USA: A bow view of the battleship USS Iowa (BB-61) firing its Mark 7 16-inch/50-caliber guns off the starboard side during a fire power demonstration, Caribbean Sea, 1984

USS Iowa (BB-61) is the lead ship of her class of battleship and the fourth in the United States Navy to be named in honor of the 29th state.

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. 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. She was reactivated in 1984 and decommissioned for the last time in the year 1990. In 2011 USS Iowa was donated to the Los Angeles–based non-profit Pacific Battleship Center and was permanently moved to the Port of Los Angeles in 2012, where she was opened to the public as the USS Iowa Museum.

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Supplier: CPA Media Co. Ltd.

Photographer:

PH Hilton

Credit:

Pictures From History