Child prefabs (GameObjects) finding the parent?

I am using Unity 4 and c#

I have created a prefab battleship that is the parent GameObject (mesh and AI script)

I have dropped onto it prefab gun turrets that are children (turrent parameters.

The battleship parent AI will keep track of stuff like what is the target, are guns on (firing) or off (not firing), etc.

After I instantiate the battleship how should the parent battleship gameobject communicate with the multiple gun turrent children?
My thought was to have the childrent gun turrent gameobjects read public variables that are in the parent battleship AI script.

If this is an OK/good way to do this how do the children gun turrents get the parent battleship GameObject AI script pointer/reference in order to access the battleship AI public variables?

How can I get a parent GameObject of gameObject using Javascript? - Questions & Answers - Unity Discussions . After this, access the script component.