NEW JERSEY USS (BB-62)

[shipstamps]

Built as a battleship on the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard for the USA Navy.
01 July 1939 ordered.
16 September 1940 keel laid down.
07 December 1942 launched under the name USS NEW JERSEY (BB-62) one of the Iowa class.
Sponsored by Mrs. Charles Edison, wife of Governor Edison of the state New Jersey and former Secretary of the Navy.
Displacement 48.500 tons standard, 57.450 tons full load. Dim. 270.43 x 32.97 x 11.58m. (draught).
Powered by geared steam turbines 212.000 shp, four shafts, speed 33 knots.
Armament 9 – 406mm, 20 – 127mm. 60 – 40mm AA and 60 – 20mm AA.
Crew 1.921 men.
23 May 1943 commissioned under command of Captain Carl F. Holden.

NEW JERSEY completed fitting out and trained her initial crew in the Western Atlantic and Caribbean. On 7 January 1944 she passed through the Panama Canal war-bound for Funafuti, Ellice Islands. She reported there 22 January for duty with the Fifth Fleet, and three days later rendezvoused with Task Group 58.2 for the assault on the Marshall Islands. NEW JERSEY screened the carriers from enemy attack as their aircraft flew strikes against Kwajalein and Eniwetok 29 January-2 February, softening up the latter for its invasion and supporting the troops who landed 31 January.
NEW JERSEY began her distinguished career as a flagship 4 February in Majuro Lagoon when Admiral Raymond A. Spruance, commanding the Fifth Fleet, broke his flag from her main. Her first action as a flagship was a bold two-day surface and air strike by her task force against the supposedly impregnable Japanese fleet base on Truk in the Carolines. This blow was coordinated with the assault on Kwajalein, and effectively interdicted Japanese naval retaliation to the conquest of the Marshalls. On 17 and 18 February; the task force accounted for two Japanese light cruisers, four destroyers, three auxiliary cruisers, two submarine tenders, two submarine chasers, an armed trawler, a plane ferry, and 23 other auxiliaries, not including small craft. NEW JERSEY destroyed a trawler and, with other ships, sank destroyer MAIKAZE, as well as firing on an enemy plane which attacked her formation. The task force returned to the Marshalls 19 February.
Between 17 March and 10 April, NEW JERSEY first sailed with Rear Admiral Marc A. Mitscher's flagship LEXINGTON (CV-16) for an air and surface bombardment of Mille, then rejoined Task Group 58.2 for a strike against shipping in the Palau’s, an d bombarded Woleai. Upon his return to Majuro, Admiral Spruance transferred his flag to INDIANAPOLIS (CA-35).
NEW JERSEY’s next war cruise, 13 April-4 May, began and ended at Majuro. She screened the carrier striking force which gave air support to the invasion of Aitape, Tanahmerah Bay and Humboldt, Bay, New Guinea, 22 April, then bombed shipping and shore installations at Truk 29-30 April. NEW JERSEY and her formation splashed two enemy torpedo bombers at Truk. Her sixteen-inch salvos pounded Ponape 1 May, destroying fuel tanks, badly damaging the airfield, and demolishing a headquarters building.
After rehearsing in the Marshalls for the invasion of the Marianas, NEW JERSEY put to sea 6 June in the screening and bombardment group of Admiral Mitscher's Task Force. On the second day of pre-invasion air strikes, 12 June, NEW JERSEY downed an enemy torpedo bomber, and during the next two days her heavy guns battered Saipan and Tinian, throwing steel against the beaches the marines would charge 15 June.
The Japanese response to the Marianas operation was an order to its Mobile Fleet; it must attack and annihilate the American invasion force. Shadowing American submarines tracked the Japanese fleet into the Philippine Sea as Admiral Spruance joined his task force with Admiral Mitscher's to meet the enemy. NEW JERSEY took station in the protective screen around the carriers on 19 June as American and Japanese pilots dueled in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. That day and the next were to pronounce the doom of Japanese naval aviation; in this "Marianas Turkey Shoot," the Japanese lost some 400 planes. This loss of trained pilots and aircraft was equaled in disaster by the sinking of three Japanese carriers by submarines and aircraft, and the damaging of two carriers and a battleship. The anti- aircraft fire of NEW JERSEY and the other screening ships proved virtually impenetrable. Only two American ships were damaged, and those but slightly. In this overwhelming victory but 17 American planes were lost to combat.
NEW JERSEY’'s final contribution to the conquest of the Marianas was in strikes on Guam and the Palaus from which she sailed for Pearl Harbor, arriving 9 August. Here she broke the flag of Admiral William F. Halsey, Jr., 24 August, becoming flagship of the Third Fleet. For the eight months after she sailed from Pearl Harbor 30 August NEW JERSEY was based at Ulithi. In this climactic span of the Pacific War, fast carrier task forces ranged the waters off the Philippines, Okinawa, and Formosa, striking again and again at airfields, shipping, shore bases, invasion beaches. NEW JERSEY offered the essential protection required by these forces, always ready to repel enemy air or surface attack.
