Editing USS Missouri (BB-63) (section)

=== Museum ship (1998 to present) ===
<!---despite the film, the Missouri CANNOT (and did not) move under her own power. Please do not insert material suggesting this. It is not factual--->
{{see also|Iowa-class battleship#Cultural significance}}

[[File:US Navy 100107-N-6412L-253 The battleship EX-USS Missouri (BB 63) begins its 2-mile journey back to Ford Island.jpg|alt=|thumb|''Missouri'' begins her two-mile journey back to [[Ford Island]] after being undocked by hundreds of [[Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard]] workers in 2010<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.navsource.org/archives/01/63a.htm|title=Battleship Photo Index BB-63 USS MISSOURI|website=www.navsource.org|access-date=15 March 2020}}</ref>]]

The [[dissolution of the Soviet Union|collapse of the Soviet Union]] in the early 1990s and the absence of a perceived threat to the United States led to [[Peace dividend|drastic cuts in the defense budget]], and the high cost of maintaining and operating battleships as part of the United States Navy's active fleet became uneconomical. As a result ''Missouri'' was decommissioned on 31 March 1992 at Long Beach.<ref name=NVR>{{cite web |title=Missouri (BB 63) |url={{Naval Vessel Register URL|id=BB63}} |work=[[Naval Vessel Register]] |publisher=[[United States Navy]] |date=19 July 2002 |access-date=3 December 2007}}</ref> Her last commanding officer, Captain Albert L. Kaiss, wrote in the ship's final Plan of the Day:

{{Blockquote|Our final day has arrived. Today the final chapter in battleship ''Missouri''{{'}}s history will be written. It's often said that the crew makes the command. There is no truer statement ... for it's the crew of this great ship that made this a great command. You are a special breed of sailors and Marines and I am proud to have served with each and every one of you. To you who have made the painful journey of putting this great lady to sleep, I thank you. For you have had the toughest job. To put away a ship that has become as much a part of you as you are to her is a sad ending to a great tour. But take solace in this—you have lived up to the history of the ship and those who sailed her before us. We took her to war, performed magnificently and added another chapter in her history, standing side by side our forerunners in true naval tradition. God bless you all.|Captain Albert L. Kaiss<ref name="chinfo"/>}}
[[File:USS Missouri Bell.jpg|thumb|The [[Ship's bell|bell]] of the ''Missouri'' in the [[Missouri State Museum]], May 2024]]
''Missouri'' returned to be part of the [[United States Navy reserve fleet]] at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, [[Bremerton, Washington]], until 12 January 1995, when she was struck from the [[Naval Vessel Register]]. She remained in Bremerton, but was not open to tourists as she had been from 1957 to 1984. In spite of attempts by citizens' groups to keep her in Bremerton and be re-opened as a tourist site, the US Navy wanted to pair a symbol of the end of World War II with one representing (for the United States) its beginning.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/local/letting-go-of-the-mighty-mo-ep-422079747-358614641.html |title=Letting Go of the Mighty Mo |newspaper=[[Kitsap Sun]] |date=4 May 2008 |last=Friedrich |first=Ed |access-date=6 May 2016 |archive-date=9 May 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160509134232/http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/local/letting-go-of-the-mighty-mo-ep-422079747-358614641.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> On 4 May 1998, Secretary of the Navy [[John H. Dalton]] signed the donation contract that transferred her to the USS ''Missouri'' Memorial Association (MMA) of [[Honolulu]], Hawaii,<ref name="P&G"/> a [[501(c)(3) non-profit organization]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Carr |first=Michael A. |date=2013-05-09 |title=Uss Missouri Memorial Association Inc - Nonprofit Explorer |url=https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/990310903 |access-date=12 November 2022 |website=ProPublica}}</ref> She was towed by ''[[Sea Victory]]'' from Bremerton on 23 May to [[Astoria, Oregon]], where she sat in [[fresh water]] at the mouth of the [[Columbia River]] to kill and drop the saltwater [[barnacle]]s and [[sea grass]]es that had grown on her [[Hull (watercraft)|hull]] in Bremerton,<ref name="P&G"/> then towed across the eastern Pacific, and docked at [[Ford Island, Pearl Harbor]] on 22 June, {{convert|500|yd|m|abbr=on}} from the [[USS Arizona Memorial|''Arizona'' Memorial]].<ref name="chinfo"/> Less than a year later, on 29 January 1999, ''Missouri'' was opened as a museum operated by the MMA.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://spectrumlocalnews.com/hi/hawaii/community/2022/01/17/battleship-missouri-memorial-anniversary-free-day|title=Free admission to the Battleship Missouri Memorial on Jan. 29 |last=Yamanaka |first=Sarah |publisher=Spectrum News |location=Honolulu, Hawaii |date=18 January 2022|access-date=13 June 2022}}</ref>

