>> the theme -- what is the most urgent issue for the new president and congress to tackle in 2017? students can work alone or in a group of up to three to produce documentaryminute on the issue selected. include some c-span programming and opposing opinions. the $100,000 in cash prizes will be awarded the between 150 students and 53 teachers and the grand prize of $5,000 will go to the student or team with the best overall entry. this year's deadline is january 20, 2017. marker calendars. for more information, go to our website studentcam.org. >> each week, american history tv's american artifacts takes you to museums and historical

places to share what american artifacts reveal about american history. the uss wisconsin, one of the largest battleships built by the u.s. navy, was launched in 1943 and saw service in world war ii through the gulf war. it is now decommissioned and berthed in norfolk, virginia at the nauticus center. clayton allen gave a tour of the top decks where the captain and , admiral once lived and commanded the ship. mr. clayton allen: good morning and welcome to the wisconsin, the battleship wisconsin. you will find behind me the 16 inch guns, the rifles that this ship is known for best. it came to be here through a long history. the ship was commissioned april 16, 1944 and then saw service in world war ii.

it was decommissioned in 1948 and recommissioned in the korean war era, 1951. she saw service until 1958 and then sat in mothball status in philadelphia for almost 28 years. she was recommissioned in october 1988 prior to the gulf war for ronald reagan's 600 ship fleet. she saw service in the gulf war and after that she was decommissioned in september of 1991 and then sat in mothballs for a short time before being brought here in 2000. in 2010, the ship was handed over to norfolk for custodial care. and is now here for all to see. some general statistics about the ship include the fact that she is very large and very fast. we are 887 feet and three inches long, 108 feet and two inches wide. that was mandated by congress so we would be able to fit through the panama canal at 110 feet. currently, the canal is being

widened and will accept ships larger than that. this ship drafts 39 feet when fully loaded. fully loaded means that she comes in at 58,000 tons. that is with 2.3 million gallons of fuel as well as ammunition and the 1900 men that keep the ship moving forward. at the height of world war ii, that crew grew to about 2900 men and in the gulf war era, that shrank to about 1600 men. today, we are going to take a tour of the command areas. we call the tour the command-and-control tour. we will start in the captain's cabin. we will get started in short order. welcome to the captain's cabin. we are here for the command and control guided tour. a little bit on the iowa class battleship. in 1939, the blueprints were

approved for the iowa class battleships. and of course, the bb 61, the uss iowa has her doors open to the public in los angeles. orson pedro, california. the second is the uss new jersey who resides in camden, new jersey, across from philadelphia on the delaware river. and third, is the uss missouri, in hawaii, pearl harbor. and we are here on the shores of nauticus on downtown waterfront. this class of battleships is the only one in which every one of the battleships are in care. there are so many other types that have been mothballed or were turned into razor blades. this is the captain's cabin.

this is where the captain would hold his personal business. he had several functions here, including as an ambassador for the u.s. should we visit other countries. in a moment, we will go through his state room, one of three on the ship. let me unpack that a little bit. the captain is never very far away from -- "i have command." and so he has a sea cabin on the 04 level. he also has another cabin. here we are on the 01 level. one level above the main deck. the captain does several functions here including captain's mast where he is judge, jury, and executioner for personnel that have committed some sort of an offense.

additionally, he has his own galley. and his own cook. he would use this table behind you so that he could have meals with dignitaries and foreign personnel from other countries as well as meals with the chiefs from down below or new officers. and some of his senior officers as well. he could hold briefings here. prior to the gulf war, this was the command ship for the use of tomahawk weapons. several other generals and admirals came aboard. to my right, you will see his desk where he conducted his business and outside in the passageway is a table for a marine guard to hold station. for a marine to be on board this ship is kind of unusual. in the sense that most marines rather go ashore. on capital vessels, a large ship, capable of holding a marine detachment, by tradition, marines would act as guards with

the captain against mutiny. we don't have that problem anymore but they would do security. if the captain left his cabin and moved about the ship, the marine would follow him and pulled duties as required including taking messages. as well as answering any calls he might have. from here, we are going to move through to the captain's stateroom. follow me. we are here in the admiral's cabin. after this is the stateroom. this is a place where the admiral could entertain, and have guests including dignitaries, other officers, and personnel from other ships where they could talk of things of high confidence. there is a pass-through window into the admiral's galley. it is shared with the captain as well.