In September the targets were in the Visayas and the southern Philippines, then Manila and Cavite, Panay, Negros, Leyte, and Cebu. Early in October raids to destroy enemy air power based on Okinawa and Formosa were begun in preparation for the Leyte landings 20 October.
This invasion brought on the desperate, almost suicidal, last great sortie of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Its plan for the Battle for Leyte Gulf included a feint by a northern force of placeless heavy attack carriers to draw away the battleships, cruisers and fast carriers with which Admiral Halsey was protecting the landings. This was to allow the Japanese Center Force to enter the gulf through San Bernadino Strait. At the opening of the battle planes from the carriers guarded by NEW JERSEY struck hard at both the Japanese Southern and Center Forces, sinking a battleship 23 October. The next day Halsey shaped his course north after the decoy force had been spotted. Planes from his carriers sank four of the Japanese carriers, as well as a destroyer and a cruiser, while NEW JERSEY steamed south at flank speed to meet the newly developed threat of the Center force. It had been turned back in a stunning defeat when she arrived.
NEW JERSEY rejoined her fast carriers near San Bernadino 27 October for strikes on central and southern Luzon. Two days later, the force was under suicide attack. In a melee of anti- aircraft fire from the ships and combat air patrol, NEW JERSEY shot down a plane whose pilot maneuvered it into INTREPID's (CV- 11) port gun galleries, while machine gun fire from INTREPID wounded three of NEW JERSEY's men. During a similar action 25 November three Japanese planes were splashed by the combined fire of the force, part of one flaming onto HANCOCK's (CV-19) flight deck. INTREPID was again attacked, shot down one would-be suicide, but was crashed by another despite hits scored on the attacker by NEW JERSEY gunners. NEW JERSEY shot down a plane diving on CABOT (CVL-28) and hit another which smashed into CABOT's port bow.
In December, NEW JERSEY sailed with the Lexington task group for air attacks on Luzon 14-16 December; then found herself in the furious typhoon which sank three destroyers. Skillful seamanship brought her through undamaged. She returned to Ulithi on Christmas Eve to be met by Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz.
NEW JERSEY ranged far and wide from 30 December to 25 January 1945 on her last cruise as Admiral Halsey's flagship. She guarded the carriers in their strikes on Formosa, Okinawa, and Luzon, on the coast of Indo-China, Hong Kong, Swatow and Amoy, and again on Formosa and Okinawa. At Ulithi 27 January Admiral Halsey lowered his flag in NEW JERSEY, but it was replaced two days later by that of Rear Admiral Oscar Badger commanding Battleship Division Seven.
In support of the assault on Iwo Jima, NEW JERSEY screened the Essex (CV-9) group in air attacks on the island 19-21 February, and gave the same crucial service for the first major carrier raid on Tokyo 25 February, a raid aimed specifically at aircraft production. During the next two days, Okinawa was attacked from the air by the same striking force.
NEW JERSEY was directly engaged in the conquest of Okinawa from 14 March until 16 April. As the carriers prepared for the invasion with strikes there and on Honshu, NEW JERSEY fought off air raids, used her seaplanes to rescue downed pilots, defended the carriers from suicide planes, shooting down at least three and assisting in the destruction of others. On 24 March she again carried out the vital battleship role of heavy bombardment, preparing the invasion beaches for the assault a week later.
During the final months of the war, NEW JERSEY was overhauled at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, from which she sailed 4 July for San Pedro, Pearl Harbor, and Eniwetok bound for Guam. Here on 14 August she once again became flagship of the Fifth Fleet under Admiral Spruance. Brief stays at Manila and Okinawa preceded her arrival in Tokyo Bay 17 September, where she served as flagship for the successive commanders of Naval Forces in Japanese waters until relieved 28 January 1946 by IPWA (BB-61). NEW JERSEY took aboard nearly a thousand homeward-bound troops with whom she arrived at San Francisco 10 February.
After west coast operations and a normal overhaul at Puget

Sound, NEW JERSEY's keel once more cut the Atlantic as she came home to Bayonne, New Jersey, for a rousing fourth birthday party 23 May 1947. Present were Governor Alfred E. Driscoll, former Governor Walter E. Edge and other dignitaries.
Between 7 June and 26 August, NEW JERSEY formed part of the first training squadron to cruise Northern European waters since the beginning of World War II. Over two thousand Naval Academy and NROTC midshipmen received sea-going experience under the command of Admiral Richard L. Connoly, Commander Naval Forces Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean, who broke his flag in NEW JERSEY at Rosyth, Scotland 23 June. She was the scene of official receptions at Oslo, where King Haakon VII of Norway inspected the crew 2 July, and at Portsmouth, England. The training fleet was westward bound 18 July for exercises in the Caribbean and Western Atlantic.
