Fire Power, USS NEW JERSEY(BB-62), c. 1969
gouache, 12 1/2" x 19"
SOLD
This painting depicts the Iowa class battleship USS NEW JERSEY(BB-62) firing rounds from her No. 2 turret at Viet Cong positions during a bombardment off the South Vietnamese coast in 1969. Astern of NEW JERSEY is the destroyer USS GEORGE K. McKENZIE (DD-836) acting as guard ship while NEW JERSEY fires on enemy positions. Bristling with new radars, antennae, and ECM(Electronic Counter Measures) and electronic warfare equipment, the battleship’s appearance is very different from her original configuration when she was commissioned during World War II.
What has remained constant throughout all of NEW JERSEY’s changes is her main battery of nine 16 inch guns that can accurately hurl a one ton shell almost 20 miles and have it come within yards of its intended target. When fired, the blast from these 16 inch guns is very powerful and the blast’s concussion wave can turn the surface of the water to froth. The NEW JERSEY is one of four Iowa class battleships. She was commissioned in May, 1943, and went immediately to the Pacific theater where she fought in many engagements including the Marianas, Leyte, Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
She was decommissioned in 1948, only to be recommissioned in 1950 for the Korean War where she served two tours. Decommissioned again in 1957, she was recalled to duty in 1968 for service in Viet Nam. Her service there was brief; she was decommissioned yet again in 1969 and she joined the “Moth Ball” fleet in storage in Bremerton, WA.
In 1981 NEW JERSEY was again decommissioned. The ship was so popular that many former crew members volunteered for active duty recall just to get the chance to once again be on board. She served in the Lebanon Conflict in 1983-84, and then preformed a 34,000 mile deployment that took her all over the world. Her fourth and final decommissioning came in 1991. Then in 2001 she entered a new phase in her life as a museum ship moored in Camden, New Jersey where visitors can come aboard to see her and learn about her amazing 50 years of service to her country.