Historical Narrative

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The U.S. Navy commissioned USS Iowa in 1943 as the lead ship of its class.  After a shakedown period, the vessel operated off the South American coast before serving as a presidential shuttle, taking President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to and from the Tehran Conference during World War II.  The vessel was outfitted with a bathtub for Roosevelt to use in transit; it is the only bathtub ever installed on a U.S. Navy warship. 

After the Tehran conference, Iowa transited the Panama Canal to enter the Pacific theater.  There, it bombarded the shores of Kwajalein and Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands, in advance of Allied assaults there.  Iowa was in Tokyo Bay during the 1945 Japanese surrender ceremony before returning to the United States in the fall of that year.  

Iowa was formally decommissioned for the first time and placed in a Navy reserve fleet in 1949, but was reactivated in 1951 as part of the build-up to the Korean War.  During that conflict, the Iowa bombarded the North Korean coast and participated in several raids. 

After Korea, the vessel participated in several training exercises and was decommissioned for a second time in 1958.  In 1982, Iowa was reactivated and thoroughly modernized as part of a Department of Defense effort to expand the size of the Navy’s fleet. 

The vessel was decommissioned for the final time in 1990 before being struck from the Naval Vessel Register in 2006.  On April 21, 2001, Iowa was berthed at the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet under a reimbursable custody agreement; the vessel remained at the fleet until October 27, 2011, when it departed to be transferred to the Pacific Battleship Center in Los Angeles, California.

The Navy History and Heritage Command Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships entry on USS Iowa.

Photo Captions

1.) USS Iowa, under tow as it leaves the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet to become a museum ship.  MARAD file photo.

Vessel Name History

IOWA (BB-61)