BB-62
Today on board the BB-62, the USS New Jersey, you can sit in the seat where Admiral Bull Halsey commanded the 5th fleet. Or you can have a birthday party in the same mess hall where sailors fighting in wars had their meals. You can even bring your family and spend a night on the ship, sleeping in the same bunks where Sailors have slept for 80 years as they defended America. Or you can climb into one of the 16” gun turrets that helped make this ship so amazing.
Monmouth County residents can see one of those gun turrets up close at Hartshorne Woods in Highlands, where it was preserved as part of another exhibit and is now part of the Monmouth County historic exhibitions there.
Because of the outstanding work of the staff and Board of Trustees as well as the Military Affairs Committee all of the Battleship USS New Jersey Museum and Memorial, you can learn the history of the nation’s largest and most decorated ship with her 19 awards on visits to what has been recognized as one of the most interactive battleship museums across the nation.
The New Jersey (BB-62) was the second of four Iowa-class battleships built in 1940 during World War II. Built at the Philadelphia Naval Ship Yard and launched on Dec. 7, one year after the attack on Pearl Harbor, she was commissioned six months later on May 3, 1943.
The battleship New Jersey (BB-62) was the flagship of Admiral Raymond Spruance’s 5th fleet in 1944 when she sank a Japanese destroyer; she was Admiral William “Bull” Halsey’s flagship when he led the 3rd fleet in 1944 during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. She was the first ship on which Admiral Chester Nimitz flew his five-star flag as Admiral of the fleet.
The New Jersey fought in the two largest naval battles of the Pacific War, first in the Battle of the Philippine Sea the largest carrier battle in history, and in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest sea battle of all time. She also served through the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
Put into mothballs after the war, the New Jersey BB-62, fondly known as the Big J, was reactivated to serve in the Korean War when she was the flagship of Admiral Joseph Clark’s 7th fleet. Following that war, she served as a training ship for midshipmen and was the flagship for Admiral Charles Welborn’s second Fleet.
The New Jersey was re-activated a second time to serve as the world’s only operating battleship during the Vietnam War, and once more to resolve conflicts in the Middle East during the Cold War and put an end to Soviet expansionism.
The ship was the first of the four battleships which include the Iowa, Arizona and Missouri, to add cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles and anti-missile weapons to the powerful 16-inch guns, making her the most formidable surface ship ever put to sea. The four battleships were the only ships for which nuclear projectiles were designed.
President Ronald Reagan described the New Jersey as being “still in the prime of life, a Gallant Lady,” when he became the only President to recommission a battleship during his term.
In total, the battleship was in active service for 21 and a half years and was decommissioned for the last time in February 1991. She was then towed from her resting place in Washington State through the Panama Canal amid great ceremonies attended by Governor Christine Whitman, Monmouth County Senator the late State Senator S. Thomas Gagliano and former state Assemblyman and also Navy Captain Joseph Azzolina. Azzolina, a Highlands native, had served aboard the New Jersey and was instrumental in securing her a permanent home in New Jersey.
In 2002, the ship was opened as the Naval Museum and Memorial it is today, under Executive Director and CEO Philip P. Rowan, and the Board of Trustee Officers under Chairman Dennis Levitt. Capt. Azzolina was a member of the Board of Trustees until his death, and his son, Joseph Azzolina,Jr. of Red Bank, is carrying on his father’s legacy as a member of the Board.
During her years of service, the Battleship New Jersey played a role in every major amphibious invasion since 1943; she served at the Marshall Islands, the Caroline Islands, the Marianas, New Guinea, Palau, the Philippines, Iwo Jima and Okinawa, earning her 19 battle and campaign stars, the most decorated battleship in history and the second-most decorated ship in American history. She has also received a Naval Unit Commendation for Vietnam service and Presidential United citations from the Republic of the Philippines and the Republic of Korea.
Visit the Battleship Museum’s website for information on visits or special events at BattleshipNewJersey.org or email for information to info@BattleshipNewJersey.org.
