A visit aboard the legendary USS Missouri berthed at Pearl Harbor

By Tom Wilmer

Published December 3, 2025 at 4:36 PM PST

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The USS Missouri permanently berthed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii

Join correspondent Tom Wilmer on Oahu at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii aboard the “Mighty Mo”.

Wilmer visits with the President and Chief Executive Officer of the USS Missouri Memorial Association, Michael Carr.

The legendary Battleship USS Missouri, fondly nicknamed “The Mighty Mo”, saw action toward the end of WWII. It was on the deck of the Missouri that the Japanese government formally surrendered in Tokyo Bay on September 2^nd 1945.

The USS Missouri berthed at Pearl Harbor on Ford Island

Michael Car, President and Chief Executive Officer of the USS Missouri Memorial Association shares insights about the Missouri’s role in WWII and duty in the Korean Conflict and the Gulf War before retiring from service in 1992, and its role today as a living museum permanently berthed in Pearl Harbor.

A Japanese Zero, like the one on display at the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum on Ford Island, crashed into the USS Missouri, fortunately with little damage and no onboard deaths.

Carr noted that the Missouri was built in the midst of World War II in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and christened the USS Missouri (BB 63) the youngest of her other Iowa-class sisters, following USS Iowa (bBB 61), USS New Jersey (BB 62), and USS Wisconsin (BB 64). Like her sisters, she was designed to be a fast battleship: a warship that balanced firepower and armor without sacrificing speed.

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