USS New Jersey (BB-62)

**USS *New Jersey*** (**BB-62**) is an *Iowa*-class battleship, and was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named after the US state of New Jersey. She was often referred to fondly as "Big J". *New Jersey* earned more battle stars for combat actions than the other five completed *Iowa*-class battleships, and served in Vietnam along with Kentucky.

During World War II, *New Jersey* shelled targets on Guam and Okinawa, and screened aircraft carriers conducting raids in the Marshall Islands. During the Korean War, she was involved in raids up and down the North Korean coast. In 1968 she was sent to Vietnam to support US troops. *New Jersey* was decommissioned in 1986 to be modernized to carry missiles and recommissioned for service in 1986.

*New Jersey* was decommissioned for the last time in 1991 (after serving a total of 46 years in the active fleet), having earned a Navy Unit Commendation for service in Vietnam and 19 battle and campaign stars for combat operations during World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Lebanese Civil War, and service in the Persian Gulf. After almost 11 years in the mothball fleet, she was donated to the Home Port Alliance in Camden, New Jersey, and has been as a museum ship there since 15 October 2001.

## USS New Jersey (BB-62)

#### Construction

*New Jersey* was one of the *Iowa*-class "fast battleship" designs planned in 1938 by the Preliminary Design Branch at the Bureau of Construction and Repair. She was launched on 7 December 1942 (the first anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor) and commissioned on 23 May 1943. The ship was the second of the *Iowa* class to be commissioned by the U.S. Navy. The ship was christened at her launching by Carolyn Edison, wife of Governor Charles Edison of New Jersey, himself a former Secretary of the Navy; and commissioned at Philadelphia 23 May 1943, Captain Carl F. Holden in command.

*New Jersey*'s main battery consisted of nine 16"/50 caliber Mark 7 guns in three three-gun turrets, which could fire 2,700-pound (1,225 kg) armor-piercing shells some 23 miles (42.6 km). Her secondary battery consisted of twenty 5"/38 caliber guns mounted in twin-gun dual purpose (DP) turrets, which could hit targets up to 9 miles (16.7 km) away. With the advent of air power and the need to gain and maintain air superiority came a need to protect the growing fleet of allied aircraft carriers, so *New Jersey* was fitted with an array of Oerlikon 20 mm and Bofors 40 mm anti-aircraft guns. When reactivated in 1968, *New Jersey* had her 20 mm and 40 mm AA guns removed and was tailored for use as a heavy bombardment ship. When reactivated in 1982, *New Jersey* had four twin 5"/38 caliber DP mounts removed. She was outfitted with four Phalanx Close-In Weapon System (CIWS) mounts for protection against missiles and aircraft, and eight Armored Box Launchers and eight Quad Cell Launchers designed to fire Tomahawk missiles and Harpoon missiles, respectively.

The main deck was 53,000 square feet of teak. Unlike the other *Iowa*-class battleships, *New Jersey* was named by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to repay a political debt, to then-New Jersey Governor Charles Edison. During his time in the Navy department, Edison pushed to build the *Iowa*s, and to build one at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, which secured votes for Roosevelt in Pennsylvania and New Jersey in the 1940 presidential election.

#### World War II (1943–1945)

##### Shakedown and service with the 5th Fleet, Admiral Spruance

*New Jersey* encountered the French battleship *Richelieu* when both ships anchored in Hampton Roads on 7 September 1943, following *Richelieu*'s defection to the Allies and refit in New York.

*New Jersey* completed fitting out and trained her initial crew in the Western Atlantic and Caribbean Sea. On 7 January 1944 she passed through the Panama Canal war-bound for Funafuti, Ellice Islands. She reported there 22 January for duty with the United States Fifth Fleet, and three days later rendezvoused with Task Group 58.2 for the assault on the Marshall Islands. *New Jersey* screened the aircraft carriers from Japanese attack as planes from Task Group 58.2 flew strikes against Kwajalein and Eniwetok 29 January – 2 February, softening up the latter for its invasion and supporting the troops who landed on 31 January.

