Lessons learned: I was the last person to fire the 16-inch guns of a U.S. battleship

Summary and key points: Built in the 1940s, the Iowa-class battleships continue to capture public interest despite being decommissioned over three decades ago. Serving in World War II and briefly in the 1980s and 1990s, these legendary ships represent the pinnacle of American battleship design.

– Their enduring appeal rests on a blend of historical significance, compelling storytelling and striking visual appeal.

-The Iowa-class ships symbolize a bygone era of naval warfare where close combat and brute firepower dominated. As museum ships, they offer valuable lessons in how to re-introduce the public to naval history and the importance of sea power in the modern day.

Why Iowa-class battleships still capture the imagination of naval enthusiasts

What makes the lasting appeal of Iowa-class battleships?

These are warships that were built in the 1940s to fight against the no longer existing enemies of the Axis powers.

We are repeatedly told that the aircraft carrier condemned the battleship to obsolescence at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

The Iowa-The class briefly saw new life in the 1980s and 1990s, including combat operations, but has now slumbered in retirement for over three decades.

All of them are museum ships, two in the Atlantic, two in the Pacific. They are a thing of the past.

What the Iowa-Class battleships can teach us

And yet these are not mere relics of steel. They can still teach us something about how to build a fleet capable of winning the affection of the American people.

Why the Iowa-The question of whether the class still arouses public interest is therefore of current importance.

As storm clouds gather in the Western Pacific, naval magnates are racking their brains over how to get ordinary people to rediscover their love for their navy and rededicate themselves to the cause of sea power.

A society that looks to the sea – and remembers how previous generations dealt with conflict at sea – is a society inclined to invest in a battle fleet commensurate in size and capability with a seagoing superpower. How can leadership build such a society?

If shipbuilders could consciously design ships that not only win battles but also inspire enthusiasm, they could ease the challenge of reconnecting with the population. The question is how.

History, storytelling and visual appeal could merge into a compelling public relations formula. First, history. The mystique surrounding the Iowa-Class comes partly from nostalgia for its glorious past.

The four battleships achieved considerable success as combat ships in the Second World War, especially in the Pacific. But that does not fully explain their fame. As warships of a new design, they entered the fray relatively late.

I was fortunate enough to serve on one of these warships during the Gulf War, the battleship Wisconsin. It was not until the end of 1944 that she reached the Pacific. MissouriThe most famous ship of its class due to the images of the surrender ceremony in Tokyo Bay, it did not join the fighting until early 1945, when the end of the war was in sight.

A simple list of successes cannot explain Iowas’ legacy.

In fact, the Iowa Class suffers from a history deficit compared to other WWII veterans. With service spanning the entire war, other battleships have achieved as much as – and in many cases more than –Iowa, New Jersey, MissouriAnd Wisconsinwhich form the class of four ships. Our local raid – the USS Massachusettsjust a stone’s throw from here in Fall River, MA, earned battle laurels in both the Atlantic and Pacific. At the end of 1942, the battleship Washington won an epic engagement off Guadalcanal during the Solomon Islands Campaign. The battle in Ironbottom Sound, a notorious battleground for surface ships, convinced Japanese commanders to abandon their fight for Guadalcanal and cleared the way for an American counteroffensive in the South Pacific. Battleships sunk, raised, and recommissioned at Pearl Harbor exacted revenge in Surigao Strait in late 1944, destroying an Imperial Japanese Navy battleship fleet in the last significant surface action in history.

This is dramatic.

And that doesn’t even take into account the performance of other ship types. As far as the spectacle goes, it is difficult to compare with the life of the carrier USS Pursuethe most decorated ship of the US Navy in World War II. Pursue has accumulated twenty Battle Stars and has been on the front lines of such massive battles as the Battle of Midway (1942). (For comparison: New Jersey most accumulated among the Iowa Class, with nine.) The claim that naval aviation made battleships obsolete is false. They provided valuable services. What is certainly true is that carrier aviation degraded battleships, including the Iowa class, from its place at the center of the battle fleet. If that is the case, one would expect Pursue and other aircraft carriers have also reduced battleships to followers in the public’s memory. For the average citizen, they should be historical curiosities and not much more.

