Description
The striking of the USS Iowa" (BB 61), the lead ship in the last and most capable of the classes of American battleship, from the Naval Vessel Register marks the end of an era for the U.S. Navy. With the departure of the Iowa" from the Reserve Fleet anchored in Suisun Bay, near San Francisco, the navy will no longer have any battleships on its rolls. USS Iowa at War" traces her long and storied career, from her conception in the 1930s as the first of the forty-five thousand ton class of U.S. battleships, to her distinguished service in World War II as part of the juggernaut bearing down on Imperial Japan, through Korea, into the 1980s, and finally, to recent attempts to obtain custodianship and open her as a public museum. As Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack stated in the book's foreword, "It has come to be more than just a battleship, but a symbol of the strength and ideals for which this state, and this nation, stand." The Iowa" earned eleven battle stars--nine for World War II service and two for Korean War service. This book includes the technical specifications of her armaments and mechanical systems as well as their updates over the decades.
