The USS Iowa (BB-61) was commissioned in 1943 as the lead ship of the Iowa class - the last class of battleships the United States would ever build. She measured 887 feet in length and carried nine 16-inch/50 caliber guns, the largest weapons ever mounted on a U.S. Navy ship. These guns could hurl 2,700-pound shells over 20 miles with devastating accuracy. The Iowa served through World War II, the Korean War, and was recommissioned during the Cold War, earning 11 battle stars across her career. Her nicknames - 'Battleship of Presidents' and 'Big Stick' - speak to both her ceremonial importance and her raw power.

Three American presidents sailed aboard the Iowa. Most famously, Franklin D. Roosevelt crossed the Atlantic on her in November 1943, traveling to the Tehran Conference where he would meet with Churchill and Stalin. The ship carried a specially modified bathtub to accommodate FDR's disability, and visitors can still tour President Roosevelt's cabin today. The Iowa represented American power at its most impressive - a floating symbol of industrial might that could transport a commander-in-chief across a wartime ocean in both comfort and safety. Her presidential connections helped earn her the nickname that distinguished her from her sister ships.

For years after her final decommissioning in 1990, the Iowa languished in the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet - the mothball fleet northeast of San Francisco where aging warships await their fate. Many battleships ended at the scrapyard, but advocates formed the Pacific Battleship Center to save the Iowa. On September 6, 2011, the Navy awarded them custody. The ship was towed to Richmond, California for painting and refurbishment, her gray hull emerging from decades of preservation cocoon. The journey to Los Angeles came eight months later, a triumphant procession down the California coast that ended where the great battleships once anchored between the wars.

Today's visitors walk the same decks where sailors served across five decades of American history. Tours explore the officers' wardroom, the armored bridge, missile decks added during 1980s modernization, enlisted berthing where hundreds of sailors slept in stacked bunks, the mess decks where they ate, and the helicopter deck at the stern. Standing beside the massive 16-inch gun turrets, the scale of naval warfare becomes visceral: each barrel weighs as much as a small house, and the ammunition handling rooms below required crews of dozens to keep them firing. The museum offers education programs, overnight stays, and serves as a venue for military ceremonies.

The Iowa rests at the Los Angeles World Cruise Center, her massive hull a permanent fixture of the San Pedro waterfront. Hollywood has recognized her photogenic potential: the battleship has appeared in NCIS: Los Angeles, The Rookie, and various films. But her most important role may be as a memorial. Each year, the ship hosts the City of Los Angeles Veterans Appreciation event, Memorial Day celebrations, and September 11 remembrances. From the air, the Iowa's distinctive profile - the long foredeck, the towering superstructure, the triple gun turrets fore and aft - makes her unmistakable among the port's commercial vessels. She is the last battleship that will ever call Los Angeles home.