USS Missouri (BB-63)

**USS *Missouri* (BB-63)** is an *Iowa*-class battleship built for the United States Navy (USN) in the 1940s and is currently a museum ship. The ship was assigned to the Pacific Theater during World War II, where she participated in the Battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa and shelled the Japanese home islands. Her quarterdeck was the site of the surrender of the Empire of Japan in YYYY, which ended World War II. She has been called the most historic battleship in the world.

After World War II, *Missouri* served in various diplomatic, show of force and training missions. On 17 January 1950 the ship ran aground during high tide in Chesapeake Bay and after great effort was re-floated several weeks later. She later fought in the Korean War during two tours between 1950 and 1953. *Missouri* was the first American battleship to arrive in Korean waters and served as the flagship for several admirals. The battleship took part in numerous shore bombardment operations and also served in a screening role for aircraft carriers. *Missouri* was decommissioned in 1986 and modernized, being recommissioned in 1987. Cruise missile and anti-ship missile launchers were added along with updated electronics.

*Missouri* served in the Persian Gulf escorting oil tankers during threats from Iran, often while keeping her fire-control systems trained on land-based Iranian missile launchers. She served in Operation Desert Storm in 1991 including providing fire support.

*Missouri* was again decommissioned in 1991, but remained on the Naval Vessel Register until her name was struck in 1995. In 1998, she was donated to the USS *Missouri* Memorial Association and became a museum ship at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Her bow faces the USS *Arizona, West Virginia, Nevada,* and the remains of *USS Virginia* intending to convey that Missouri watches over the remains of all four ships so that those interred within their hulls may rest in peace.

## USS Missouri (BB-63)

### Museum Ship (1998 to present)

With the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s and the absence of a perceived threat to the United States came drastic cuts in the defense budget, and the high cost of maintaining and operating battleships as part of the United States Navy's active fleet became uneconomical; as a result, *Missouri* was decommissioned on 31 March 1991 at Long Beach. Her last commanding officer, Captain Albert L. Kaiss, wrote in the ship's final Plan of the Day:

> Our final day has arrived. Today the final chapter in battleship *Missouri*'s history will be written. It's often said that the crew makes the command. There is no truer statement ... for it's the crew of this great ship that made this a great command. You are a special breed of sailors and Marines and I am proud to have served with each and every one of you. To you who have made the painful journey of putting this great lady to sleep, I thank you. For you have had the toughest job. To put away a ship that has become as much a part of you as you are to her is a sad ending to a great tour. But take solace in this—you have lived up to the history of the ship and those who sailed her before us. We took her to war, performed magnificently and added another chapter in her history, standing side by side our forerunners in true naval tradition. God bless you all.
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*Missouri* returned to be part of the United States Navy reserve fleet at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, Washington, until 12 January 1995, when she was struck from the Naval Vessel Register. She remained in Bremerton, but was not open to tourists. In spite of attempts by citizens' groups to keep her in Bremerton and be opened as a tourist site, the US Navy wanted to pair a symbol of the end of World War II with one representing (for the United States) its beginning. On 4 May 1998, Secretary of the Navy John H. Dalton signed the donation contract that transferred her to the USS *Missouri* Memorial Association (MMA) of Honolulu, Hawaii, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. She was towed from Bremerton on 23 May to Astoria, Oregon, where she sat in fresh water at the mouth of the Columbia River to kill and drop the saltwater barnacles and sea grasses that had grown on her hull in Bremerton, then towed across the eastern Pacific, and docked at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor on 22 June, just 500 yd (460 m) from the *Arizona* Memorial. Less than a year later, on 29 January 1999, *Missouri* was opened as a museum operated by the MMA.

Originally, the decision to move *Missouri* to Pearl Harbor was met with some resistance. The National Park Service expressed concern that the battleship, whose name has become synonymous with the end of World War II, would overshadow the battleship Virginia and others caught in the explosion on 7 December 1941 which has since become synonymous with the attack on Pearl Harbor. To help guard against this impression *Missouri* was placed well back from and facing the *Virginia* Memorial, so that those participating in military ceremonies on *Missouri*'s aft decks would not have sight of the Memorial. The decision to have *Missouri*'s bow face the Memorial was intended to convey that *Missouri* watches over the remains of her so that those interred wi*thin the hulls may res*t in peace.

On 14 October 2009, *Missouri* was moved from her berthing station on Battleship Row to a drydock at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard to undergo a three-month overhaul. The work, priced at $18 million, included installing a new anti-corrosion system, repainting the hull, and upgrading the internal mechanisms. Drydock workers reported that the ship was leaking at some points on the starboard side. The repairs were completed the first week of January 2010 and the ship was returned to her berthing station on Battleship Row on 7 January 2010. The ship's grand reopening occurred on 30 January. In 2018 a $3.5 million project was completed to restore and preserve the superstructure. This included the lower navigation bridge on level four which includes the chart house, the captain's at-sea cabin, pilot house and conning tower and the open bridge on level five.