[[File:USS Missouri watching over USS Arizona - Pearl Harbor.jpg|thumb|left|''Missouri'' facing the sunken ''Arizona'', symbols of the beginning and the end of WWII for the United States]]

Originally, the decision to move ''Missouri'' to Pearl Harbor was met with some resistance. The [[National Park Service]] expressed concern that the battleship, whose name has become synonymous with the end of World War II, would overshadow the battleship {{USS|Arizona|BB-39|2}}, whose dramatic explosion and subsequent sinking on 7 December 1941 has since become synonymous with the attack on Pearl Harbor. To help guard against this impression ''Missouri'' was placed well back from and facing the ''Arizona'' Memorial, so that those participating in military ceremonies on ''Missouri''{{'}}s aft decks would not have sight of the ''Arizona'' Memorial. The decision to have ''Missouri''{{'}}s bow face the ''Arizona'' Memorial was intended to convey that ''Missouri'' watches over the remains of ''Arizona'' so that those interred within ''Arizona''{{'}}s hull may rest in peace.<ref name="iffy">{{cite news |title=Will "Mighty Mo" be too much? |url=http://starbulletin.com/97/10/15/news/story3.html |first=Gregg K. |last=Kakesako |date=15 October 1997 |newspaper=[[Honolulu Star-Bulletin]] |access-date=22 December 2006 |archive-date=18 November 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081118225843/http://starbulletin.com/97/10/15/news/story3.html  }}</ref>

''Missouri'' was listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]] on 14 May 1971 for hosting the signing of the [[Japanese Instrument of Surrender|instrument of Japanese surrender]] that ended World War II.<ref name="iffy"/> She is not eligible for designation as a [[National Historic Landmark]] because she was extensively modernized in the years following the surrender.<ref name = nps1>{{cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/butowsky1/missouri.htm |title=USS Missouri|publisher=nps.gov|date=25 August 2000|access-date=5 July 2022}}</ref>

On 14 October 2009, ''Missouri'' was moved from her berthing station on Battleship Row to a [[drydock]] at the [[Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard]] to undergo a three-month overhaul. The work, priced at $18&nbsp;million, included installing a new anti-corrosion system, repainting the hull, and upgrading the internal mechanisms. Drydock workers reported that the ship was leaking at some points on the starboard side.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2009/Oct/15/ln/hawaii910150350.html |title=The Mighty Move |date=15 October 2009 |newspaper=[[The Honolulu Advertiser]] |first=Dan |last=Nakaso |access-date=13 August 2012}}</ref> The repairs were completed the first week of January 2010 and the ship was returned to her berthing station on Battleship Row on 7 January 2010. The ship's grand reopening occurred on 30 January.<ref>{{cite news |title=Battleship Returns To Pearl Harbor |date=4 January 2010 |newspaper=[[The Philadelphia Inquirer]] |agency=[[Associated Press]]}}</ref> In 2018, a $3.5 million project was completed to restore and preserve the superstructure. This included the lower navigation bridge on level four which includes the chart house, the captain's at-sea cabin, pilot house and conning tower and the open bridge on level five.<ref>{{cite press release |url=https://ussmissouri.org/press/press-releases/mighty-mo-superstructure-unveiled |title="Mighty Mo" Superstructure Unveiled |publisher=Battleship Missouri Memorial |date=February 26, 2018 |access-date=May 16, 2022}}</ref>