1943-1991 A Giant among Ships: The odyssey of the USS New Jersey, from the Pacific to the Mediterranean.
Laid down at Philadelphia Navy Yard in September 1940, New Jersey (BB 62) was the second of the mighty Iowas, the biggest, fastest battleships the US Navy ever had, with the most powerful guns.
THE SECOND WORLD WAR
USS New Jersey was completed in late May 1943, lust as the war against Japan was entering its 19th month. After a seven month working-up period she was assigned to the Fast Carrier Task Force in the Pacific. She served out the war there exclusively in the fire support and anti-aircraft roles, and at its end was the Flagship of the US Fifth Fleet under Spruance. After a three-year spell as a training ship, she was decommissioned and placed in reserve, to be called up again in November 1950. She served two tours of duty off Korea and then served as a training ship once more before being placed in reserve again in August 1957.
She was out of action for 11 years this time, being recalled the only one of the class of four in April 1968 to serve off Vietnam, where her 16in (406mm) guns were a great asset on the gunline. Her tour of duty was to be brief, however, and in August 1969 she was back in the United States, she was deactivated again, and mothballed at Puget Sound Navy Yard. So far, she had received a total of 15 battle stars nine during WWII, four in Korea and two in Vietnam.
To many, it seemed that the days of the battleship were now gone for ever, but they still had supporters in high places, and that was enough to ensure they stayed in reserve, available for re-activation. And re activated she was, along with her three sister-ships, after undergoing a major modernisation programme which saw eight of her secondary 5in (127mm) guns being removed and eight four-cell launchers for Tomahawk cruise missiles installed, along with Harpoon launchers and Phalanx close-in weapons systems. She re-joined the fleet early in 1983, and September of that year saw her back in action once more, firing a single shore bombardment mission in support of US Marines in Lebanon on 14 December.
That was to be the last time she fired her guns in anger, though she continued in commission as a training ship for the rest of the decade. On 1 January 1991 she was de-activated at Bremerton, Washington, and on 2 August was placed in reserve. There was to be no fourth reprieve, it seemed, even though her sister-ships Missouri and Wisconsin had served in the Gulf War, and in January 1995 she was stricken from the Register of Naval Vessels. To general surprise, she was re-instated and returned to reserve status a very rare occurrence indeed on 12 February 1998, but any idea her supporters might have had of seeing her emerge once more came to naught. As the end of the century approached, the only arguments over her fate were to be centred on which of the port cities of her home state would be her last resting place as a museum ship.
