PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (AP)--She served with honor in World War II, the Korean War and the Gulf War, but had succumbed to old age.
The teakwood decks where Japan surrendered in 1945 had cracked. The battleship gray paint had faded. Grass grew topside.
But Friday, some of the 17,000 sailors to serve on the "Might Mo" were piped aboard a spruced-up battleship during its dedication as a memorial to the end of World War II.
The ship becomes the newest member of Pearl Harbor's Battleship Row.
"There is indescribable pride among the men who served aboard this ship," said Herb Fahr, of Plainview, N.Y., president of the USS Missouri BB-63 Association, which consists of former crewmen. "We know our ship will be here for the next millennium."
It was exactly 55 years ago Friday that the "Mighty Mo" was launched by Harry S. Truman's daughter. It was on the decks of the Missouri that Japan's foreign minister surrendered to Gen. Douglas MacArthur on Sept. 2, 1945.
"She has always stood for freedom and an ambassador of good will," said retired Navy Capt. Lee Kaiss, the last commander of the "Mighty Mo."
The 887-foot, 45,000-ton battleship is docked next to the USS Arizona, sunk during the Pearl Harbor attack that triggered U.S. entry into World War II. The ships are bookends signifying the beginning and end of America's involvement in that war.
About 3,000 people attended the invitation-only dockside ceremony at Ford Island.
Many visitors headed for the section where Japan Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signed the Instrument of Surrender in Tokyo Bay on Sept. 2, 1945 at 9:04 a.m. A plaque marks the site where MacArthur accepted it.
The ship arrived in Pearl Harbor in June after being towed from Bremerton, Wash., where it had been mothballed for years.
The refurbishing of the ship's topside and some interior areas has been completed, and work will continue on other below-deck areas, said retired Adm. Robert Kihune, president of the Battleship Missouri Memorial Association.
"A rusty, dirty ship has been turned into a proud battleship," he said.
The ship has had a high profile ever since it was christened on Jan. 29, 1944, with a bottle of champagne made from Missouri grapes.
The battleship joined the Third Fleet in the Pacific and fought at Iwo Jima, Okinawa and Kyushu.
It first was decommissioned in 1955 but then recommissioned in 1986 for a round-the-world cruise. During that latter ceremony, Margaret Truman Daniel urged the ship's crew to "take care of my baby," Kaiss said.
The ship returned to battle briefly in January 1991 in the Persian Gulf
to join Operation Desert Storm, firing Tomahawk missiles and hundreds of
16-inch shells at Iraqi positions. It was again decommissioned in
1992.
