DESERT STORM: DAY 19 : ‘THE MIGHTY MO’
The 45,000-ton battleship Missouri, known as the “Mighty Mo,” was launched in January, 1944. It was the scene of the formal Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay that ended World War II.
The Missouri saw brief service during the Korean War as a shore bombardment ship and was then mothballed until revitalization with three other U.S. battleships--the New Jersey, Iowa and Wisconsin--under President Ronald Reagan.
The New Jersey and Iowa are now being put back into mothballs, and the Missouri and Wisconsin are in the Persian Gulf.
The Missouri is 887 feet long, carries a crew of 1,500 men and cuts through the sea at 35 knots, powered by four Westinghouse turbines with a total of 212,000 horsepower.
The ship and its nine 16-inch guns can hurl 2,700-pound shells 23 miles to pierce more than 20 feet of concrete. Its modern weapons include Tomahawk cruise missiles.
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