February 16, 1945

The USS Arkansas (BB-33) participated in the bombardment of Iwo Jima, followed by forty-six days of bombardment at Okinawa beginning on March 25, 1945, where the crew had to fight off numerous kamikaze attacks. At the end of World War II, the Arkansas participated in Operation Magic Carpet, making repeated trips from Nakagusuku Bay and Hawaii, carrying thousands of soldiers home to the mainland United States. The battleship was the third ship of the U.S. Navy to bear the state’s name, the prior vessels being a wooden-hulled steamer during the American Civil War and an 1890s single-turret monitor that was renamed Ozark in 1909 and used as an instruction ship.