Portal:New Jersey/Selected article/3

USS New Jersey (BB-62) ("Big J" or "Black Dragon") is an Iowa-class battleship, and was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named in honor of the U.S. state of New Jersey. Among the four completed Iowa-class battleships, New Jersey is notable for having earned the most battle stars for her combat actions, and for being the only battleship of the class to have served a tour of duty in Vietnam during the Vietnam War.

During World War II, the New Jersey shelled targets on Guam and Okinawa, and screened aircraft carriers conducting raids in the Marshall Islands. During the Korean War she was involved in raids up and down the North Korean coast, after which she was decommissioned in to the United States Navy reserve fleets, better known as the "mothball fleet". She was briefly reactivated in 1968 and sent to Vietnam to support U.S. troops before returning to the mothball fleet in 1969. Reactivated once more in the 1980s as part of the 600-ship Navy program, New Jersey was modernized to carry missiles and recommissioned for service. In 1983, she participated in U.S. operations during the Lebanese Civil War.