battleship, Veteran’s West, and Vicky’s Doghouse Cafe.

The organization was founded in 2008 with the purpose to save ex-USS Iowa from the scrapyard.  The team that led the initiative included entrepreneurs, project managers, and subject matter experts.  The entrepreneurial spirit that fed the organization led the team to be creative in overcoming seemingly impossible challenges including the dreaded historic ship puzzle requiring a pier and funding before the ship was donated.  The USS Iowa was saved in 2011 and opened to the public in 2012 at the Port of Los Angeles in the sleepy neighborhood of San Pedro.  A former Navy town, San Pedro was not considered a tourist destination, nor was Los Angeles considered a pro-military city.  The team was shocked upon arriving to an industrial complex with limited tourist interest and a waning positive public perception of our military. 

With the odds against us, we set a course to establish a world-class waterfront destination and positively shift public perception.  Considered the first pearl in the string of pearls to invigorate the LA Waterfront, within 8-years, the team of the Pacific Battleship Center firmly established the Battleship IOWA as the #4 attraction in Los Angeles only bested by Universal Studios, Getty, and Griffith Park.  Their efforts have contributed to new development efforts including over 9,000 residential units, West Harbor waterfront, and the AltaSea research facility.  

Concurrently, the team co-founded LA Fleet Week with the City and Port of Los Angeles to establish a world-class festival adjacent to the Battleship IOWA.  Held annually since 2017, LA Fleet Week transformed Navy public awareness, established the LA Waterfront as an event and entertainment venue, forged critical relationships in public safety, and directly impacted more than 250,000 people annually with over 200 different events throughout the region. 

By 2023, we had successfully accomplished our objective in moving the ball forward in establishing a world-class waterfront and positively shifting public perception.  But this is only part of the story.  

Pioneering the Future of Museums

Traditionally a museum is considered a visitor focused entity that is primarily targeted towards the older and more affluent.  It provides an opportunity for the visitor to experience the past through artifacts, exhibits, and galleries and in many cases to revisit a lifetime of memories.  Unfortunately, we are seeing a shift in the public interest towards museums and more particularly military museums.  The ways of the past will not be sustainable for the future and the team again looked to pioneering the future of the museums.

Applying the principles of public polling, visionary creativity, and simplifying the obvious, the team set forth to establish the museum as a community hub; a hub for conversation, community service, comradery, education, events, public safety, services, support, resiliency, veterans, and more.  A platform that supports, honors, and serves the community, ultimately becoming a necessity instead of a luxury.

By becoming a necessity, the museum further solidifies its future as an anchor of Los Angeles, its waterfront, and ultimately the Nation.

Expanding Nationally

In a short 8-years we established ourselves as a transformational community asset and the museum of the future.  Only challenge, was our reach was limited to the story of one-ship with a localized audience which would ultimately limit our growth and impact.  We knew we had to expand our reach and it was about this time that we stumbled upon the possibility of becoming the National Museum of the Surface Navy.

We licensed the name from the US Navy in 2019 and received a congressional designation in 2021 led by our local Representative Nanette Barragan and Senator Diane Feinstein.  Covid-19 provided us the opportunity to revisit our operations and highlighted our role in support of the community as we assisted with defense support of civilian agencies missions such as the USNS Mercy, drafted state guideline recommendations for outdoor museums, provided a safe outdoor venue for events, and hosted a popular Covid testing location.

In 2023, we came out strong with funding, design, and program initiatives.  We retained famed experience designer Applied Minds led by Bran Ferren to create our initial concept of the new museum.  State of California Assemblymember Mike Gipson secured a $6.7 million appropriation for the Freedom of the Seas park and pavilion.  We experienced significant increases in program delivery including visitation, youth education, veteran’s services, public safety, public engagement, and more.  Despite this, the story of the National Museum of the Surface Navy was not resonating with the majority of America.  We had to think differently, as the goal of the museum is to share the story of why the Surface Navy is important to their lives by connecting the past with the future. 

Once again we looked internally with self-reflection to accept we were on the wrong path and reached out to the public, supporters, donors, crew, veterans, students, families, and more to seek answers.  We asked the difficult questions, scripted summaries, received feedback, adjusted messaging, and retained top communicators to reimagine our story to focus on freedom of the seas and the Surface Navy’s role in safeguarding it.  

In summary, a fellow crewmember recently said that it feels like a docuseries in which a new season starts every year.  We hope you will join us on our journey as we make history.

Get Involved

• Job Opportunities
• Volunteer
• Plank Owner Member
• Donate