20 May 2011
NEWSLETTER
Please keep your email address up to
date with LaDonna
even if you don’t want it posted online.
Please contact LaDonna
Bradshaw, bb64members@aol.com. Or (601) 693-4614
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DON’T FORGET ARMED FORCES DAY IS SATURDY MAY 21.
A salute to our present
and past veterans.
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EMAIL ADDRESS CHANGE |
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SN 7 Division |
1951-1954 |
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IN MEMORIAM |
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NON MEMBER |
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DATE OF
DEATH |
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Derek
D. Rushing |
MM3 A
Division 1987-1991 |
9/7/2010 |
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By Adam Curtis
Herald/Review
PALOMINAS— In the heart of the
After spending more than 1,600
hours on the 9-foot-3-inch long replica, local resident Keith Mullen has spent
the past few weeks putting the final touches on the 3-D incarnation of so many
childhood doodles. Ever since elementary school the Iowa Class Battleships
frequently graced the pages of Mullen’s school notebooks and it was his life-long
passion that resulted in the unlikely birth of this scratch-built behemoth so
many miles away from the ocean. Though it is currently operated as a museum
ship at the Nauticus, National Maritime Center, the U.S.S. Wisconsin
cannot be considered an official museum piece until it has its replica, Mullen
said. His 1/96 model will be inspected by the museum’s curator of naval
antiquities to make sure it meets certain guidelines before it’s inducted into
the museum on May 30. Many new areas of the ship will also be opened up to the
public that day.
The other three Iowa Class
Battleships all have their models, which cost significant amounts of money to
have made, Mullen said. Incurring thousands of dollars in costs for materials,
Mullen is donating his model at no charge.
“It
was just a labor of love. I loved every bit of it,” Mullen said. Giving the
model up will be almost like losing a child, but he is excited to contribute to
the record of this piece of history.
“It’s the last one and it’ll
have my name on it forever. I like that,” Mullen said.
Mullen’s passion for ships
likely started when his father would take him to fleet week in San Francisco
when he was very young, he said. Pretty soon he was getting scolded by the nuns
at school for drawing battleships on the bathroom walls.
“It’s almost like that movie
Close Enounters … you don’t know why you’re doing it,
you just have to,” Mullen said. He has always been drawn to the Iowa Class
battleships and visited all of them while he was in college. They were also the
subject of his thesis for his master’s degree.
“I’ve just been fascinated with
them because they’re just beautiful ships and there’s
only four of them,” Mullen said. After first being deployed in World War II, the U.S.S. Wisconsin
was active as recently as Desert Storm. One of it’s
sister ships, the U.S.S. Missouri actually fired the first cruise missile of
that conflict.
“This is a dream come true,”
Mullen said. That does not mean it was easy, as he admitted it is a frightening
task to take on.
Building the replica
From dozens of tiny speakers to
100 minuscule fence posts around the deck, Mullen’s replica required an
exacting attention to detail and ended up costing him plenty of elbow skin.
One day his wife came home at 6
p.m. and found Mullen still sitting in the shop.
“Keith you’re still out here,
what are you doing?” she asked.
“I’m just waiting for you
because you got to cut my elbow off,” Mullen responded. He had been stuck to
the table for about three hours without being able to reach the resin or tools
he could use to break free.
A friend of his, who goes by
Gunny G, welded together the detailed brass pieces needed to replicate the
ship’s radar arrays, Mullen said. The large gun turrets were custom made by
Mullen, while many of the other small details had to be purchased from a
retailer in England.
He plans on creating a model
kit by using the molds of all the parts he used and detailed plans that he
intends to get drafted, Mullen said. He estimates he will be able to sell them
for about $3,000 each and actually intends to build one of these radio
controlled models himself, though finding water to run it in may require a bit
of trek.
Mullen decided to buy a model
ship building company when the grandmaster builder died, he said. Another
company had wanted to purchase it just to destroy all the handmade bulsa wood bases for models because they saw it as
competition.
Since then he has built many
destroyers and other ships but the U.S.S.
Wisconsin was his first, and possibly his
last, model to be built from scratch, Mullen said.
He
has given many of the replicas away and has a standing offer to donate a model
to anyone who served on one of the ships in World War II.
The battleships are a bit to
complicated and costly to be included in that offer.
His most recent project has
garnered a lot of attention from local community members as a variety of
retired sailors and Knights of Columbus members jump at every opportunity to
help move it, Mullen said. They feel a sense of community pride in knowing such
a historically significant replica was made locally.
Mullen has been fortunate to
enjoy many other passions in his life.
He was light heavy weight
boxing contender, a successful businessman and is an amateur astronomer with an
observatory in his own back yard and an asteroid named in his honor.
Yet Mullen does not seem to
dwell on the past or what his health will or will not allow him to do.
For now he clearly takes pride
in his newest nickname, which he has earned by his devotion to continuing a
tradition of bulsa wood ship modeling.
To the people who love model Navy ships, Mullen is
simply known as, “The Skipper.”
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If you haven’t checked Keith Mullen’s model of the
http://www.badshipmodels.com/battleships/battleships.html
The last 8 photos show the ship almost completed. Great work Keith.
If you have interesting
stories about your time aboard the Wisconsin, please share them with us.
Email them to me at Dombb64@ptd.net
PLEASE REMEMBER TO INCLUDE IN YOUR PRAYERS,
OUR SICK AND DEPARTED SHIPMATES AND THEIR FAMILIES.
FAIR WINDS AND FOLLOWING
SEAS