BATON ROUGE — The USS Kidd Veterans Museum received a grant this week from the Tin Can Sailors Inc. to help with renovations and repairs to the famed warship that has long graced the Mississippi Riverfront.
This year, the USS Kidd received a $3,000 grant from the organization to help with the purchase of parts for restoring the ship.
Tin Can Sailors has donated over $2 million to destroyer museum ships like the Kidd in its 49-year existence. The nonprofit bestows grants to 10 ships in the U.S., which includes the USS Kidd in Louisiana.
The Kidd is away from Baton Rouge for the first time since the early 1980s, undergoing renovations at a shipyard in Houma that will allow the ship to stay in Baton Rouge for several more decades before needing other renovations, said Parks Stephenson, executive director of the USS Kidd.
The museum and ship are not government funded, so visitors and grants are important to helping sustain it. In return, the Kidd boasts a large economic impact for the Baton Rouge area, and Stephenson estimates that once she is back, those economic returns will be over $5 million.
The USS Kidd is named after Medal of Honor recipient Isaac C. Kidd Sr., who was killed aboard the USS Arizona during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
According to its website, the USS Kidd is recognized as one of the most authentically restored vessels in the world by the Historic Naval Ships Association, an organization whose fleet spans multiple nations on five continents.
The U.S. Navy turns 250 years old this year, and Tin Can Sailors wants to continue to make sure the history of naval destroyers like the Kidd is taught and learned, said Rosehn Gipe, president of the nonprofit.
“Destroyers have always been part of the Navy and they are one of the most important parts of the Navy today,” Gipe said.
For more information about the USS Kidd and to plan a visit to the museum while the Kidd is away, visit here.
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