Help the Battleship Texas

The state of Texas is on the verge of doing what the Germans and the Japanese could not: Sink the Battleship Texas. She survived extensive tours in World War I and World War II, but Mother Nature has proved to be a much more worthy opponent. As has the Texas government.

Growing up, I always looked forward to visiting the Battleship Texas. My best friend and I would climb from top to bottom, firing every gun and squeezing down every port hole along the way.

The USS Texas is the last of the great dreadnought battleships. She participated in the most important battles of the first half of the 20th century. When commissioned on March 12, 1914, she was the most powerful war ship the world had ever seen. The Texas was the first of her kind to mount anti-aircraft guns, to use commercial radar, to launch an aircraft and lays claim to the First Marine Division in 1941.

Her most notable contributions came in World War II, when she participated in the invasions of North Africa, Normandy, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. As the flagship of the U.S. fleet, she battered the Nazi defenses during the D-Day invasion at Normandy. Then, at the end of the war, she made three trips to bring American servicemen back home.

But, in 1948, the Battleship Texas was decommissioned. School children across Texas saved their nickels to help pay to sail the ship to Texas and dry dock it at the site of the battlegrounds on the San Jacinto River. Then her place in history took root right here in our own backyard, and in 1948 she was designated a National Historic Landmark.

Today, the Battleship Texas serves as a museum and a reminder of wars long past. Major restoration projects and the efforts of thousands of volunteers have kept this old battleship alive for thousands of visitors every year. In fact, even during my tenure as a felony court judge in Houston, the Texas continued to find her way into my life, as well as the lives of offenders I ordered to be “enlisted” in the “Texas Navy.” I ordered probationers who were skilled welders, painters, plumbers and electricians to help in the restoration efforts of the ship.

And nearly 70 years after her arrival to her namesake state, she still floats. But maybe not for long.

Despite ongoing repairs that will tentatively be completed in a little over a year, the ship is in a dire state. Without a dry-berth, she will sink. Early estimates suggest a dry-berth would cost approximately $51 million — no small chunk of change. However, scrapping the ship would cost upward of $30 million and likely much more than that. The Texas Legislature actually approved and appropriated funds for a dry-berth of the ship back in 2008 but that plan never came to fruition.

This puts the state of Texas in a precarious position. It could spend $51 million to save the ship or upward of $30 million to permanently destroy it. There are even private entities and individuals that would be willing to chip in funds, meaning that the full $51 million would not all come out of Texas’ wallet, driving the cost similarities of a dry-berth and a demolition even closer.

The Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife has jurisdiction of the battle wagon, but funding over the years has been sporadic and nonexistent. We as Americans should never be okay with destroying such a vital part of our country’s history because it is the easy thing to do. We owe it to the Texans who served in the Navy, the Marines, the Air Force, the Coast Guard and Merchant Marines to save the Battleship Texas. This battleship, like so many battlefields and sacred, historical landmarks across our country, is consecrated with the blood of Americans. Without the Texas, things might have gone a little bit differently for us at D-Day or in the Pacific Theater.

It is time that the state of Texas do the right thing, and save the ship that fought to preserve our country in the two biggest wars in history.

Poe, R-Houston, is a seven-term congressman who is retiring in January.