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Article: Battleship dispute revived
- Article from:
- Chicago Sun-Times
- Article date:
- April 23, 1989
CopyrightCopyright (null) Chicago Sun-Times. (Hide copyright information)
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WASHINGTON They are the most heavily armored naval vessels on
the seas, equipped with the biggest naval guns in the world.
The blast of a one-ton shell fired by a U.S. battleship leaves a
scorched crater in the earth half the size of a football field.
When the rest of the world's navies turned battleships into
scrap metal after World War II, the U.S. Navy coated its behemoth
vessels in gray, fish oil-based paint and stuffed them with
dehumidifiers.
Now, half a decade after President Ronald Reagan resurrected the
battleships, the deaths of 47 men inside a gun turret on the Iowa are
focusing attention on use of the ships in an age of high-tech
weapons, nuclear missiles and shrinking ...