After serving at New York as flagship for Rear Admiral Heber H. McClean, Commander, Battleship Division One, 12 September-18 October, NEW JERSEY was inactivated at the New York Naval Shipyard. She was decommissioned at Bayonne 30 June 1948 and assigned to the New York Group, Atlantic Reserve Fleet.
NEW JERSEY was recommissioned at Bayonne 21 November 1950, Captain David M. Tyree in command. In the Caribbean she welded her crew into an efficient body which would meet with distinction the demanding requirements of the Korean War. She sailed from Norfolk 16 April 1951 and arrived from Japan off the east coast of Korea 17 May. Vice Admiral Harold M. Martin, commanding the Seventh Fleet. placed his flag in NEW JERSEY for the next six months.
NEW JERSEY's guns opened the first shore bombardment of her Korean carrier at Wonsan 20 May. During her two tours of duty in Korean waters, she was again and again to play the part of seaborne mobile artillery. In direct support to United Nations troops; or in preparation for ground actions, in interdicting Communist supply and communication routes, or in destroying supplies and troop positions, NEW JERSEY hurled a weight of steel, fire far beyond the capacity of land artillery, moved rapidly and free from major attack from one target to another, and at the same time could be immediately available to guard aircraft carriers should they require her protection. It was on this first such mission at Wonsan that she received her only combat casualties of the Korean War. One of her men was killed and two severely wounded when she took a hit from a shore battery on her number one turret and received a near miss aft to port.
Between 23 and 27 May and again 30 May, NEW JERSEY pounded targets near Yangyang and Kansong, dispersing troop concentrations, dropping a bridge span, and destroying three large ammunition dumps. Air spotters reported Yangyang abandoned at the end of this action, while railroad facilities and vehicles were smashed at Kansong. On 24 May, she lost one of her helicopters when its crew pushed to the limit of their fuel searching for a downed aviator. They themselves were able to reach friendly territory and were later returned to their ship.
With Admiral Arthur W. Radford, Commander in Chief Pacific Fleet, and Vice Admiral C. Turner Joy, Commander Naval Forces Far East aboard, NEW JERSEY bombarded targets at Wonsan 4 June. At Kansong two days later she fired her main battery at an artillery regiment and truck encampment, with Seventh Fleet aircraft spotting targets and reporting successes. On 28 July off Wonsan the battleship was again taken under fire by shore batteries. Several near misses splashed to port, but NEW JERSEY's precision fire silenced the enemy and destroyed several gun emplacements.
Between 4 and 12 July, NEW JERSEY supported a United Nations push in the Kansong area, firing at enemy buildup and reorganization positions. As the, Republic of Korea's First Division hurled itself on the enemy, shore fire control observers saw NEW JERSEY's salvos hit directly on enemy mortar emplacements, supply and ammunition dumps, and personnel concentrations. NEW JERSEY returned to Wonsan 18 July for an exhibition of perfect firing: five gun emplacements demolished with five direct hits.
NEW JERSEY sailed to the aid of troops of the Republic of Korea once more 17 August, returning to the Kansong area where for four days she provided harassing fire by night, and broke up counterattacks by day, inflicting a heavy toll on enemy troops. She returned to this general area yet again 29 August, when she fired in an amphibious demonstration staged behind enemy lines to ease pressure on the Republic of Korea's troops. The next day she in a three-day saturation of the Changjon area, with one of her own helicopters spotting the results: four buildings; destroyed, road junctions smashed, railroad marshaling yards afire, tracks cut and uprooted, coal stocks scattered, many buildings and warehouses set blazing.
Aside from a brief break in firing 23 September to take aboard wounded from the Korean frigate APNOK (PF-62), damaged by gunfire, NEW JERSEY was heavily engaged in bombarding the Kansong area, supporting the movement of the U.S. Tenth Corps. . The pattern again was harassing fire by night, destruction of known targets by day. Enemy movement was restricted by the fire of her big guns. A bridge, a dam, several gun emplacements, mortar positions, pillboxes, bunkers, and two ammunition dumps were demolished.
On 1 October, General Omar Bradley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs; of Staff, and General Matthew B. Ridgeway, Commander in Chief Far East, came on board to confer with Admiral Martin.
Between 1 and 6 October NEW JERSEY was in action daily at Kansong, Hamhung, Hungnam, Tanchon, and Songjin. Enemy bunkers and supply concentrations provided the majority of the targets at Kansong; at the others NEW JERSEY fired on railroads, tunnels, bridges, an oil refinery, trains, and shore batteries destroying with five-inch fire a gun that straddled her. The Kojo area was her target 16 October as she sailed in company with HMS BELFAST, pilots from HMAS SYDNEY spotting. The operation was well-planned and coordinated ad excellent results were obtained.
