Veterans Day

This annual ceremony serves as a tribute to all veterans, past and present. Just as in 2011, the Battleship Missouri was designated again in 2012 by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs as the official Regional Site for observance of Veterans Day, having the honor of bringing Veterans Day and Armistice Day observances around the world to a close with a sunset ceremony on the Mighty Mo in Pearl Harbor.

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The USS Missouri is 108 feet 2 inches wide and built to traverse the Panama Canal which is 110 feet wide.
Mary Margaret Truman, daughter of the then junior Senator Harry S. Truman, christened the USS Missouri on January 29, 1944.
From its keel to the top of her mast, the USS Missouri is as tall as a 20-story building (209 feet 3 inches tall).
Theoretical top speed for the USS Missouri is 33 knots or almost 40 miles per hour.
The USS Missouri has never had a combat death aboard her decks.
When the family of President Harry S. Truman was on board, they made it a practice to eat at least one meal a day with the crew in the Crew’s Mess.
The USS Missouri has three gun turrets with three guns each. The 16-inch guns were the largest ever installed on a Navy ship.
The USS Missouri’s big guns are aimed based upon the commands of an analog computer first designed in the 1920s.
Each gun weighs 230,000 pounds, or about as much as a space shuttle.
Two guns together weigh about as much as a fully loaded Boeing 747.
Each Navy battleship carried a detachment of Marines on board who were the ran the brig or jail.
During World War II, the USS Missouri launched spotter seaplanes from two catapults on the stern of the ship.
The USS Arizona and the USS Missouri are known as the “bookends” of America’s involvement in World War II.
The USS Missouri now hosts several military ceremonies, including re-enlistments, retirements and change of command.
The USS Missouri was truly the end of an era. She was the very last battleship of any nation to be decommissioned.
Each turret of the USS Missouri was manned by 77 to 110 men working in the turret and on five decks below the turret.
The USS Missouri crew earned three battle stars in World War II and five battle stars in the Korean War.
Although it looks like one, the USS Missouri is no longer a Navy ship. It is owned by the USS Missouri Memorial Association.
The USS Missouri's four engine rooms can generate 212,000 horsepower moving forward and 44,000 going astern.
Three former American Presidents have boarded the Battleship Missouri: Harry S. Truman, George H. W. Bush Sr. and George W. Bush, Jr.
The total number of meals served during both active commissioning periods is approximately 40,615,000 meals.