BB61 USS Iowa, was commissioned in February 1943 at the New York Navy yard. her first mission was to the North Atlantic in August 1943 to neutralise the threat of the German Battleship Tirpitz. By early 1944 she joined the Pacific fleet taking part in many of the major battles including Saipan, Leyte Gulf and Okinawa. She was re-commissioned in 1951 for the Korean war and again in April 1984.