Another highly satisfactory day was 16 October, when the spotter over the Kansong area reported "beautiful shooting every shot on target-most beautiful shooting I have seen in five years." This five hour bombardment leveled ten artillery positions, and in smashing trenches and bunkers inflicted some 500 casualties.
NEW JERSEY dashed up the North Korean coast raiding transportation facilities from 1 to 6 November. She struck at bridges, road and rail installations at Wonsan, Hungnam, Tanchon, Iowon, Songjin, and Chongjin, and left smoking behind her four bridges destroyed, others badly damaged, two marshaling yards badly torn up, and many feet of track destroyed. With renewed attacks on Kansong and near the Chang-San-Got Peninsula 11 and 13 November, NEW JERSEY completed this tour of duty.
Relieved as flagship by WISCONSIN (BB-64), NEW JERSEY cleared Yokosuka for Hawaii, Long Beach and the Panama Canal, and returned to Norfolk 20 December for a six-month overhaul. Between 19 July 1952 and 5 September, she sailed as flagship for Rear Admiral H. R. Thurber, who commanded the NROTC midshipman training cruise to Cherbourg, Lisbon, and the Caribbean. Now NEW JERSEY prepared and trained for her second Korean tour, for which she sailed from Norfolk 5 March 1953.
Shaping her course via the Panama Canal, Long Beach, and Hawaii, NEW JERSEY reached Yokosuka 5 April, and next day relived MISSOURI (BB-63) as flagship of Vice Admiral Joseph H. Clark, Commander Seventh Fleet. Chongjin felt the weight of her shells 12 April, as NEW JERSEY returned to action; in seven minutes she scored seven direct hits, blowing away half the main communications building there. At Pusan two days later, NEW JERSEY manned her rails to welcome the President of the Republic of Korea and Madame Rhee, and American Ambassador Ellis O. Briggs.
NEW JERSEY fired on coastal batteries and buildings at Kojo 16 April; on railway track and tunnels near Hungnam 18 April; and on gun emplacements around Wonsan Harbor 20 April, silencing them in five areas after she had herself take several near misses. Songjin provided targets 23 April. Her NEW JERSEY scored six direct 16-inch hits on a railroad tunnel and knocked out two rail bridges.
NEW JERSEY added her muscle to a major air and surface strike on Wonsan 1 May, as Seventh Fleet planes both attacked the enemy and spotted for the battleship. She knocked out eleven Communist shore guns that day, and four days later destroyed the key observation post on the island of Hodo Pando, commanding the harbor. Two days later Kalmagak at Wonsan was her target.
Her tenth birthday, 23 May, was celebrated at Inchon with President and Madame Rhee, Lieutenant General Maxwell D. Taylor, and other dignitaries on board. Two days later NEW JERSEY was all war once more, returning to the west coast at Chinampo to knock out harbor defense positions.
The battleship was under fire at Wonsan 27-29 May, but her five- inch guns silenced the counter-fire, and her 16-inch shells destroyed five gun emplacements and four gun caves. She also hit a target that flamed spectacularly: either a fuel storage area or an ammunition dump.
NEW JERSEY returned to the key task of direct support to troops at Kosong 7 June. On her first mission, she completely destroyed two gun positions, an observation post, and their supporting trenches, then stood by on call for further aid. Then it was back to Wonsan for a day-long bombardment 24 June, aimed at guns placed in caves. The results were excellent, with eight direct hits on three caves, one cave demolished, and four others closed. Next day she returned to troop support at Kosong, her assignment until 10 July, aside from necessary withdrawal for replenishment.
At Wonsan 11-12 July, NEW JERSEY fired one of the most concentrated bombardments of her Korean duty. For nine hours the first day, and for seven the second, her guns slammed away on gun positions and bunkers on Hodo Pando and the mainland with telling effect. At least ten enemy guns were destroyed, many damaged, and a number of caves and tunnels sealed. NEW JERSEY smashed radar control positions and bridges at Kojo 13 July, and was once more on the east coast bomb-line 22-24 July to support South Korean troops near Kosong. These days found her gunners at their most accurate and the devastation wrought was impressive. A large cave, housing an important enemy observation post was closed, the end of a month-long United Nations effort. A great many bunkers, artillery areas, observation posts, trenches, tanks and other weapons were destroyed.
At sunrise 25 July NEW JERSEY was off the key port, rail and communications center of Hungnam, pounding coastal guns, bridges, a factor area, and oil storage tanks. She sailed north that afternoon, firing at rail lines and railroad tunnels as she made for Tanchon, where she launched a whaleboat in an attempt to spot a train known to run nightly along the coast. Her big guns were trained on two tunnels between which she hoped to catch the train, but in the darkness she could not see the results of her six-gun salvo.
