Battleship Wisconsin and the Iowa-class sister ships hold a symbolic place in naval surface warship design, combining the visible armored big-gun firepower and elegant lines of the Nelsonian line-of-battle tradition with the distinctive importance of battleship service in the U.S. Navy. Formally commissioned on 16 April 1944, Wisconsin carried bluejackets and officers who shared a unique bond aboard a vessel shaped by centuries of naval tradition and surface warship development. It was armed with a main battery of three 16"/50 gun turrets and a secondary battery of five dual-purpose 5"/38 gun mounts, and its decks also accommodated various types of aircraft while once bristling with numerous antiaircraft gun mounts in World War II, the Korean War, and throughout the Cold War. During the Persian Gulf War, Wisconsin's crew coordinated the first Tomahawk missile strikes against Iraq using contemporary communications and intelligence gathering equipment.
