THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 18, 1996 TAG: 9610180532
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 60 lines
Tugboats toylike against its steel-gray flanks, the mighty battleship Wisconsin returned to Hampton Roads Thursday as scores of its former crew watched, misty-eyed, from Town Point Park.
The mothballed warship was pushed into the Elizabeth River's Southern Branch shortly after 3 p.m., headed for a new home at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth. Its arrival there ended its journey from the just-closed Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, its berth for five years.
Nearly three football fields long, its superstructure a towering array of turrets and decks, the ship was announced with a tug's single horn blast. It seemed a funeral dirge to some looking on from shore.
``You want to see grown men cry?'' asked Dominic Menta, 62, who drove from Pennsylvania to see his old ship.
``Watch.''
``It's sad to see a ship that was once so alive so dead, being tugged,'' said Eugene Kanter, his voice quavering, as he watched the Wisconsin pass. The Virginia Beach dentist served two years aboard the battleship in the mid-1950s.
``But,'' he said, taking a deep breath, ``she's still a great lady. What a lady!''
Those paying their respects included Navy men whose time aboard the Wisconsin was scattered across five decades. Some harkened back to its 1944 introduction as one of four Iowa class battleships, whose 16-inch guns made them the most lethal capital ships in U.S. naval history.
Others served aboard the big ship in the 1950s, others three decades later. Laid off and called back to work twice, the Wisconsin was finally retired after service against Iraq in Operation Desert Storm.
``Most young men back then were just kids'' when they joined the Navy, said Lillian Menta, Dominic's wife. ``She was their mother. They grew up on her.''
Her husband agreed. ``She took care of us, and now I want to make sure they take care of her, don't cut her up.''
Whether or not that fate awaits it, the Wisconsin will spend the forseeable future tied up in Portsmouth. The naval shipyard is the only East Coast government facility that can handle the darkened, 57,000-ton hulk, too tall to permit its passage under most bridges.
One such crossing, the James River Bridge, stands between the battleship and the government's reserve fleet, which is anchored a few miles upriver.
For most Hampton Roads residents, Thursday's arrival marked the best opportunity for viewing the historic battlewagon, which will be shielded from civilian view by shipyard buildings.
Such a view was all the incentive most Wisconsin shipmates needed to head for vantage points at Town Point or Portside.
``I just wanted to see it,'' said Navy Capt. Jerry Schill of Virginia Beach, the Wisconsin's executive officer when it was retired.
``You don't ever get a battleship out of your blood.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photos]
Top: BILL TIERNAN; Above: VICKI CRONIS/ The Virginian-Pilot
Al Creekmore of Norfolk, above, was among those who lined the
Wisconsin's route Thursday. The WWII Army veteran just wanted to see
the mothballed battleship pass by. by CNB