HB-22 "LAST BROADSIDE"

In 1991, a sixteen inch broadside was fired in anger for what is widely accepted as the last time.

The Iowa class were laid down in the early 1940s, recommissioned through four decades, and finally used for shore bombardment in the Gulf in 1991. The ships outlived the doctrine that built them and ended their service supporting a kind of warfare that had not existed when their keels were laid. The last broadside was a line drawn under half a century of capital ship gunnery.

For those who understand that some tools earn a last useful day long after the textbook had retired them.

Harborborne. Built to Endure.