The last four

Built for speed

The Iowa class was the last class of battleship the U.S. Navy completed. Four ships were finished: Iowa (BB-61), New Jersey (BB-62), Missouri (BB-63) and Wisconsin (BB-64). Each displaced about 45,000 tons standard, measured more than 887 feet long, and carried nine 16-inch guns. What set them apart was speed. They were rated at 33 knots.

Iowa was commissioned on 22 February 1943 and New Jersey on 23 May 1943. Wisconsin followed on 16 April 1944. Missouri, commissioned on 11 June 1944, was the last battleship the United States Navy ever commissioned.

With the fast carriers

By the time they reached the Pacific, the aircraft carrier had become the center of the fleet. The Iowas were fast enough to keep up with it. Much of their wartime work was escort duty: steaming with the fast carrier task forces and adding their heavy anti-aircraft batteries to the screen that protected the carriers from air attack.

In Wisconsin's case, that meant screening Task Force 38's carriers in the strikes against Formosa, Luzon and the Nansei Shoto in January 1945, and operating off Okinawa that spring. Her war ended with five battle stars. Missouri's war ended in Tokyo Bay.

Korea

After the war, the battleships went into reserve. When the Korean War began in June 1950, they came back. Wisconsin recommissioned on 3 March 1951 and provided gunfire support for United Nations troops along the front line, including the 1st Marine Division. Iowa recommissioned on 25 August 1951 and, from April to October 1952, served off Korea as Seventh Fleet flagship. Missouri also saw combat off Korea, and fired her guns there as late as March 1953.

New Jersey off Vietnam

In 1968 New Jersey was brought back alone. She recommissioned at Philadelphia on 6 April 1968 under Captain J. Edward Snyder, fitted as a heavy bombardment ship with a helicopter pad added. On 30 September 1968, near the 17th Parallel, she fired her guns in combat for the first time in more than sixteen years. She supported troops along the coast of Vietnam until April 1969, and was decommissioned again that December.

The 1980s

In the 1980s all four were modernized and recommissioned: New Jersey in December 1982, Iowa on 28 April 1984, Missouri on 10 May 1986 and Wisconsin on 22 October 1988. Wisconsin's refit shows what the modernization meant: launchers for 32 Tomahawk and 16 Harpoon missiles, four Phalanx close-in defense guns, and small remotely piloted aircraft to spot the fall of her shells.

The decade also brought loss. On 19 April 1989, an explosion in Iowa's No. 2 turret during a gunnery exercise killed 47 sailors. The turret was never repaired.

Desert Storm

In 1990 Missouri and Wisconsin deployed to the Persian Gulf. Early on 17 January 1991, Wisconsin served as Tomahawk strike coordinator for the Gulf as Operation Desert Storm began, and both battleships launched Tomahawk missiles. Their 16-inch guns then fired in combat for the first time since Korea, in support of coalition forces along the coast of Kuwait. Together they fired more than 1,000 16-inch rounds during the war, and Wisconsin fired the last naval gunfire support mission of the war.

The last decommissionings

The Cold War was over, and the battleships were judged too expensive to man and operate. Iowa was decommissioned on 26 October 1990 and New Jersey in 1991. Wisconsin, "having served with distinction in three wars," in the Navy's words, was decommissioned on 30 September 1991. Missouri followed on 31 March 1992.

From 1943 to 1992, through the Second World War, Korea, Vietnam and the Gulf, generations of sailors served in these four ships. Many of them went on to other ships, but none were quite like these.

Our Last Four collection is made for everyone who served in them, and the families who saw them off.

Harborborne is an independent brand and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the U.S. Navy or Department of Defense.