March 25, 1945

The USS Arkansas (BB-33) participated in the forty-six-day bombardment at Okinawa, 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 in the U.S. Navy to bear the state’s name, the prior vessels being a wooden-hulled steamer during the American Civil War, as well as an 1890s single-turret monitor that was renamed Ozark in 1909 and used as an instruction ship.