USS Wisconsin (BB-64) was commissioned in April 1944, fought in the Pacific against Japan, fired her guns in Korea in 1952, was decommissioned and recommissioned twice over four decades, and finally stood down for the last time in 1991 — the same year she fired Tomahawk cruise missiles at Iraqi targets in Operation Desert Storm. She spans most of the twentieth century's wars, serves as a museum ship in Norfolk today, and represents something that the United States Navy will not build again: a battleship. She is the last of a long line, and she earned the designation the hard way.
The Ship
USS Wisconsin (BB-64) is an Iowa-class battleship, the fourth and final member of the class, commissioned on April 16, 1944, at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. The Iowa class was the last battleship class the United States ever built — fast, heavily armed, and capable of operating with carrier battle groups at the speeds modern task forces required. Wisconsin's main battery was nine 16-inch/50 caliber guns in three triple turrets, capable of firing a 2,700-pound armor-piercing projectile over 20 miles. At full load, she displaced over 57,000 tons. She was 887 feet long. There has been nothing like her since, and there will not be again.
World War II
Wisconsin commissioned in April 1944 and was immediately sent to the Pacific, arriving in time for the final campaigns of the war. She screened carrier task forces, providing anti-aircraft defense and a fast, powerful escort that could keep pace with the carriers. She participated in bombardment operations against Japanese home island targets in the summer of 1945, firing her 16-inch guns against industrial and military targets on Honshu. When Japan surrendered in August 1945, Wisconsin was at sea. She returned to the United States and was decommissioned in 1948, joining her sister ships in the reserve fleet as the Navy contracted to peacetime size.
Korea and the Cold War
Wisconsin was recommissioned in 1951 for service in Korea, where her 16-inch guns proved their worth in shore bombardment missions along the Korean coast. Battleship gunfire remained valuable against coastal targets and troop concentrations in a way that carrier aircraft could not easily replicate — the sheer weight of a 16-inch shell and the sustained volume of fire a battleship could maintain made her a different kind of weapon. She served in Korean waters through 1952, then returned to reserve following the armistice. She was decommissioned again in 1958 and remained out of service for more than two decades.
The Reagan-Era Recommissioning
In 1988, as part of the Reagan administration's effort to build a 600-ship Navy, Wisconsin was recommissioned for the third time. The modernization that accompanied her recommissioning added Tomahawk cruise missile launchers, Harpoon anti-ship missiles, and Phalanx close-in weapon systems to her original World War II armament. She was, in 1988, a ship that could do something none of the original Iowa class had been designed to do: fire precision land attack missiles at targets hundreds of miles away, while still carrying the ability to place a 2,700-pound shell on a target at 20 miles. She was a weapons platform from two eras simultaneously.
Operation Desert Storm
When Operation Desert Storm began in January 1991, Wisconsin was in the Persian Gulf with her sister ship Missouri, and both battleships participated in the campaign. Wisconsin fired Tomahawk cruise missiles at Iraqi targets, contributing to the precision strike campaign that degraded Iraqi command and control in the opening phase of the war. She also fired her 16-inch guns in gunfire support missions, providing naval surface fire support for coalition forces and further occupying Iraqi attention with the threat of battleship bombardment from the Gulf. It was the last time a battleship fired her guns in anger.
If you want to honor the sailors who served on Wisconsin or the battleship community, browse The Ship's Store for collections honoring the ships and sailors of the U.S. Navy.
Legacy and Preservation
Wisconsin was decommissioned for the final time on September 30, 1991, shortly after the end of Desert Storm. She was transferred to the City of Norfolk, Virginia, where she is preserved as a museum ship at the Nauticus maritime museum, open to the public alongside the Wisconsin's permanent exhibit and within sight of the active naval station. She is a ship that can be walked, touched, and understood in a way that no photograph or document fully conveys — 887 feet of American naval history, from the last months of World War II through the closing phases of the Cold War, now permanently moored in the city that was her homeport for the last chapter of her service life.