But no. The glory of the battleships remains. History includes part of the Iowas’ legendary status, but there’s more to it than that.

Second, storytelling. The changing nature of naval warfare helps explain Iowas’ longevity in the public imagination. Today, warships deliver precise firepower over long distances. Their striking power relies primarily on aircraft and guided missiles. They rarely see the enemy visually. Dreadnoughts, on the other hand, were brawlers. They were apex predators in the days when artillery decided the outcome of battles on the high seas. They were built to dish out and take hits from enemies who were usually within sight. There may be something about putting yourself in danger in close quarters that resonates with Americans’ athletic instincts – think of the enduring popularity of boxing, wrestling, or mixed martial arts. Close-quarters combat missions make for better stories than sending the air squadron or a salvo of missiles to attack enemy forces over the horizon and out of sight.

Close combat is a personal matter. And people respond to stories about people in difficult situations. The consequences of a surface operation are concrete and immediately understandable – you get hit or you get excited about being shot at unsuccessfully. The human dimension is tangible. The story of a surface operation is about ship crews. In contrast, air or missile operations over long distances are distant and abstract, apart from the pilots who are actually fighting. That is why the enthusiasm for naval aviation is mainly about the pilots and their aircraft – not the carrier or its crew. One imagines Top Shooter: Maverick would have been a box office flop if the main action had taken place on board the aircraft carrier rather than with Maverick’s squadron soaring through the sky under fire.

A historical feature also helps battleship enthusiasts to create a captivating narrative about the Iowa-Class. The Iowa-Class undoubtedly represented the pinnacle of American battleship design and has the claim to be the best of its kind ever built by any Navy. Yes, the superdreadnoughts of the Imperial Japanese Navy Yamato And Musashi had larger main guns that could fire larger projectiles over longer distances. But size is not everything. For decades, a lively debate has been raging about whether a Iowa or a Yamato would have prevailed in a firefight, and for good reason. I am betting on the relatively light American Dreadnought because the Yamato Class was worse than the Iowa Class in fire control. Maximum firing range doesn’t matter much if your long-range fire is inaccurate. You’ll miss your target.

Maximum effective Reach is what counts. Most likely IowaA -class ship with precise sensors and fire control systems would have closed the distance and scored the first hits in a one-on-one shooting duel, thus securing the final victory.

Being the best at something can earn you a place in folklore. People love winners! Also, no future class of battleships can ever Iowa Class. Its GOAT status will last forever because nobody is building dreadnoughts anymore and probably nobody will start. That’s the advantage of being the biggest and the last. In the meantime, ship types that remain in service are constantly being replaced.Essex-class fleet carriers that anchored the World War II fleet gave way to supercarriers in the 1950s. Conventionally powered supercarriers gave way to nuclear-powered aircraft carriers in the 1970s. And now the venerable Nimitz-class nuclear-powered carriers are surpassed by ford-class aircraft carriers are now being commissioned. fordsay the supporters.

While USS Pursue deserves recognition as the greatest battleship of the US Navy of World War II, in other words, neither it nor any other historic aircraft carrier can be the GOAT. The same goes for cruisers, destroyers, submarines and every other type of ship still being built. Battleships are another matter. The IowaThe victory is final.

Finally, there is the question of style. Combat power is paramount in ship design. It has to be that way. But at the same time, ships are political instruments, and the way a ship looks is important for political reasons. Edward Luttwak points out that Soviet capital ships during the Cold War attracted laypeople’s attention. They exuded brawn, with sensors, weapons, and equipment protruding all over the main deck and superstructure. American warships did have missile launchers, but their missiles were housed in magazines deep inside the ship, out of sight. And toward the end of the Cold War, Aegis cruisers—the U.S. Navy’s primary surface combat ships—carried their missiles in vertical launch silos, which look like flat slabs on the main deck. The launchers disappeared entirely, along with the visual impact they had. Likewise, the cruisers’ phased array radars, the heart of the Aegis combat system, looked like flat plates mounted on the boxy superstructure. Again, the “wow” factor was zero. Cruisers formed the world’s most significant surface fleet, but they were not particularly impressive on the outside.