*New Jersey* began her career as a flagship 4 February in Majuro Lagoon when Admiral Raymond A. Spruance, commanding the 5th Fleet, broke his flag from her main. Her first action as a flagship was in Operation Hailstone, a two-day surface and air strike by her task force against the major Japanese fleet base on Truk in the Carolines. This attack was coordinated with the assault on Kwajalein, and effectively interdicted the Japanese naval retaliation to the conquest of the Marshalls. On 17 and 18 February, the task force accounted for two Japanese light cruisers, four destroyers, three auxiliary cruisers, two submarine tenders, two submarine chasers, an armed trawler, a plane ferry, and 23 other auxiliaries, not including small craft. *New Jersey* destroyed a trawler and, with other ships, sank the destroyer *Maikaze*. *New Jersey* also fired on an enemy aircraft that attacked her formation. The task force returned to the Marshalls 19 February.

Between 17 March and 10 April, *New Jersey* first sailed with Rear Admiral Marc A. Mitscher's flagship *Lexington* for an air and surface bombardment of Mille, then rejoined Task Group 58.2 for a strike against shipping in the Palaus, and bombarded Woleai. Upon his return to Majuro, Admiral Spruance transferred his flag to *Indianapolis*. *New Jersey*'s next war cruise, 13 April – 4 May 1944, began and ended at Majuro. She screened the carrier striking force which gave air support to the invasion of Aitape, Tanahmerah Bay and Humboldt Bay, New Guinea, 22 April, then shelled shipping and shore installations at Truk 29–30 April. *New Jersey* and her formation shot down two enemy torpedo bombers at Truk. Her 16-inch salvos pounded Ponape 1 May, destroying fuel tanks, badly damaging the airfield, and demolishing a headquarters building.

After rehearsing in the Marshalls for the invasion of the Marianas, *New Jersey* put to sea 6 June in the screening and bombardment group of Admiral Mitscher's Task Force. On the second day of preinvasion air strikes, 12 June, *New Jersey* shot down an enemy torpedo bomber, and during the next two days her heavy guns battered Saipan and Tinian, in advance of the marine landings on 15 June. The Japanese response to the Marianas operation was an order to its main surface fleet to attack and annihilate the American invasion force. Shadowing American submarines tracked the Japanese fleet into the Philippine Sea as Admiral Spruance joined his task force with Admiral Mitscher's to meet the enemy. *New Jersey* took station in the protective screen around the carriers on 19 June 1944 as American and Japanese pilots dueled in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. That day and the next would cripple Japanese naval aviation; in what would become known as the "Marianas Turkey Shoot", the Japanese lost some 400 planes for less than two dozen American aircraft in return. This loss of trained pilots and aircraft was equaled in disaster by the sinking of the Japanese aircraft carriers *Taihō* and *Shōkaku* by the submarines *Albacore* and *Cavalla*, respectively, and the loss of *Hiyō* to aircraft launched from the light aircraft carrier *Belleau Wood*. In addition to these losses, Allied forces succeeded in damaging two Japanese carriers and a battleship. The anti-aircraft fire of *New Jersey* and the other screening ships proved virtually impenetrable; two American ships were slightly damaged during the battle. Only 17 American planes were lost in combat.

WIP

#### Reserve fleet and museum ship (1991–present)

With the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s and the lack of a perceived threat against the United States came drastic cuts to the defense budget, and the high cost of maintaining battleships as part of the active fleet became uneconomical; as a result, *New Jersey* was decommissioned for the final time at Naval Station Long Beach, California, on 8 February 1991, with the ship serving a total of 21 years (the most of the four *Iowa*s) in active service. The decision to decommission *New Jersey* robbed the battleship of the chance to participate in Operation Desert Storm in 1991, a military campaign to forcibly remove Iraqi invasion troops from Kuwait. Hostilities had commenced on or about 15 January 1991 and sister ships *Missouri* and *Wisconsin* were engaging Iraqi targets with Tomahawk missiles at the time of *New Jersey*'s decommissioning. Following her decommissioning *New Jersey* was towed to Bremerton, Washington, where she remained in reserve until struck from the Naval Vessel Register in January 1995.

