The Only Vietnam War Battleship - Lobbing 16-inch Shells at Viet Cong

In early 1938, the US Navy started researching ways to design new battleships that could keep up with America's own aircraft carriers and outclass the much-feared high-speed Japanese battleships. Consequently, naval architects from the Navy's Bureau of Construction and Repair came up with several solutions, and the result was the impressive Iowa-class battleship, the last kind of American battleship and the last of its type in service around the world. While initial plans called for six vessels, only four were completed: Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, and New Jersey. The latter, nicknamed Big J, was commissioned in 1943, and during the ceremony, Captain Carl F. Holden predicted the battleship would be a: [QUOTE] “Lovely lady who will have her angry moments.“ The captain was right, as the 887-foot 60,000-ton Big J saw more combat in World War 2 than any other Iowa-class battleship, and the 1940s were only the beginning of a long, record-breaking, and highly-decorated