NEW JERSEY's mission at Wonsan, next day, was her last. Here she destroyed large-caliber guns, bunkers, caves and trenches. Two days later, she learned of the truce. Her crew celebrated during a seven day visit at Hong Kong, where she anchored 20 August. Operations around Japan and off Formosa were carried out for the remainder of her tour, which was highlighted by a visit to Pusan. Here President Rhee came aboard 16 September to present the Korean Presidential Unit Citation to the Seventh fleet.
Relieved as flagship at Yokosuka by WISCONSIN 14 October, NEW JERSEY was homeward bound the next day, reaching Norfolk 14 November. During, the next two summers she crossed the Atlantic with midshipmen on board for training, and during the rest of the year sharpened her skills with exercises and training maneuvers along the Atlantic coast and in the Caribbean.
NEW JERSEY stood out of Norfolk 7 September 1955 for her first tour of duty with the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean. Her ports of call included Gibraltar, Valencia, Cannes, Istanbul, Suda Bay; and Barcelona. She returned to Norfolk 7 January 1956 for the spring program of training operations. That summer she again carried midshipmen to Northern Europe for training, bringing them home to Annapolis 31 July. NEW JERSEY sailed for Europe once more 27 August as flagship of Vice Admiral Charles Wellborn, Jr., Commander Second Fleet. She called at Lisbon, participated in NATO exercises off Scotland, and paid an official visit to Norway where Crown Prince Olaf was a guest. She returned to Norfolk 15 October, and 14 December arrived at New York Naval Shipyard for inactivation. She was decommissioned and placed in reserve at Bayonne 21 August 1957.
NEW JERSEY's third career began 6 April 1968 when she recommissioned at Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, Captain J. Edward Snyder in command. Fitted with improved electronics and a helicopter landing pad and with her 40-millimeter battery removed, she was tailored for use as a heavy bombardment ship. Her 16-inch guns, it was expected, would reach targets in Vietnam inaccessible to smaller naval guns and, in foul weather, safe from aerial attack.
NEW JERSEY, now the world's only active battleship, departed Philadelphia 16 May, calling at Norfolk and transiting the Panama Canal before arriving at her new home port of Long Beach, California, 11 June. Further training off Southern California f followed. On 24 July NEW JERSEY received 16-inch shells and powder tanks from MOUNT KATMAI (AE-16) by conventional highline transfer and by helicopter lift, the first time heavy battleship ammunition had been transferred by helicopter at sea.
Departing Long Beach 3 September, NEW JERSEY touched at Pearl Harbor and Subic Bay before sailing 25 September for her first tour of gunfire support duty along the Vietnamese coast. Near the 17th Parallel on 30 September, the dreadnought fired her first shots in battle in over sixteen years. Firing against Communist targets in and near the so-called Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), her big guns destroyed two gun positions and two supply areas. She fired against targets north of the DMZ the following day, rescuing the crew of a spotting plane forced down at sea by antiaircraft fire.
The next six months self into a steady pace of bombardment and fire support missions along the Vietnamese coast, broken only by brief visits to Subic Bay and replenishment operations at sea. In her first two months on the gun line, NEW JERSEY directed nearly ten thousand rounds of ammunition at Communist targets; over: 3,000 of these shells were 16-inch projectiles.
Her first Vietnam combat tour completed, NEW JERSEY departed Subic Bay 3 April 1969 for Japan. She arrived at Yokosuka for a two-day visit, sailing for the United States 9 April. Her homecoming, however, was to be delayed. On the 15th, while NEW JERSEY was still at sea, North Korean jet fighters shot down an unarmed EC-121 "Constellation" electronic surveillance plane over the Sea of Japan, killing its entire crew. A carrier task force was formed and sent to the Sea of Japan, while NEW JERSEY was ordered to come about and steam toward Japan. On the 22nd she arrived once more at Yokosuka, and immediately put to sea in readiness for what might befall. As the crisis lessened, NEW JERSEY was released to continue her interrupted voyage. She anchored at Long Beach 5 May 1969, her first visit to her home port in eight months. Through the summer months, NEW JERSEY's crew toiled to make her ready for another deployment. Deficiencies discovered on the gun line were remedied, as all hands looked forward to another opportunity to prove the mighty warship's worth in combat. Reasons of economy were to dictate otherwise. On 22 August 1969 the Secretary of Defense released a list of names of ships to be inactivated; at the top of the list was NEW JERSEY. Five days later, Captain Snyder was relieved of command by Captain Robert C. Peniston.
