An immediate petition was sent to the Alabama State Legislature, which, fortunately, was in session at the time, and a joint resolution was quickly passed. Quickly, the hastily gathered group contacted the Governor.Īlabama Governor John Patterson, upon learning that the World War II era South Dakota Class Battleship USS ALABAMA was a candidate for scrapping by the Navy, was in complete agreement. He enlisted Henri Aldridge, an International Paper Company attorney, and sought the opinions of others located statewide.
They knew BB-60 could be preserved “as is” and presented as a memorial to all those Alabama citizens, men and women alike, who served and fought here and abroad in World War II. When Morris got to work, he found Stephens Croom, then chairman of the Chamber’s Committee for Preservation of Historic Landmarks, already eager to join the fight to save Battleship ALABAMA. This meant SOUTH DAKOTA (BB-57), INDIANA (BB-58), MASSACHUSETTS (BB-59), and ALABAMA (BB-60) would be destroyed. The Associated Press was reporting that the South Dakota class of battleships would be scrapped.
On the early morning of over coffee at breakfast, Jimmie Morris, then an employee of the Tourist & Visitors Department of the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce, noticed a small story in the Mobile Register newspaper. Other vessels were scrapped, dismantled for their steel and other parts, since they were no longer of use to the peace-keeping efforts of the United States. But, for the highly decorated battleship and most of those with her, that call never came. In a cost-cutting move, the United States Government decommissioned ALABAMA on Januand left her at her berth in Bremerton, Washington, where she and other vessels would await their call back to defend their nation. After the end of World War II, Battleship USS ALABAMA and hundreds of warships used to win the war were deemed essentially useless in the newly-created peace of the mid to late 1940s.
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