Battleship Missouri Memorial

Battleship Missouri Memorial Review

Together with the Arizona Memorial, the Missouri's presence in Pearl Harbor perfectly bookends America's World War II experience, which began December 7, 1941, and ended on the "Mighty Mo's" starboard deck with the signing of the Terms of Surrender. To begin your visit, pick up tickets at the new World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument Visitors' Center. Then board a shuttle bus for the eight-minute ride to Ford Island and the teak decks and towering superstructure of the Missouri. You'll find her docked for good in the very harbor from which she first went to war on January 2, 1945, as the last battleship ever built. After a year in dry dock, the Missouri has reopened, looking shipshape and offering a new "Guide2GO" system using iPod Touch units as audio-tour devices. The nonprofit organization governing this floating museum has surrounded her with buildings decked out in World War II style, including a Navy aviation-themed Ready Room and a Victory Store housing a souvenir shop and covered with period mottoes ("Don't be a blabateur").

The Missouri is 887 feet long, 209 feet tall, with nine 239,000-pound guns, capable of firing up to 23 miles. Absorb these numbers during the tour, then stop to take advantage of the view from the decks.