the admiral would bring his own mess steward and that person would be highly qualified. once he is selected by the office of navy personnel, he would be sent to additional culinary arts schools. he also would be cleared for a security clearance. there is a pulldown panel that closes off the area but before having high-level discussions, we don't need things shared with the crew down below when he goes for supplies. loose lips sink ships. from here we will move to the combat engagement center. recall as we enter that space that it used to be the admiral's cabin, however, during the refit, we determined we needed a space to hold the tomahawk missile computers as well as the harpoon computers and a common place to be able to fight the ship. it became the combat engagement center and is no longer the admiral's cabin. follow me. as is indicated on the blueprints from the korean war era, we are in the admiral's lobby and it is the lobby because we would be about to

enter the admiral's cabin. in the gulf war era, there would be a marine guard here checking ids to make sure that you are authorized to go into the combat engagement center. before we do that, i want to take a look at the bulkhead. here, there is a bull's-eye. it is akin to an analog gps. it tells every sailor exactly where they are. you have to be able to interpret the address. so let's unpack that. the first number tells you where you are on the ship vertically. the second number, tells you where you are on the ship longitudinally. and the third number shows you where you are on the ship laterally. and the fourth indicator tells us what kind of space it is. the reason we have this bull's-eye is so that if there was a problem in this space, we could call damage control and tell them there is a problem and exactly where we are.

they would look through their big book of places and they would say -- ok, we know where you are we are sending help. welcome to the combat engagement center. recall that this used to be the admiral's cabin and it was a large and posh space. but we needed to convert it over in the gulf war era so we had a place from where to fight the ship. we installed computers for the tomahawk box launchers, the guided missiles as well as the harpoon missiles and other natures of the fight. to my right is the tactical action officer's chair. this officer has a close relationship with the captain. the captain trusts him explicitly and the captain could come down and sit in this chair. every tao officer would have to be certified on each ship they are assigned to. from here, he can communicate with the captain, suggest ideas and get approval. the captain may be on the navigational bridge and would radio back and say -- yes, i

agree or no, do not do that yet. if it is a defensive action, tao can take action. if there is an incoming missile, we don't want to waste time asking if we should stop the missile. to my left is the table where we authorize the use of the 16 inch guns. they in fact are aimed and fired down below us in fire control or the cic. combat information center. behind me, are the consoles where we put in the coordinates to guide and fire the tomahawk cruise missiles. over to my right, is an intelligence gathering area, much of the equipment has been removed. because when the ship was decommissioned, they took some of that equipment which could be used on other ships. a cost savings.

i have left the intelligence area with a clock. further to my right are plotting tables. one is a dead reckoning table which has a light beam that shines up through the table. you would put a tracing paper on the top and when we speed up, the light beam speeds up. it is an after action review of the things that we did or should have done. further there is a chart table for plotting how many minutes it might take for a missile to land on target. some additional plotting is done on the navigational bridge. behind you is the rpv or the remote piloted vehicle. that is a remote aircraft, kind of like the precursor of today's drone. it has real-time video. albeit very primitive, black and white, where we can spot targets as opposed to sending out aircraft or helicopters. with that, i would like to start

a light and audio show. these are events that occurred in the gulf war over several weeks. what we have done is re-recorded them down to a six minute loop. it is fairly exciting. stand by by as we get it ready. >> enemy activity on the coast . >> general quarters. general quarters. all hands. man your stations. this is not a drill. general quarters. >> ever control, identify target with the unmanned aerial drone. >> target acquired. target identified. -- target identified as hostile. >> plot estimated time for the tomahawk missile. >> captain, tomahawk testing received. target is the control tower in any harbor at five miles.

