New York, NY: February 22, 1943. USS Iowa (BB-61) was commissioned at New York Naval Shipyard. The lead ship of the most powerful US battleships ever built, Iowa was a 45,000 -ton ship armed with nine 16-inch/50 caliber guns with a range of up to 24 miles, firing a projectile weighing up to 2,750 pounds. She also carried twenty 40-mm quadruple barrel Bofors anti-aircraft guns and twenty 5-inch/38 caliber dual-purpose guns arranged in twin mounts with a range of about 9 miles against surface targets. In addition, she bristled with 20-mm antiaircraft guns that proved of limited use and were removed right after the war.
| Class & type: | Iowa-class battleship |
| Displacement: | 45,000 tons |
| Length: | 887 ft 3 in (270.43 m) |
| Beam: | 108 ft 2 in (32.97 m) |
| Draft: | 37 ft 2 in (11.33 m) |
| Speed: | 33 kn (38 mph; 61 km/h) |
| Complement: | 151 officers, 2637 enlisted |
| Armament: | 1943: 9 × 16 in (406 mm)/50 cal Mark 7 guns 20 × 5 in (127.0 mm)/38 cal Mark 12 guns 80 × 40 mm/56 cal anti-aircraft guns 49 × 20 mm/70 cal anti-aircraft cannons |
USS Iowa is the first ship I ever went to sea in during a midshipman training cruise to Europe during the summer of 1955.
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