By RUSTY DENNEN

The Pennsylvania Military Museum has finished a 10-year quest, thanks to the Dahlgren Navy base.

Two massive 14-inch guns from the battleship USS Pennsylvania were lifted into place on concrete pillars last week outside the museum near State College.

The guns, aboard the battleship in World War II during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, were trucked from the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division to Pennsylvania in May.

The Pennsylvania survived the attack and was refitted with guns from the USS Oklahoma in 1945.

The museum learned in 1999 that Dahlgren was storing the barrels at the King George County base since the war and was planning to scrap them. Dahlgren has tested Navy guns since its establishment in 1918.

The museum was looking for Navy-related displays to add to its collection and decided that the barrels would be a great choice because of the ship's connection to the Keystone state.

One was forged at a Pennsylvania foundry.

The guns are technically on loan from the Navy, but will probably remain in Pennsylvania indefinitely.

The acquisition process took years.

Museum officials contacted Dahlgren, which then got in touch with the Naval History and Heritage Command at the Washington Navy Yard for approval.

The museum spent $100,000 to build the reinforced concrete cradle on which the 66-ton barrels rest. The Pennsylvania had 12 of them--three to a turret.

Coated with rust after decades outside at Dahlgren, the barrels were sandblasted and repainted Navy gray.

The museum also secured two shells for display. The gun could fire a 1,400-pound projectile more than 15 miles.

The world's largest battleship at the time, the USS Pennsylvania was launched at Newport News in March 1915. It was armed with 12 14-inch guns, 16 5-inch guns, 40 40mm guns, 52 20mm guns and eight 50-caliber machine guns.

During World War II, the Pennsylvania took part in every major naval operation in the Pacific from Alaska to Okinawa.

After the war it was used as a target ship in atomic-bomb tests on Bikini Atoll. In 1948, it was towed to the island of Kwajalein in the South Pacific and sunk.

Pennsylvania Military Museum, pamilmuseum.org

Rusty Dennen: 540/374-5431
Email: rdennen@freelancestar.com