Gaming company builds interactive visitor experiences on USS Iowa in LA

The battleship USS Iowa has made its final voyage to its new home in the Port of Los Angeles and Wargaming America has been hard at work creating virtual battle scenarios for future USS Iowa visitors to enjoy. The battleship is set to become a museum in July, and Wargaming is bringing its history to life by creating a bridge experience and an aerial combat game that will live on the ship and showcase its firepower and aerial defenders in action.

In the ship's below-deck digital theater, Wargaming America will offer a virtual video experience from the bridge recreating the ship's role in supporting the American landings at Okinawa, Japan, in 1945. Visitors will see the ship's impressive turrets as its 16-inch guns rotate and fire at their targets.

In addition, Wargaming is developing a game room on board the ship that will put visitors in Grumman F6F Hellcat warplanes to defend the USS Iowa from attack by Imperial Japanese Zero fighters. There will be 15 defense stations.

The USS Iowa is the only ship in her class to serve in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans during World War II. She served through the Korean War and Cold War and was decommissioned in 1990. She's known as the Battleship of Presidents because her many notable visitors include Franklin D. Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. The ship was officially donated by the U.S. Navy to the Pacific Battleship Center on September 6, 2011, and will open as an interactive naval museum in the Port of Los Angeles at Berth 87, San Pedro in July.

"The USS Iowa is such an important piece of U.S. Naval history and we're extremely proud to be able to sponsor it," said Jeremy Monroe, General Manager, Wargaming America. The North American publisher and service center of the award-winning global video game developer and publisher is committed to working with U.S. causes and organizations that preserve and educate on military history. In addition to its partnership with the USS Iowa, the company has worked with the Military Vehicle Technology Foundation in Portola, Calif., and the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, La., on military history and education initiatives.

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Tom Lockyear named new director of History of Diving Museum in Florida

The History of Diving Museum at MM83 in Islamorada, Fla., is pleased to welcome its new director, Thomas A. Lockyear II. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Madison and a Florida Keys resident since early 2005, Lockyear began his adventures in local history as a manager at Pat Croce's Pirate Soul Museum in Key West. He literally wore many hats at Pirate Soul, managing their retail shop, maintaining museum exhibits, and even appearing in pirate garb and persona for special events and several television documentaries.

In 2007, Lockyear took a position at Historic Pigeon Key as director of visitor services as well as official historian and museum curator. A self-described "Flagler Fanatic," Mr. Lockyear appeared in period costume at several events during the Railroad Centennial Celebration and gave a lecture on Henry Flagler as "Florida's Patron of Progress" at the History of Diving Museum's monthly seminar during that time.

Thomas Lockyear has spent the last four years working in a variety of capacities for Historic Tours of America in Key West, including operations manager of both the Shipwreck Treasures Museum and their newly-launched Ghosts & Gravestones Frightseeing trolley. His love and knowledge of local history also made him an obvious choice to lead HTA's daily Historic Key West Walking Tour. Specializing in exhibit development and historic interpretation, Lockyear has also designed costumes, scripted the tours, trained guides and storytellers at both attractions and was instrumental in the recent renovation of the Flagler Railroad Historeum.

Lockyear began his relationship with the History of Diving Museum during his tenure at Pigeon Key with a proposed networking initiative for non-profit museums and attractions throughout the Florida Keys. He has remained a friend of the museum over the years, volunteering at events and establishing a promotional base for HDM in Key West through artifacts on loan to the Shipwreck Treasures Museum. The History of Diving Museum is pleased to announce the addition of Lockyear to the organization.

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U.S. Coast Guard Museum in New London reopens after major renovation

The U.S. Coast Guard Museum at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn., has reopened to the general public following a year-long abatement and renovation project. The $297,000 renovation was completed with financial assistance from the Coast Guard Department of Governmental and Public Affairs and the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, and features a completely re-designed exhibit — the first in the museum's history.

The new exhibit provides an overview of the Coast Guard from its origins to the present day, and a smaller temporary gallery features changing exhibits.

The U.S. Coast Guard Museum is the creation of Coast Guard Academy Library Director Paul Johnson, who envisioned a place where objects of Coast Guard history and culture could be gathered for the benefit of cadets and the greater Coast Guard community. The museum was established in 1973 with the construction of Waesche Hall on the campus of the Coast Guard Academy.

Johnson collected artifacts which became the core of the Coast Guard Historic Collection.  Now part of the Coast Guard Historian's Office, the museum holds in trust approximately 6,800 artifacts of the Coast Guard's cache of 15,457 objects.

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