Forces of Valor USS Missouri (BB-63) Navy Iowa-Class Battleship

USS Missouri (BB-63) ( "Mighty Mo " or "Big Mo ") is a United States Navy Iowa-class battleship and was the fourth ship of the U. S. Navy to be named in honor of the U. S. state of Missouri. Missouri was the last battleship built by the United States and was the site of the surrender of the Empire of Japan which ended World War II. Missouri was ordered in 1940 and commissioned in June 1944. In the Pacific Theater of World War II she fought in the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa and shelled the Japanese home islands and she fought in the Korean War from 1950 to 1953. She was decommissioned in 1955 into the United States Navy reserve fleets (the "Mothball Fleet "), but reactivated and modernized in 1984 as part of the 600-ship Navy plan and provided fire support during Operation Desert Storm in January/February 1991. Missouri received a total of 11 battle stars for service in World War II, Korea and the Persian Gulf and was finally decommissioned on March 31st, 1992, but remained on the Naval Vessel Register until her name was struck in January 1995. In 1998, she was donated to the USS Missouri Memorial Association and became a museum ship at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Pictured here is a 1: 700 scale replica of the US Navy Iowa Class Battleship USS Missouri (BB-63) as seen in Tokyo Bay in 1945.