Section 1011 of the National Defense Authorization Act of 1996 required the United States Navy to reinstate to the Naval Vessel Register two of the *Iowa*-class battleships that had been struck by the Navy in 1995; these ships were to be maintained in the United States Navy reserve fleets (or "mothball fleet"). The Navy was to ensure that both of the reinstated battleships were in good condition and could be reactivated for use in the Marine Corps' amphibious operations. Due to *Iowa*'s damaged Turret 2 the Navy selected *New Jersey* for placement into the mothball fleet, even though the training mechanisms on *New Jersey*'s 16-in guns had been welded down. The cost to fix *New Jersey* was considered less than the cost to fix *Iowa*; as a result, *New Jersey* and *Wisconsin* were reinstated to the Naval Vessel Register and placed back in the reserve fleet.

*New Jersey* remained in mothball fleet until the Strom Thurmond National Defense Authorization Act of 1999 passed through the United States Congress 18 October 1998. Section 1011 required the United States Secretary of the Navy to list and maintain *Iowa* on the Naval Vessel Register with Kentucky, while Section 1012 required the Secretary of the Navy to strike *New Jersey* from the Naval Vessel Register and transfer the battleship to a not-for-profit entity in accordance with section 7306 of Title 10, United States Code. Section 1012 also required the transferee to locate the battleship in the State of New Jersey. The Navy made the switch in January 1999, and on 12 September, *New Jersey* was towed by the tug *Sea Victory* from Bremerton, Washington to Philadelphia, for restoration work in the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in advance of her planned donation for use as a museum.

Two competing requests for the battleships were filed, one by the USS New Jersey Battleship Commission of Bayonne, New Jersey, and one by the Home Port Alliance of Camden, New Jersey. Both teams submitted plans to operate and maintain the battleship as a museum. After a review of both plans, the Navy selected the Home Port Alliance as the battleship's final resting place. Secretary of the Navy Richard Danzig made the announcement on 20 January 2000, and on 15 October of that year *New Jersey* arrived at her final resting place on the Camden Waterfront.

Shortly after her arrival *New Jersey* was opened to the public, officially beginning her new career as a museum ship with the name Battleship New Jersey Museum and Memorial. Self-guided tours, guided group tours, and overnight encampments are offered on the floating museum. Overnight encampments, typically for the benefit of Scouting organizations, offer the opportunity to sleep and eat in the original berths and mess decks.

*New Jersey* has been placed on several historic registers. In 1997, while the ship was still in the mothball fleet, the New Jersey State Review Board for Historic Sites recommended that it "be listed in the New Jersey Register of Historic Places, contingent upon the transfer of the battleship to New Jersey waters." In 2004, the State of New Jersey officially designated the battleship as an historical place. This cleared *New Jersey* for placement on the National Register of Historic Places, a list to which *New Jersey* was officially added in 2004.

In 2012 there was another nonprofit - the USS New Jersey Battleship Foundation, Inc. - which advocated that *New Jersey* should be moved to Liberty State Park. Ultimately, nothing came from that effort and the ship remains in Camden. One of USS *New Jersey'*s original gun barrels from 1943 to 1954 now sits on the northwest corner of the Marine Parade Grounds alongside Broad Street and Intrepid Avenue in Philadelphia. Another original gun barrel is located in Camden, next to USS *New Jersey*, and a third is on display in Basking Ridge, New Jersey. A propeller is on display in front of Naval Weapons Station Earle, in Colts Neck, New Jersey. The museum also runs a YouTube channel where curators educate viewers on various historical details, facts, and the service history of the ship.