The Missouri
“ ‘Mighty Mo’ Takes Final Float Before Retirement” (June 22) is the final nail in the coffin for those few of us alive who served aboard BB63 from commissioning at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1944 through Tokyo Bay and to Navy Day ’45 in the Hudson River, where President Truman reviewed the fleet and had a state luncheon aboard. Just about the last place the battleship Missouri belongs is cheek by jowl with the Arizona, site of the worst naval defeat and tragedy in the 222-year history of the Republic. My friend Hank Walker (we were shipmates--indeed, roommates as ensigns) started the ball rolling for a Pearl Harbor Mighty Mo berth.
The BB63 belongs on the mainland, where citizens can see it without paying a fortune to get to Hawaii. You can’t take a Greyhound bus to Honolulu; you can’t drive your SUV to Pearl Harbor loaded with your kids and the dog. It belongs in San Francisco. Hank, if you read this, please give it back!
TED HARBERT SR., La Quinta
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