request permission to fire tomahawk missile. >> tao, this is the captain. to fire.ahawk battery >> stand clear. stand clear. tomahawk battery firing. mr. clayton allen: that is a little bit about how this ship fights during the gulf war era of modern times. from here, we will go on to the admiral's bridge. we have an admiral on board so we have to have a place from which he can command the fleet. follow me. welcome to the admiral's bridge. from here, the admiral would command the fleet. to my right, there is an armored compartment. this is where his all staff planners are looking at options and feeding him information that allows him to make good decisions. from here, we are going to move up one more flight of steps to

the 04 level to the navigational bridge. welcome to the navigational bridge. i want to talk a little bit about this citadel with this 17 inch armor. in front of us here we have a door which is closed during combat. that door weighs approximately five tons. inside the helm we would find a helmsman with the steering column and the lee helmsman to his left. other lookout and radial men would go into this space during combat. to the front of the citadel is the captain's chair where he would normally maneuver and guide the ship during regular or noncombat times. he would have assistant officers like an officer of the deck, a weapons officer, and other lookout assisting him at all times. follow me. the captain's chair is to my left.

it is a sacred place. i have heard a sea story about a gentleman, who while he was on watch as officer of the deck, thought -- i just need a few moments and he sat in the chair and the captain was right behind him. he thought there must be a buzzer in the chair or the captain had eyes in the back of his head but he said he would never do that again. if the navy is nothing else, they are redundant with redundant backup systems so we have all types of communications including a voice tube. to my left. so that you could clear the tube, and say -- captain to the bridge. this voice tube goes all the way back to his sea cabin which we talked about earlier. additionally, there are encrypted radio telephones and

other types of communications equipment. the captain would keep his personal binoculars beside him and watch as the ship maneuvers through his commands. follow me as we step into the captain's sea cabin and into the navigational area. here we go. here, the captain has a small desk as well as the voice tube to notify him. his bed is a murphy bed, kind of a sofa. he can bring it down and crack his eye open to look at a computer to make sure they are on course. he also has his own head and shower. it is not uncommon during combat or wars for captains to stay in this area for the duration. he would go down for meals or have them brought up to him. but all of his needs can be met here. from here, we will go into the navigational area. here we go.

welcome to the navigational area. in here, we will find several artifacts the captain required to navigate the ship all over the world. one of which is a chronometer. a timepiece. you cannot use a sextant unless you have the proper time. that would be used to engage a sextant. such as this. and use it to cite the evening star or a day star accordingly. additionally, you may have a statometer. the statometer is used to tell you the distance from a known height. so you can cite to on other ships' masts or a water tower or a lighthouse and that will tell you the distance to or from that. an additional artifact is an alidate. it allows you to look through the lens and use a prism to see

the azimuth or the compass direction directly below, sound off that information and your assistant would write that down. if you site on two different objects, you can come back in and find your exact location if you are in sight of land. another cool piece of equipment -- it tells us the lift of the ship from port to star board as we roll back and forth. during heavy seas, we listed up to 20 degrees. other ships did not fare as well. they were lighter or had less fuel or ballast and succumbed to the seas and rolled over. there is another type of this kind of equipment. behind you, it tells you the pitch of the ship fore and aft. we also have the surface radar. it allows us to see targets on the ocean or other vessels

around us. we also see on the table some examples of the helmets that would be worn during combat. each one with their own label for the duty position, the person wearing it. the most important piece of equipment in here has actually been removed. i will move over here and show you a small shelf. this would hold the fuel that runs the navy. we know that because there are instructions here on how many grounds to put into the pot of coffee. we do not use diesel, we use coffee to run the navy. during the refit in the 1980's, this ship, our u.s. navy was caught in a dichotomy of old and new equipment. we have allied nations that do not have the resources to upgrade their assets. we are trying to step into the future with computers and other high-tech equipment and yet we have to be able to communicate with other ships and other nations as well as our older

ships. this box over here is an omega radio receiver which was in the system devised many years ago that had transmitters along the coast of friendly nations as well as the united states. if you were within range of those radio transmitters, you could pinpoint your position with fairly good accuracy using those radio triangulation. today's navy, we do not need to do that but that is one of the reasons why we have the sextant on board. should all of the other electronic communications fail, we still have a means to pinpoint our position. from here, we will go up to the 05 level and look out over the big guns. follow me. the 16 inch guns on the iowa class battleships are the largest weapons put on naval ships in the united states history.

