USS Missouri was the third ship of the United States Navy to be named after the U.S. state of Missouri. Missouri was ordered in 1940 and commissioned in June 1944. She fought in the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa and shelled the Japanese home islands. She was decommissioned in 1955 but was reactivated and modernized in 1984 as part of the 600-ship Navy plan. She provided fire support during Operation Desert Storm in January 1991.
About USS Missouri (BB-63) in brief
USS Missouri was the third ship of the United States Navy to be named after the U.S. state of Missouri. Missouri was ordered in 1940 and commissioned in June 1944. She fought in the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa and shelled the Japanese home islands. She was decommissioned in 1955 but was reactivated and modernized in 1984 as part of the 600-ship Navy plan. She provided fire support during Operation Desert Storm in January 1991. Missouri received a total of 11 battle stars for service in World War II, Korea, and the Persian Gulf. In 1998, she was donated to the USS Missouri Memorial Association and became a museum ship at Pearl Harbor. The ship was christened at her launching by Mary Margaret Truman, daughter of Harry S. Truman, then a United States Senator from Missouri. She is the last of the Iowa-class battleships to be completed and the highest-numbered U. S. battleship built, Wisconsin, was completed before Missouri. The last-two Iowa- class battleships, Illinois and Kentucky, were ordered but cancelled, and all five of the twelve-gun Montana-class Battleship, BB-67 to BB-71, that were ordered in May 1942, were also cancelled by late July 1943. Missouri’s main battery consisted of nine 16-in 50 cal Mark 7 guns, which could fire 2,700 lb armor-piercing shells some 20 mi. Her secondary battery consist of twenty 5-in 38 cal guns in twin turrets, with a range of about 10 mi.
Missouri had her 20 mm and 40 mm AA guns removed, and was outfitted with Phalanx CIWS mounts for protection against enemy missiles and aircraft, and Armored Box Launchers and Quad Cell Launchers designed to fire Tomahawk missiles and Harpoon missiles, respectively. In the beginning of the battle of the Inland Sea, Missouri shot down four Japanese airfields and naval bases near the southwestern coast of Inland Honshū. During the battle, Missouri’s battle group incurred damage to the carrier Franklin Franklin. The battleship put to sea on 27 January to serve in the screen of the Lexington carrier task group of Mitscher’s TF 58, and on 16 February the task force’s aircraft carriers launched the first naval air strikes against Japan since the famed Doolittle raid, which had been launched from carrier Hornet in April 1942. Missouri returned to Ulithi on 5 March and was assigned to the New Yorktown task group. She remained on the Naval Vessel Register until her name was struck in January 1995, but remained a museum vessel until she was retired in March 1998. She has been preserved in the Missouri Maritime Museum in St. Louis, Missouri, where she is the only ship of her class to have been named after a state. The Missouri Museum Association is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that promotes the preservation of U. S. naval history and culture.
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