DATE: Saturday, November 8, 1997            TAG: 9711080345

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A10  EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE:    - Jon Glass and Jack Dorsey

                                            LENGTH:   61 lines

WARSHIP HAS TIES TO HAMPTON ROADS

The Wisconsin has been closely tied to Hampton Roads for most of its active life - from its 1944 sea trials and through service in three wars, to its final retirement from the fleet.

The enormous ship arrived in Norfolk for its shakedown testing shortly after its construction, steamed into World War II from the Elizabeth River, and underwent radical surgery at Norfolk Naval Shipyard in the 1950s.

In mothballs for nearly 30 years, it returned to Norfolk revamped and re-armed as part of the Reagan administration's military buildup, and went to war in 1991.

The last of America's four Iowa-class battleships to be authorized by Congress, BB-64 was built at the Philadelphia Navy Yard and commissioned on April 16, 1944. Its arrival in Norfolk came on its first voyage, the battleship tying up here between trials and training in Chesapeake Bay.

The ship left Norfolk for the war in the Pacific, where its powerful 16-inch guns pounded the Japanese during American amphibious landings, and its anti-aircraft batteries provided an umbrella of protection for the Navy's aircraft carriers.

In 1948, the Wisconsin was taken out of commission and assigned to the Atlantic Reserve Fleet's mothball fleet in Norfolk.

War beckoned again in 1951, and the Wisconsin was recommissioned for combat against North Korea. The ship provided gun cover for the 1st Marine Division and South Korean forces, and on March 15, 1952, took its first hit: a 155mm shell fired from an enemy gun battery struck the ship's starboard 40-millimeter gun mount.

Damage was minor, but three sailors were injured. The Wisconsin later ``blasted that battery into oblivion'' with its 16-inch guns, according to the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.

Norfolk remained the Wisconsin's homeport after the conflict.

In May 1956, the battleship collided with the destroyer Eaton in heavy fog off the Virginia capes, and returned to port with a heavily damaged bow. The Navy cut away the damaged section and grafted on a 120-ton, 68-foot-long bow section of the battleship Kentucky, a never finished sister to the Iowa-class ships.

The Wisconsin's crew and shipyard workers finished the job in 16 days. And, says Robert Daniels, president of the Iowa Class Preservation Association of San Diego, the repair added about a foot to the Wisconsin's length, making it the largest battleship in the fleet.

In March 1958, the Wisconsin was again decommissioned and later towed to Philadelphia.

In October 1988, during the Reagan administration's efforts to build a 600-ship Navy, an overhauled Wisconsin rejoined the fleet, its guns augmented with Tomahawk cruise missiles, its thick armor packed with modern electronics.

On Jan. 19, 1991, the ship began the allied air attack against Iraq, firing dozens of Tomahawk cruise missiles in intermittent barrages. That was the first time the United States used cruise missiles in battle.

The battleship returned to Norfolk early that spring to face decommissioning on Sept. 30, 1991. It was towed to Philadelphia and spent five years in the mothball fleet there. It returned to Hampton Roads once again on Oct. 17, 1996, and remains moored at Norfolk Naval Shipyard. MEMO: [For a related story, see page A1 of THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT for this

date.]

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