16 inch diameter round, about five feet tall. it weighs 1900 pounds with high-capacity rounds. there is an armor piercing round that weighs 2700 pounds. these projectiles can be thrown 23 nautical miles. if you multiply that out, it comes to 26.4 statute miles. they are fairly accurate in that a single salvo of all nine guns could land all nine rounds within a 250 yard spread. however, the kill zone on that is out to 300 yards. it leaves a crater of about 20-50 feet deep and about 30-50 feet in diameter. everything else at about 200 yards has been turned into rubble. a good gun crew can launch one round every 30 seconds per barrel or two rounds every minute. it takes about 55 seconds for a single round to reach the maximum distance. before the first round lands, the second one is on its way. an armor piercing round is designed to penetrate up to 30 feet of hardened concrete and or

-- and/or what we dish out. so the armor here is 17 inches, we in theory could pierce. that is pretty incredible. there are many variables that go into firing a single round including our ship's speed, course, and the enemie's speed and course as well as the weather. in fact, we have to know if we are firing the maximum distance, how much the target has moved as the earth turns. those are just some of the variables that have to be considered when they fire a round into the enemy area. on the wisconsin, we arrived late in world war ii. we were commissioned april 16, 1944. however, we did assist with the

movement towards mainland japan firing on okinawa, targets of opportunity and supporting the landings there. as well as iwo jima. we even fired on some of the factories and targets on mainland japan. during the korean war era, we fired on the supply routes that the koreans used along the coast. in fact, trapping a train in a mountain area. again, i would like to speak to some of the changes that occurred on the ship over time. when the big guns are being fired on the deck, the main deck, no man should be on the main deck. however, in world war ii, several gun tubs were mounted on top of turrets and out in front of turret one. those guns would be manned as antiaircraft guns. they were 20 millimeter --. those weapons were all over the ship and in fact, we had 20 quad mount guns. those guns would be manned all of the time. when we were recommissioned for

the korean war era, the aircraft changed from prop driven to jets. it is difficult at best to lead an aircraft with a machine gun and so a number of the weapons were removed. forward here on turret one, that is the very forward one. those were left on the main deck. however, on turret two, the one closer to us, some of those weapons were removed. turret three is in the back of the ship. here, we will move to the missile deck aft of us. follow me. another form of defense is to my left. you have dispensers with different types of chaff that create a heat signature where the ship is not. they are sent out onto the ocean and hopefully will draw the incoming missile towards that.

behind me we had the forward missile deck. there is another missile deck aft. and on the iowa middle-class battleships, they put eight of these tomahawk missile box launchers. there would be a total of 32. the traditional range for a regular warhead is about 600 miles. however, the missiles could be equipped with a nuclear warhead which could travel about 1500 miles with pinpoint accuracy. a real feat in the modern age of the 1950's. the area i am standing on now is a missile platform for the tomahawk box launchers. previously in the korean war, there was an additional 500 -- as well as a 40 millimeter gun tub.

we received a hit from a 155 millimeter howitzer, a russian-made gun fired from one of the islands in korea that landed in this area. three men were hurt. noone was killed. however, it was the first time the ship had ever been hit. so the captain was upset. he brought the ship about, brought all nine barrels to bear of the 16 inch guns and let go a single salvo. our escort, a destroyer nearby, not aware of what is happening sent a message. "temper, temper." we took out that embankment. that gun no longer exists and it was a bad day for that gun captain. we sailed on to complete the mission. this concludes our guided tour. to recap, we have seen a lot of the wisconsin battleship. we started on the bow and saw the big guns there and then we went through the command-and-control tour where we fight and navigate the ship. thank you. >> you can watch to this and other "american artifacts" programs by visiting our website at c-span.org/history. i don't write a

column that comes from the left or the right. "qsunday night, on c-span's her bookeen dowd on "the year of voting dangerously." maureen dowd: what do you do not like about the clintons -- and donald, too -- when they get in trouble, they try to blame somebody else. bill gets in trouble with monica, and the white house aides say, well, with jefferson -- dead presidents they are dragging in, right? n"q&a."n's c-span cities tour is in pe