USS Iowa

USS Iowa is a former United States Navy vessel, and was the lead ship of her class, the Iowa Class Battleships. Said class was also the last class of battleships constructed, as the Montana-Class, the planned successor to the Iowa-Class, was cancelled to prioritize construction of carrier vessels and carrier doctrine, among other reasons. USS Iowa was launched on August 27, 1942, and immediately began patrols and assistance in the Atlantic, one of her most well-known duties in the Atlantic was transporting the then United States president Franklin Delano Roosevelt to a conference known as the "Tehran meeting" in 1943 to meet with other Allied leaders such as Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin. Another reason for her placement in the Atlantic was over concerns of the KMS Tirpitz, the sister ship of the sunken KMS Bismarck. Eventually, after serving with the Atlantic fleet, she was placed in the Pacific theater in 1944 onwards until the end of the war with Battleship Division 7 with Admiral Lee. Her main tasks were to assist and protect carrier task groups, perform patrols for IJN vessels and activity, and assist in capturing essential islands via shore bombardment. Eventually, she was tasked to act as the flagship upon which the treaty concerning Japan's surrender was formalized. Later, after assistance in post-war operations and other miscellaneous tasks and a modernization, she briefly participated in the Korean War for assistance such as bombardment. She was later put into service for training and a variety of purpose until her final reactivation in the 1980s, where she and her sister ships that remained served in operations such as Desert Storm. After deactivation, she was decommissioned, eventually being put into a "Reserve" status in 1999, which meant that she, alongside her remaining sister ships, were to be ready in case they were ever needed again. However, recently this status was removed as the U.S military claimed she, among other vessels, were no longer needed, and was stricken. Today, she remains in Los Angeles, California as a museum ship.