When the USS New Jersey, an Iowa-class battleship, was reactivated during the Vietnam War for Operation Sea Dragon, it wasn’t her first rodeo. Her keel was laid at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Pennsylvania, and she was commissioned in May 1943. She quickly joined the Pacific fleet, earning her combat stripes in World War II and…
On board the USS Buchanan, North Vietnamese coast, 1968: Sailors pull rope during the refueling and rearming operation on board the USS Buchanan destroyer by the tanker USS Tappahannock (not visible).
The battleship finally arrived off the coast of Southeast Asia on September 29th, 1968 and, on the next day, fired her guns in anger for the first time in over fifteen years.