The Last Battleship: USS Missouri Retires (1992)
On March 31, 1992, the USS Missouri — the ship on which Japan surrendered in 1945 — was decommissioned, closing the age of the battleship forever.
She was there at the end of the bloodiest war in human history — and when she finally retired, an entire era of naval warfare retired with her.
The USS Missouri, "Mighty Mo," was commissioned on June 11, 1944, the last battleship America would ever build. She was 887 feet of steel armed with nine 16-inch guns that could hurl 2,700-pound shells twenty-four miles. She fought at Iwo Jima and Okinawa and shelled the Japanese home islands. But her immortal moment came on September 2, 1945, in Tokyo Bay: aboard her decks, in the company of General Douglas MacArthur and Allied officials, Japanese foreign minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signed the Instrument of Surrender. World War II ended where the Missouri floated.
The ship's story could have ended there, but it didn't. She served in the Korean War, then was decommissioned in 1955 and mothballed — seemingly for good. Three decades later, the Navy brought her back: modernized in 1984–86 with Tomahawk cruise missiles, Harpoon missiles, and modern radar, she returned to active duty. In 1991, during Operation Desert Storm, the Missouri became the first ship ever to fire Tomahawk missiles in combat, her 16-inch guns booming over Iraqi targets one last time.
By then, though, the battleship's day was done. Aircraft carriers, submarines, and guided-missile destroyers had taken over the seas, and the great gunships were relics. On March 31, 1992, the USS Missouri was decommissioned for the second and final time — the last active battleship in the world.
She earned eleven battle stars across World War II, Korea, and the Persian Gulf. Since 1999 she has rested at Pearl Harbor as a museum ship, moored within sight of the USS Arizona Memorial — the Arizona marking where America's war began, the Missouri marking where it ended.
Wars are started by nations and ended by signatures. On a steel deck in Tokyo Bay in 1945, the Missouri held the pen. On March 31, 1992, she laid it down.
Photo: U.S. Navy, public domain.