Assuming command of a ship already earmarked for the "mothball fleet," Captain Peniston and his crew prepared for their melancholy task. NEW JERSEY got underway on her last voyage 6 September, departing Long Beach for Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. She arrived on the 8th, and began pre-inactivation overhaul to ready herself for decommissioning. On 17 December 1969 NEW JERSEY's colors were hauled down and she entered the inactive fleet, still echoing the words of her last commanding officer: "Rest well, yet sleep lightly; and hear the call, if again sounded, to provide fire power for freedom."
As part of President Ronald Reagan's and Navy Secretary John Lehman's effort to create a 600-ship Navy, NEW JERSEY was reactivated in 1982 and moved under tow to the Long Beach Naval Shipyard for modernization. At the time of the reactivation the Navy envisioned using NEW JERSEY and her sister ship IOWA to meet sustained global requirements and relieve the strain on the Navy created by an increase in U.S. commitments to the Indian Ocean and Caribbean Sea regions. During this time the Navy developed several proposals to update their battleships to carry cruise missiles and anti-ship missile, as well as point defense system mounts. Preliminary modernizations schemes included the removal of four of the ten 5 inch gun mounts on NEW JERSEY to make room for the armored box launchers that would be required to carry and launch the BGM-109 Tomahawk missiles. At one point the NATO Sea Sparrow was to be installed on the reactivated battleships; however, it was determined that the system could not withstand the overpressure effects when firing the main battery.
NEW JERSEY's modernization was unique in that she was to be the only reactivated Iowa-class battleship to lose a gun turret. At the time the Navy made the announcement plans were underway to remove NEW JERSEY's 3 -16 in gun turret (located in the aft). In its place the Navy planned to install one of two systems: a vertical launching missile magazine which would have enabled NEW JERSEY to carry an additional 48 Tomahawk or Harpoon missiles, or using the space generated by a removed gun turret for aircraft related updates centering on VTOL or V/STOL type aircraft; however these ideas were ultimately dropped, and NEW JERSEY retained her 3 Gun Turret during her 1980s career.
Over the next several months the ship was upgraded with the most advanced weaponry available; among the new weapons systems installed were four MK 141 quad cell launchers for 16 AGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship missiles, eight Armored Box Launcher (ABL) mounts for 32 BGM-109 Tomahawk missiles, and a quartet of the United States Navy's Phalanx Close In Weapon System (CIWS) Gatling guns for defense against enemy anti-ship missiles and enemy aircraft. NEW JERSEY also received eight RQ-2 Pioneer Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, which are remotely controlled drones that replaced the helicopters previously used to spot for her nine 16"/50 Mark 7 guns. Also included in her modernization were upgrades to radar and fire control systems for her guns and missiles, and improved electronic warfare capabilities.
Because NEW JERSEY had been recalled for service in the Vietnam War her modernization differed from her sisters for a number of reasons. When reactivated in 1967 NEW JERSEY had her 20 mm Oerlikon and 40 mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns removed, and received improved electronic warfare capabilities. This alteration help speed up the time it took get NEW JERSEY recommissioned: since she was not in her World War II format the only major physical alteration to NEW JERSEY involved the removal of four of her ten 5 inch gun mounts to make room for the Armored Box Launchers. In addition to saving time, this also made NEW JERSEY cheaper to reactivate since the cost needed to modernize the battleship only included the addition of missile and gun system mounts, electronic warfare suits, and improved radar and gun spotter technology.
Since the Tomahawk missile system had not yet been adopted for use during NEW JERSEY's original update the Navy announced plans to divert assets from two of their Spruance-class destroyers to install the necessary Tomahawk launchers. Similarly, assets were diverted from two Farragut-class guided missile destroyers to allow for the installation of Harpoon launchers on NEW JERSEY.
On 28 December 1982 NEW JERSEY was formally recommissioned at Long Beach, California, her new homeport. The recommissioning of NEW JERSEY marked a return of the world's last battleships after a 13-year absence from the world's oceans.
In 1983, a bloody civil war was raging in Lebanon. In an effort to stop the violence in the region a Multinational Force of peacekeepers comprised largely of U.S. and French armed service members was created and sent to the region to attempt a restoration of order. As part of the multinational force the United States mobilized an expeditionary force composed of members of the United States Marine Corps and elements of the United States Sixth Fleet which operated out of the Mediterranean Sea.

On 18 April 1983 a van carrying a 2,000 pound load of explosives, slammed into the US embassy in West Beirut, killing 63. In August 1983, Israel withdrew its Defense Forces from the Chouf District (southeast of Beirut), thus removing the buffer between the Druze and the Christian militias and triggering another round of brutal fighting. In August 1983 militiamen began to bombard United States Marines positions near Beirut International Airport with mortar and rocket fire as the Lebanese Army fought Druze and Shia forces in the southern suburbs of Beirut. On 29 August 1983, two Marines were killed and fourteen wounded, and in the ensuing months the Marines came under almost daily attack from artillery, mortar, rocket, and small-arms fire. After this attack the Marines began returning fire. The Reagan Administration decided to dispatch NEW JERSEY, a decision the Marines cheered.
