USS Missouri (BB-63)

USS Missouri (BB-63) was an and the third ship of the United States Navy to be named in honor of the U.S. state of Missouri. Commissioned in June 1944, she served as the flagship for Admiral William Halsey Jr. and was the site of the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, which formally ended World War II in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945. Known as "Mighty Mo," the battleship saw combat in the Pacific War, provided naval gunfire support during the Korean War, and was modernized and reactivated in the 1980s as part of the 600-ship Navy before final decommissioning in 1992.

Design and description

The design of the vessel originated from the London Naval Treaty system, with the Iowa-class battleship intended to be fast enough to escort the new ''Essex''-class aircraft carriers. Her main armament consisted of nine 16-inch/50-caliber Mark 7 guns mounted in three triple turrets, capable of firing 2,700-pound armor-piercing shells over 20 nautical miles. Secondary armament included twenty 5-inch/38-caliber dual-purpose guns in ten twin mounts, and by the end of World War II, she carried over one hundred 40 mm and 20 mm anti-aircraft guns. With a full load displacement of over 57,000 tons and a top speed exceeding 33 knots, her powerplant consisted of eight Babcock & Wilcox boilers driving four General Electric geared steam turbines.

Service history

Her keel was laid at the Brooklyn Navy Yard on January 6, 1941, under the supervision of Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company. She was launched on January 29, 1944, sponsored by Margaret Truman, daughter of then-Senator Harry S. Truman. The battleship was commissioned on June 11, 1944, with Captain William M. Callaghan in command, and after shakedown and training in the Chesapeake Bay and the Caribbean Sea, she transited the Panama Canal to join the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Ulithi in January 1945.

World War II

Assigned to Task Force 58, she screened aircraft carriers during raids on the Japanese archipelago, including strikes against Tokyo and provided gunfire support for the Battle of Iwo Jima. During the Battle of Okinawa, she engaged shore targets and defended against relentless kamikaze attacks; on April 11, 1945, a Japanese A6M Zero struck her starboard side but caused only minor damage. In July and August, she bombarded industrial targets on Honshū and joined the battleships ''South Dakota'' and ''Wisconsin'' in shelling the Kamaishi steelworks. Following the atomic bombings and the Surrender of Japan, she entered Tokyo Bay as the flagship of Admiral William Halsey Jr., where the formal Japanese Instrument of Surrender was signed on her deck on September 2, 1945, with dignitaries including General Douglas MacArthur and Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz in attendance.

Post-war service and Korean War

After participating in Operation Magic Carpet to repatriate American servicemen, she was decommissioned in 1947 and placed in the Pacific Reserve Fleet at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. Reactivated in 1950 for the Korean War, she served as the flagship for Vice Admiral Arthur D. Struble and provided extensive naval gunfire support for United Nations Command forces, bombarding targets at Inchon, Wonsan, and Hungnam during the Hungnam evacuation. Following the Korean Armistice Agreement, she undertook several global training cruises, including a circumnavigation in 1955, before being decommissioned a second time in 1955 and returning to the Bremerton reserve fleet.

Final decommissioning and museum ship

As part of President Ronald Reagan's 600-ship Navy initiative, she underwent an extensive modernization that included the installation of Harpoon and Tomahawk missile systems, Close-In Weapon Systems, and modern AN/SLQ-32 electronic warfare suites. Recommissioned in 1986, she operated in the Persian Gulf during the Iran–Iraq War and later participated in Operation Desert Storm in 1991, firing Tomahawk cruise missiles at targets in Iraq and providing gunfire support near Kuwait City. She was decommissioned for the final time on March 31, 1992, in Long Beach, California. Donated as a museum ship, she was towed to Pearl Harbor in 1998 and is now berthed at Ford Island, overlooking the USS Arizona Memorial, as the centerpiece of the Battleship Missouri Memorial. Category:Iowa-class battleships Category:Museum ships in Hawaii Category:World War II battleships of the United States