The USS Missouri, or "Mighty Mo," is a floating museum, holding historical moments secure within its steel walls and reflecting numerous battles won in every inch of its nine, signature 65-foot gun barrels.
The Battleship Missouri Memorial and tourist site at Pearl Harbor, along with the USS Arizona memorial, reflect the bookends of U.S. involvement in World War II.
The United States joined the conflict after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and sinking of the Arizona on Dec. 7, 1941. The Missouri was built for the war effort, and eventually dispatched to the Pacific theater, where it became the site of the Japanese official surrender to Allied forces on Sept. 2, 1945. The Missouri was also the last battleship commissioned by the United States and was active in the Korean War and Gulf War.
The USS Missouri at Pearl Harbor underwent a $3.5 million renovation project in 2017 focused on the battleship's superstructure.
"As one boards the ship, if you look forward you can see the Arizona memorial, her bow is pointed toward us and we are pointed toward her in Pearl Harbor," said Jim Stone, vice president of engineering and facilities for the USS Missouri Memorial Association, the non-profit that operates the site. "It's a wonderful way to bring someone to think about the war experience, to stand there on the ship where the war ended and to look and see, in the Arizona, a memorial to that fateful day in 1941 that marked our entry into the war. What a story."
Part of the mission of the association is to restore the ship to its appearance prior to being decommissioned and stationed at Pearl Harbor at the end of 1991. Last year the organization executed its biggest restoration project since a dry-docking in 2010. Now, after $3.5 million in renovations and improvements, the full ship tour has reopened with new displays and features.
Planning for the project took 3 years, and parts of the normal tour route, including the upper navigation bridge and flying bridge, were closed during the 2017 renovations. The work focused on the Missouri's superstructure, the tallest section of the battleship rising roughly 110 feet above the main deck, with a mast extending more than 50 feet above the major structure.
The newly restored navigation bridge now includes exhibit panels in four different languages: English, Japanese, Chinese, and Korean. An immersive audio experience, recorded with the help of active duty sailors, allows visitors a glimpse into what the ship might have sounded like on December 7, 1991 when the Missouri entered Pearl Harbor for the 50th Anniversary commemoration of the attack.
"You can hear actual dialogue of a ship's navigation team entering Pearl Harbor," said Stone. "We reenacted the approach with active, veteran and retired sailors, so it sounds realistic and gives an accurate portrayal of navigating the channel into Pearl Harbor. It's a new experience, and I have to say it gives this old sailor goosebumps to hear the sounds of the orders from the helm."
Repairs and preservation work were completed on the forward fire control tower, forward stack, forward mast, and adjacent components of the battleship. Large areas were sandblasted to tackle rust and corrosion and 17,000 pounds of steel was replaced, while the upper section of the forward mast was removed and repaired off-site. Two replicas of SLQ-32 electronic warfare antennas were installed as well as a radome, similar to a radar array with a dome enclosure, which was used to pilot remote-controlled aircraft from the ship.
Moving forward, the association, which recently celebrated the 8 millionth visitor to the Missouri in its 19 years as a memorial, plans to restore parts of the battleship s stack, bulkhead and deck, work they hope to begin in 2019.