35 Years Ago Today, Gulf of Oman: Below we see a classic “Sea Power” image showing a bow view of the nuclear-powered supercarrier USS Nimitz (CVN-68) underway astern of the Iowa-class battleship USS Missouri (BB-63), with the latter’s Turret No. 3 starboard 16″/50 caliber gun framing the shot. A Spruance class destroyer photobombs in the distance.
Note the Cold War classic dungarees on Iowa’s stern, along with the A-6 and S-3 rich airwing carried by Nimitz. You can almost hear “Danger Zone” in the distance. U.S. Navy photo DNST9300653 by PHAN Brad Dillon. National Archives Identifier: 6485327.
Of course, not far from Missouri’s Turret No. 3 stands a marker denoting the location where representatives of the Empire of Japan signed the instrument of surrender ending WWII before the assembled Allied representatives. Admiral Chester W. Nimitz (USNA 1905), who led the Pacific Fleet to that victory, was aboard that day and revisited the spot at least once again, in 1954.
While Nimtz would pass in 1966, at which point Missouri was in mothballs and likely never to return to service, the huge carrier that bears his name was ordered in 1967 and is still kicking while “Mighty Mo” would in fact be reactivated in the 1980s for one last hurrah.