Her Story.
Since opening in January 1999, the Battleship Missouri Memorial has attracted more than 9-million visitors from around the world with a fascinating tour experience showcasing the USS Missouri’s unique place in history. Located a mere ship’s length from the USS Arizona Memorial, the Mighty Mo completes a historical visitor experience that begins with the “day of infamy” and sinking of the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and ends with Japan’s formal surrender aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945.
The USS Missouri had an astounding career over five decades and three wars – World War II, the Korean War, and Desert Storm – after which it was decommissioned and donated to the USS Missouri Memorial Association, Inc., a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. The Association operates the Battleship Missouri Memorial as a historic attraction and oversees her care and preservation with the support of visitors, memberships, grants, and donations.
The Battleship Missouri Memorial is open daily from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. General admission, which includes choice of an optional tour, is $29.99 per adult and $13.99 per child (4-12). Military, kama‘aina (local resident) and school group pricing is available. For information or reservations, call 808-455-1600 or visit ussmissouri.org
Comments
Taken July 2010
Here's the question could the Mighty Mo ever be started up and ran again like in the movie Battleship put those guns ever be fired again
Visited the Missouri several years ago. Are there any pictures of Tokyo Bay showing the relative position of the Missouri vs the West Virginia during the surrender ceremony?
This is a WW2 Veteran which was stationed on the Missouri he is an awesome man please send lots of cards lets show him how amazing he is!!
Thank You And GOD Bless
Johnnie Barr
P.O. BOX 361
Verona VA 24482
Departing Bremerton for Hawaii
Yes. Yes I do want a Mighty Mo Kayak.
Today, I remember 2 of USS Missouri BB63 M-Division's Bruce Williamson and Patrick Allen. Godspeed shipmates.🇺🇸🇺🇸
Verona man witnessed the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, end of WWII
VERONA — Time obscures memories once vivid. As details fade, what remains are the bare images that nevertheless continue to narrate one’s most powerful experiences.
Former U.S. Marine Johnnie Barr, 99, of Verona, witnessed the signing of the treaty with Japan which ended World War II, the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and much more during his three years aboard the USS Missouri.
Like the photographs recorded in his USS Missouri history book, pieced together in scrapbooks and hanging on his living room wall, Barr’s memories revive as snapshots of experiences that happened so long ago in WWII. When his memory failed him, Barr pointed to a picture and his story came alive once more: the Missouri squeezing through the Panama Canal with only inches to spare; waking a sleeping admiral for a false alarm; a kamikaze crashing into the ship; 1,800 planes flying overhead signifying the war’s end.
After graduating high school and working in a restaurant in his hometown of Bridgewater, Barr decided to join the marines. Enlisting on Aug. 29, 1942, Barr then trained at Parris Island in South Carolina before he was sent to Washington, D.C. on guard duty.
Big guns
In D.C. he received his assignment aboard the state-of-the-art USS Missouri. In fact, the Missouri, or “Mighty Mo,” was still under construction at the time.
Barr waited in New York until Mighty Mo was ready for him as well as the 3,200 sailors and 100 Marines assigned to the ship. Despite the novelty of the Iowa-class “fast battleship” design, Barr said “it wasn’t too much excitement” boarding it.
After embarking on the Missouri, Barr said he did not set foot on dry land for three years until the war’s end.
While aboard, Barr served in a variety of roles.
“I was a gunner on the 20mm,” Barr said. “We did guard duty, took care of the captains, and all of that.”
Although he said some of his memories are blurry after 75 years, Barr recalled rushing into his battle station and strapping into his gun every time quarters sounded that an enemy was near.
“You just done your duty, that’s all,” Barr said. “When we fought, you got strapped in your gunner. A man would change the barrel every so often because it got so hot.”
Barr laughed as he recalled that the 16 inch guns shot 25 miles, the 4 mm. shot 9 miles, and, the guns he was shooting — the 20mm — “we just get 'em when they come in close,” he said.
Whale of a tail
In addition to Japan’s surrender, three memories remain distinct in Barr’s mind: the passage through the Panama Canal, a whale alarm and the ‘burial’ of a Japanese pilot.
In July of 1945, the Missouri entered Panama for supplies. Mighty Mo was so massive in size that its beam scraped the sides of the Panama Canal during their passage through, according to Barr.
“We had only three inches on each side,” Barr said. “All in all, it took us about six hours to go through the Panama Canal.”
However, the ship’s wide girth was not the only near close call on the canal.
“We were loading up and getting supplies and it was around 6 o’clock in the evening,” Barr said. “The next thing I know, the loud speaker says: ‘Johnnie Barr come to the captain’s office.’ I thought: ‘Oh, what have I done now?’”
But, Barr could breath easy for the captain was his brother-in-law.
