The Atlanta/Oakland-class light cruiser USS Reno (CL-96), the second and final U.S. Navy ship named for the Biggest Little City in Nevada, was a war baby, constructed entirely during WWII, which is fitting as the state’s motto is “Battle Born.”
USS Reno (CL-96) Outbound in the Golden Gate, while leaving San Francisco Bay, California, 25 January 1944. Photographed by Naval Air Station Moffett Field, Sunnyvale, California. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the U.S. National Archives. Catalog #: 80-G-215949
Commissioned three days after Christmas 1943, she earned a trio of battle stars in the Pacific and was laid up in 1946 after less than three years with the fleet. Scrapped in 1962, one of her 5″/38 DP twin turrets is preserved at the U.S. Navy Museum in D.C. while her battle ensign and bell were presented in 1955 to the City of Reno, her namesake, where they were enshrined at City Hall.
Her flag was stolen by rioters/vandals this week but was returned anonymously to the news outlet that reported it had gone south.
Others ships not so lucky
Some museums are not as fortunate, however.
The National Civil War Naval Museum reports that rioters there burned down their boatshed, which contained several artifacts and two vessels from the blockade runner CSS Virginia and the fantail of the ironclad CSS Jackson.
Firefighters responding to a 1:05 a.m. call found the open-air shelter in flames from an “incendiary fire” with “multiple points of origin,” Columbus Fire Marshal Ricky Shores told local media.