On 19 April 1989, Battleship IOWA (BB61) was steaming at 17 mph approximately 300 miles northeast of Puerto Rico. At 0953 local time the number two 16-inch gun turret exploded.

The explosion in the center gun room killed 47 of the turret’s crewmen and severely damaged the gun turret itself.

Since acquiring the IOWA, the Pacific Battleship Center (PBC) in San Pedro, California hosts an annual memorial ceremony for the deceased crewmen of Turret Two.

On this 30th anniversary of the incident the PBC will officiate over the memorial and the Battleship IOWA Amateur Radio Association, Inc. (BIARA) using our call sign NI6BB will conduct a special event operation in memory of our lost crew members. We will not discuss any conjectures about the explosion.

Radio operations will be from 1500 to 2300 UTC. Expected operations will be on 40, 20 and possibly 17 meters. Preferred frequencies will be 7043, 7243, 14043, 14243, or 18143 KHz plus or minus QRM.

QSL per info on https://biara.org and the NI6BB posting on QRZ.com.