“There was Capt. Bob Jameson, who was my sister’s husband,” Barr said. “He was fighting in the Philippines and he came out to see me.”
Another of Barr’s memories was an encounter with one of his superiors that proved to be a bit more embarrassing.
In the dark of night, around 2 a.m., young Barr was alerted that submarines were nearing the ship, an event he was required to report to Adm. William F. Halsey.
“I was standing guard duty and they came up from down below and said: ‘Radar has picked up submarines!’ So, I had to go in and tell [Halsey],” Barr said. “And you don’t touch him. All you are allowed to do is shake the covers. So I shook the covers and he eventually woke up.”
When Barr reported the submarines, Halsey said: “There ain’t no submarines out there.”
Halsey was right. Shortly thereafter, the blips found on the radar were discovered to be a group of whales. A sheepish Barr then had to enter the admiral’s quarters yet again.
“About five minutes later, I had to come back in and tell him: ‘The radar went off because a bunch of whales went through,’” said Barr with a grin.
Rising Sun sets
After these lighthearted recollections, Barr returned to a story of a Japanese kamikaze pilot who crashed into the bridge tower on the Missouri. He pointed to a picture of part of the plane’s frame clinging to the ship and said that, along with some of the plane, half of the pilot’s own body landed on the deck.
The men decided the pilot needed a proper burial in the deep sea.
“The chaplain sat up all night to make a Japanese flag to put him overboard,” Barr said. “Then, we wrapped him in it and pushed him overboard off the fantail.”
Barr took a piece of the pilot’s plane and formed it into a bracelet for his wife, inscribing her name upon the metal. The bracelet remains in the family to this day.
But, the most poignant memory of all for Barr was, of course, the war’s end.
“At that time, the announcer said: ‘The war is now over,’ we heard a big noise, and 1,800 planes flew over,” said Barr.
Barr pauses for a moment to point to a picture hanging opposite him in his living room. The black and white image captures the 1,800 planes that appear as a flock of birds soaring above the Missouri.
At first, when the planes flew over, Barr and his fellow soldiers were confused.
“We didn’t know nothing about it,” said Barr with a laugh. “We didn’t know whether the war was over or not. But they soon told us.”
Standing on the deck of Mighty Mo, Barr then witnessed Fleet Adm. Chester Nimitz signing the surrender document for the Japanese Empire, officially recognizing the end of World War II on Sept. 2, 1945.
The aftermath
The Missouri remained four more days in the waters outside of Tokyo to ensure that the war had really ended. Then, Barr was homeward bound.
“That was Sept. 2 and we stayed in Tokyo Bay until Sept. 6 — my birthday,” said Barr. “And, that’s when we came out and started home.”
It was Barr’s wife Neva’s birthday, Oct. 26, 1945, when he finally arrived home.
Barr pulled a card from his wallet and held it out proudly. The card certified Barr’s presence upon the Missouri during the formal surrender of the the Japanese forces. When he and each person disembarked from the ship they received one with their individual name printed upon it.
After the war, Barr worked a number of jobs including a time as a short-order cook, employment at the Coca-Cola factory and lastly working for Smith’s Transfer trucking company from which he retired after 32 years.
Barr had two children, a daughter, Teresa Shifflett, lives nearby, and a son, Johnnie Barr Jr., who died five years ago. Barr’s wife died 10 years ago.
Through the years, Barr kept in contact with his unit and attended a yearly reunion through the USS Missouri Association, though he has not been in the last five years.
Barr began sharing his stories of the Missouri when he had grandchildren. Though he said his mind sometimes “blanks” and he cannot recall these old stories, he continually makes an effort to share them with the next generations.
The USS Missouri sailed many voyages and fought many battles since WWII, including seeing action in the Korean War and Operation Desert Storm. The ship did not finally retire until 1995.
Through photographs and stories remembered, the Mighty Mo lives on vividly in the mind of Barr and those of his children, grandchildren and all who hear of his experiences.
I am a historian and I live in Brazil.
In June 1953, the USS Missouri landed in Rio de Janeiro for a few days.
A sailor from the Missouri ship - I don't know details about him - fell in love with a snake dancer named Suzy King (stage name of Georgina Pires Sampaio).
She lived in Copacabana and they corresponded for years after he left.
I'm writing a book about Suzy King and I need to identify the sailor from the USS Missouri with whom she had an affair.
I would like to ask for your help.
- Do you have a list of the USS Missouri crew on this trip to Rio de Janeiro in June 1953? It was a "midshipman cruise".
- Do you know people from that crew who can remember the sailor friend who got involved with a snake dancer?
Can you help me solve this mystery?
I await an answer.
Thank you.
Alberto de Oliveira
[email protected]
Since opening in January 1999, the Battleship Missouri Memorial has attracted more than 9-million visitors from around the world with a fascinating tour experience showcasing the USS Missouri’s unique place in history.
