USS Nevada, BB-36

Laid down on 4 November 1912 at Quincy, Massachusetts, USS Nevada launched on 11 July 1914 and commissioned on 11 March 1916 under Capt William S. Sims. She joined the Atlantic Fleet, operated along the east coast of the United States and in the Caribbean, then after the United States entered World War I trained gunners out of Norfolk and served in and around the North Sea until the war ended. Between the wars she served in both the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets, was modernized at Norfolk, and joined the Pacific Fleet in early 1930. At Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, moored singly while the other eight battleships present could not maneuver, she got underway under Japanese attack despite being hit by one torpedo and at least two bombs, then avoided sinking in the channel by deliberately beaching at Hospital Point, which allowed her to be refloated about two months later and repaired. After a second modernization, she sailed for British waters in April 1944 and became one of three U.S. battleships in the D-Day armada. From 6 to 17 June, and again on 25 June, her big guns pounded defensive positions on the Cherbourg Peninsula and fired deep inland against German concentrations and counterattacks despite frequent fire from German shore batteries. Returning to the Pacific Theater, she showed the same resolve and service at Iwo Jima and Okinawa that she had displayed at Normandy. After brief occupation duty at Tokyo Bay, she was assigned as a target ship for the atomic-bomb test at Bikini Atoll, survived the test, and decommissioned at Pearl Harbor on 29 August 1946.

Bedford, Virginia · United States