When Battleship Row was devastated by Japanese bombers in Pearl Harbor, the Missouri was not even finished yet. She was commissioned in 1944 and set out to avenge the losses suffered by the Pacific Fleet.
Her battles included the taking of Okinawa and sunk many vessels along the way.
Perhaps her most famous act was when representatives of the Japanese Empire boarded her to officially surrender to the United States. It was important that the surrender occurred on one of our battleships to remind the Japanese that they may have sunk our boats but could never sink our spirit.
Aiding the now-preferred aircraft carriers, her mission was reinvented after Tomahawk Missiles were conceived. Serving valiantly in the Persian Gulf she helped to defeat the Iraqi regime that overtook Kuwait.
Decommissioned in 1992, the Navy decided to moor her on Ford Island in Pearl Harbor so the public could marvel at her unique history. No other battleship saw action in three wars (WWII, Korea, Persian Gulf).
Jonna and I took the audio tour, carrying around our giant phones!! hehe The ship is massive and like a maze below deck. The coolest site was the place where a kamikaze smashed into the boat, only leaving two small dents in the side. A picture on deck shows theh kamikaze about to hit. The bomb aboard the plane did not explode and instead the top half of the pilot's body landed on one of the big guns and the bottom half of his body fell into the sea. The crew didn't know what to do and figured chucking his body overboard would be fitting, but the Captain said, "he is only doing for his country what we are doing for ours so he deserves to be treated respectfully." So the ship's doctor put him together as best he could and they put him in a box and buried him at sea. The attack on Pearl Harbor was dishonorable by the Japanese but the American military would not be drawn into that attitude.
The quarters below deck were tight and Jonna and I only spent about 30 minutes there. The overwhelming smell of oil/WD-40 was too much toward the end.
I'm glad we got to see her and experience her amazing history.
Her big guns were unmatched in the Pacific
The two dents made by the kamikaze
You can see the kamikaze in the upper-left-center of the photo
The crew burying the kamikaze pilot at sea
Jonna demonstrating the tight squeeze in the crew bunk area
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