On 16 September 1983 Druze forces massed on the threshold of Suk El Gharb, a village defended by the Lebanese Army. Suk El Gharb was a village with strategic importance: the militias coming up from the south had to traverse Suk El Gharb to get to the Beirut–Aley road. Moreover, Suk El Gharb controlled a ridge that overlooked Baabda, Yarze, which was the location of the Ministry of Defence, and East Beirut. From that ridge, the Militia gunners could shoot directly downhill at those locations with artillery. United States Navy warships shelled Druze positions and helped the Lebanese Army hold the town of Suk El Gharb until a cease-fire was declared on 25 September, on which day the battleship NEW JERSEY arrived on the scene. The arrival of the battleship NEW JERSEY was one of several factor contributing to a reduction in the number of attacks on the Marines.
On 28 November — after 23 October, 1983 Beirut barracks bombing — the U.S. government announced that NEW JERSEY would be retained off Beirut although her crew would be rotated. On 14 December, NEW JERSEY fired 11 projectiles from her 16 inch (406 mm) guns at hostile positions inland of Beirut. These were the first 16 inch (406 mm) shells fired for effect anywhere in the world since NEW JERSEY ended her time on the gunline in Vietnam in 1969. This shelling was in response to attacks on U.S. reconnaissance planes by Syrian/Druze antiaircraft batteries.
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Carrying on a tradition he had begun in World War II of spending Christmas with U.S. forces overseas, Bob Hope and his troupe of entertainers give a show on board the NEW JERSEY on 24 December 1983. Four hundred Marines stationed in Beirut attended the show.
On 8 February 1984, NEW JERSEY fired almost 300 shells at Druze and Syrian positions in the Bekaa Valley east of Beirut. Some 30 of these massive projectiles rained down on a Syrian command post, killing the general commanding Syrian forces in Lebanon and several other senior officers. This was the heaviest shore bombardment since the Korean War.
Although NEW JERSEY performed her job expertly during the intervention in Lebanon some have criticized the decision to have NEW JERSEY shell Druze and Syrian forces. Members of this camp allege that this action forced a shift in the previously neutral U.S. forces by convincing local Lebanese Muslims that the United States had taken the Christian side; NEW JERSEY shells had killed hundreds of people, mostly Shiites and Druze. In his memoir, General Colin Powell (at the time an assistant to Caspar Weinberger) noted that "When the shells started falling on the Shiites, they assumed the American ‘referee’ had taken sides.
The accuracy of NEW JERSEY’s guns was also called into question. An investigation into NEW JERSEY's gunfire effectiveness in Lebanon, led by Marine Colonel Don Price, found that many of the ship's shells had missed their targets by as much as 10,000 yards (9,140 m) and therefore may have inadvertently killed civilians. Tim McNulty, a correspondent for the Chicago Tribune based in Lebanon said, "Everybody loved the NEW JERSEY until she fired her guns. Once she fired, it was obvious she couldn't hit anything. The inaccuracy is believed to have resulted because the ship's main gun powder had been remixed by the Navy, under the direction of Captain Joseph Dominick Miceli at the Naval Weapons Support Center, and rebagged. Powder lots (an individual production of powder) burn at different rates. Therefore, remixing the powder lots could cause the guns to fire with inconsistent accuracy. The problem was apparently resolved after the Navy was able to locate additional powder supplies which had not been remixed.
In 1986 NEW JERSEY began her next deployment, this time operating as part of the Pacific Fleet and as the centerpiece of her own battleship battle group (BBBG). This was first time that NEW JERSEY had operational control of her own battleship battle group since the Korean War, and she cruised with her escorts from Hawaii to Thailand in 1986, freeing up U.S. aircraft carriers for other missions and in the process becoming the only major U.S. naval presence in the region from May to October.
Following an overhaul at Long Beach which lasted in to 1988 NEW JERSEY returned to the Pacific Ocean, this time operating as part of a surface action group. The battleship operated near the coast of Korea prior to the opening of the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, then departed for Australia to participate in the Australian bicentennial celebrations.
In April 1989, as NEW JERSEY was preparing for her last operational cruise, sister ship IOWA suffered a catastrophic explosion in her 2 gun turret; fallout from the incident led U.S. Naval officials to freeze live fire exercises with the guns until the investigation in to the explosion was concluded. Eventually, the ban was lifted and NEW JERSEY was allowed to use her big guns again.
