She fought in three wars and adapted to every new threat, standing today as living proof that American power, built right and used decisively, has no equal.
The keel of the USS Wisconsin was laid at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in January 1941 as war loomed. Launched on the second anniversary of Pearl Harbor and commissioned in April 1944, she carried Wisconsin’s name into battle from the start. Sponsored by the wife of Wisconsin Governor Walter Goodland, she became the last of the Iowa-class battleships to enter service. Her sailors soon called her the Big Wisky.
In the Pacific during World War II she screened aircraft carriers and supported the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa with her massive armament. In July 1945, she bombarded Japanese industrial sites on the home islands of Hokkaido and Honshu, destroying facilities that fed the enemy war machine. She earned five battle stars before helping occupy Tokyo Bay after Japan surrendered.
The guns fell silent only briefly. Recommissioned in 1951, she returned as flagship of the Seventh Fleet during the Korean War. She delivered heavy gunfire support along the Korean coast, smashing enemy bunkers, gun positions, and supply lines for South Korean forces. In March 1952 a North Korean shore battery scored a direct hit on one of her smaller gun mounts, wounding three sailors. The Wisconsin answered with a thunderous barrage from her main 16-inch guns that wiped out the enemy position. A nearby American destroyer flashed a radio message that read simply “Temper, temper.” It was classic Navy understatement, noting how overwhelmingly the battleship had responded to the attack. She earned another battle star before returning home.
President Reagan brought her back into service in 1986 as part of the effort to rebuild American naval strength. Shipyard workers removed older guns and added Tomahawk cruise missiles, Harpoon missiles, close-in weapon systems to defeat incoming threats, and unmanned aerial vehicles that replaced older spotter planes. She recommissioned in 1988. When Iraq invaded Kuwait she deployed to the Persian Gulf. During Operation Desert Storm in early 1991 she launched Tomahawk cruise missiles into Iraq and used her guns to destroy enemy artillery, command posts, and fortifications. Her unmanned aerial vehicles spotted targets so effectively that Iraqi troops on one island surrendered directly to a drone after it buzzed overhead. She fired the final naval gunfire support mission of that war and earned a Navy Unit Commendation.
Decommissioned in September 1991 after service in three wars, the USS Wisconsin now serves as a museum ship at Nauticus in Norfolk, Virginia. Her systems stay preserved in case the nation ever needs her again.
As America marks 250 years since its founding, this battleship named for Wisconsin is a glimpse into the history of the greatest military the world has ever seen. One battleship, and that last of its kind, was built by American hands, fought when called, and adapted when technology changed. She never quit. She simply delivered. That same spirit built this country and kept it free. The Big Wisky never backed down. Neither should we.
