Battleships named Wisconsin have been associated with the waters off Norfolk and Hampton Roads since the beginning of the twentieth century. The first Wisconsin, BB-9, was commissioned in 1901 and was ornately designed to show off the “Stars and Stripes” of the United States. John Philip Sousa and the United States Marine Corps Band performed patriotic marches from its wooden decks, and in 1906 President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt came to Norfolk with many other Americans to bid farewell as it sailed on a two year voyage around the world with the “Great White Fleet.” It served primarily as a Midshipman training ship during World War I before being scrapped in 1922. During World War II, the second Wisconsin, BB-64, was commissioned under U.S. Navy Captain Earl E. Stone, who had been born in Wisconsin and had earlier served as a Naval Academy Midshipman aboard BB-9. After surviving the Imperial Japanese strikes at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, Stone played a key role in organizing the U.S. Navy’s communications intelligence efforts and was appointed in spring 1944 to command BB-64. In the Pacific, its crew earned five battle stars during World War II. Based at Pier 7 on Norfolk Naval Base, it later earned another battle star in the Korean War and, like BB-9, served primarily as a Midshipman training ship during the Cold War. During the Persian Gulf War, Wisconsin coordinated the first Tomahawk missile strikes against Iraq.