The last cruise of the battleship NEW JERSEY began in 1989 as part of Pacific Exercise '89. Upon completion of the exercise NEW JERSEY sailed through the Indian Ocean and into the Persian Gulf, in the process becoming the centerpiece for various battle groups and surface action groups. NEW JERSEY remained in the Persian Gulf for the rest of the year, returning to the United States in February 1990.[
With the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s and the lack of a perceived threat against the United States came drastic cuts to the defense budget, and the high cost of maintaining battleships as part of the active fleet became uneconomical; as a result, NEW JERSEY was decommissioned for the final time at Naval Station Long Beach, California, on 8 February 1991. The decision to decommission NEW JERSEY robbed the battleship of the chance to participate in the 1991 Gulf War; the air and land war (codenamed Operation Desert Storm) had already begun and sister ships MISSOURI and WISCONSIN n were engaging Iraqi targets with Tomahawk missiles at the time of NEW JERSEY's decommissioning. Following her decommissioning NEW JERSEY was towed to Bremerton, Washington, where she remained in reserve until struck from the Naval Vessel Register in January 1995.
Section 1011 of the National Defense Authorization Act of 1996 required the United States Navy to reinstate to the Naval Vessel Register two of the Iowa-class battleships that had been struck by the Navy in 1995; these ships were to be maintained in the United States Navy reserve fleets (or "mothball fleet"). The Navy was to ensure that both of the reinstated battleships were in good condition and could be reactivated for use in the Marine Corps' amphibious operations. Due to IOWA's damaged Turret 2 the Navy selected NEW JERSEY for placement into the mothball fleet, even though the training mechanisms on NEW JERSEY’s 16 in guns had been welded down. The cost to fix NEW JERSEY was considered less than the cost to fix IOWA; as a result, NEW JERSEY and WINCONSIN were reinstated to the Naval Vessel Register and placed back in the reserve fleet.
NEW JERSEY remained in mothball fleet until the Strom Thurmond National Defense Authorization Act of 1999 passed through the United States Congress 18 October 1998. Section 1011 required the United States Secretary of the Navy to list and maintain IOWA and WISCONSIN on the Naval Vessel Register, while Section 1012 required the Secretary of the Navy to strike NEW JERSEY from the Naval Vessel Register and transfer the battleship to a not-for-profit entity in accordance with section 7306 of Title 10, United States Code. Section 1012 also required the transferee to locate the battleship in the State of New Jersey.[37] The Navy made the switch in January 1999, and on 12 September, NEW JERSEY was towed by the tug SEA VICTORY from Bremerton, Washington to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for restoration work in the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in advance of her planned donation for use as a museum.
Two competing requests for the battleships were filed, one by the USS New Jersey Battleship Commission of Bayonne, New Jersey, and one by the Home Port Alliance of Camden, New Jersey. Both teams worked hard to develop a comprehensive plan to operate and maintain the battleship as a museum. After a review of both of the submitted plans, the Navy selected the Home Port Alliance of Camden, New Jersey, as the battleship's final resting place. Secretary of the Navy Richard Danzig made the announcement on 20 January 2000, and on 15 October of that year NEW JERSEY arrived at her final resting place on the Camden Waterfront. Shortly after her arrival NEW JERSEY was opened to the public, officially beginning her new career as a museum ship with the name Battleship New Jersey Museum and Memorial. Self-guided, tour-guided and overnight encampments are offered on the floating museum. Overnight encampments, typically for the benefit of scouting organizations, offer the opportunity to sleep and eat in the original berths and mess decks.
In 1996 an attempt was made to add NEW JERSEY to the New Jersey State Register of Historic Places; however the battleship was still owned by the Navy and was not in the State of New Jersey, and as a result the attempt failed. In 2004, a second attempt succeeded, and the State of New Jersey officially designated the battleship USS NEW JERSEY a historical place. This cleared NEW JERSEY for placement on the National Register of Historic Places, a list to which NEW JERSEY was officially added 17 September 2004.
Awards and ribbons of the battleship USS NEW JERSEY.
Among other awards, NEW JERSEY earned the Navy Unit Commendation for Vietnam service and Presidential Unit Citations from the Republic of the Philippines and the Republic of Korea. She received nine battle stars for her World War II service, four for her service in the Korean conflict, two for her service in the Vietnam War, and four for service in Lebanon and the Persian Gulf region. Due to her outstanding service record NEW JERSEY holds the distinction of being the most decorated battleship in naval history.

Antigua 1987 60c sg1104
Barbuda 1987 60c sg954
Marshall Islands 1997 20c sg918, scott 649ad.

Source: Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_New_Jersey_(BB-62)

[D. v. Nieuwenhuijzen]

Lesotho 1999, 4 M. StG.?

[Arturo]

USS New Jersey

Marshall Islands 1997, S.G.?, Scott: 649ad.

[aukepalmhof]

Central African Republic 2020 850 FCFA sg?, Scott?