USS Iowa (BB-61)

USS Iowa (BB-61) fires her 16-inch/50 caliber guns on 15 August 1984 during a firepower demonstration after her modernization
History
United States
Namesake:	State of Iowa
Ordered:	1 July 1939
Builder:	New York Naval Yard
Laid down:	27 June 1940
Launched:	27 August 1942
Sponsored by:	Ilo Wallace
Commissioned:	22 February 1943
Decommissioned:	24 March 1949
Recommissioned:	25 August 1951
Decommissioned:	24 February 1958
Recommissioned:	28 April 1984
Decommissioned:	26 October 1990
Struck:	17 March 2006
Homeport:	Norfolk, Virginia (after 1980s refit)
Motto:	"Our Liberties We Prize, Our Rights We Will Maintain"
Nickname(s):	"The Big Stick" (1952), "The Grey Ghost" (Korean War)
Honors and awards:	11 battle stars
Fate:	Museum ship
Status:	On display at the Pacific Battleship Center at the Port of Los Angeles
Notes:	Last lead ship of any class of US battleship
Badge:
General characteristics
Class and type:	Iowa-class battleship
Displacement:	45,000 tons empty, 57000 tons full load
Length:	887 ft 3 in (270.43 m)
Beam:	108 ft 2 in (32.97 m)
Draft:	37 ft 2 in (11.33 m)
Propulsion:	8 Babcock & Wilcox "M"-type 600 PSI dual furnace, controlled superheat boilers 4 engine sets (high pressure & low pressure turbines, reduction gear), 212,000 total shaft horsepower 4 shafts/props 4 boiler rooms 4 engine rooms
Speed:	33 kn (38 mph; 61 km/h)
Complement:	151 officers, 2637 enlisted (WWII)
Armament:	1943: 9 × 16 in (406 mm)/50 cal Mark 7 guns 20 × 5 in (127.0 mm)/38 cal Mark 12 guns 80 × 40 mm/56 cal anti-aircraft guns 49 × 20 mm/70 cal anti-aircraft cannons 1984: 9 × 16 in (406 mm)/50 cal Mark 7 guns 12 × 5 in (127.0 mm)/38 cal Mark 12 guns 32 × BGM-109 Tomahawk cruise missiles 16 × RGM-84 Harpoon Anti-Ship missiles 4 × 20 mm/76 cal Phalanx CIWS
Armor:	Belt: 12.1 in (307.3 mm) Bulkheads: 11.3 in (287.0 mm) Barbettes: 11.6 to 17.3 in (294.6 to 439.4 mm) Turrets: 19.7 in (500 mm) Decks: 7.5 in (190.50 mm)
Aircraft carried:	floatplanes, helicopters, UAVs

8 Babcock & Wilcox "M"-type 600 PSI dual furnace, controlled superheat boilers

4 engine sets (high pressure & low pressure turbines, reduction gear), 212,000 total shaft horsepower

4 shafts/props

4 boiler rooms

USS Iowa (BB-61) is the lead ship of her class of battleship and the fourth in the United States Navy to be named after the state of Iowa. Owing to the cancellation of the Montana-class battleships, Iowa is the last lead ship of any class of United States battleships and was the only ship of her class to have served in the Atlantic Ocean during World War II.

During World War II, she carried President Franklin D. Roosevelt across the Atlantic to Mers El Kébir, Algeria, en route to a crucial 1943 meeting in Tehran with Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Britain and Josef Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union. She has a bathtub—an amenity installed for Roosevelt, along with an elevator to shuttle him between decks. When transferred to the Pacific Fleet in 1944, Iowa shelled beachheads at Kwajalein and Eniwetok in advance of Allied amphibious landings and screened aircraft carriers operating in the Marshall Islands. She also served as the Third Fleet flagship, flying Adm. William F. Halsey's flag at the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay. During the Korean War, Iowa was involved in raids on the North Korean coast, after which she was decommissioned into the United States Navy reserve fleets, better known as the "mothball fleet." She was reactivated in 1984 as part of the 600-ship Navy plan and operated in both the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets to counter the recently expanded Soviet Navy. In April 1989, an explosion of undetermined origin wrecked her No. 2 gun turret, killing 47 sailors.