The enlisted mess decks are the largest dining area onboard the Mighty Mo. While underway, four meals a day were served: breakfast, lunch, dinner and midnight rations (called MIDRATS). During WWII and the Korean War, long wooden tables and benches were set up for meal service. The McDonald’s-style tables you see today were added as part of the ship’s 1980s modernization. Unlike the earlier folding tables and benches, these are welded to the deck to keep them secured even in the roughest seas.

This exhibit displays personal keepsakes collected and donated by former crew members, illustrating USS Missouri's history from launch until her final decommissioning.

Sailors would have been able to purchase soda, ice cream, candy, and other assorted snacks from the “Big Mo Snack Shop”. The shop's title dates from the 1980s, but this space has been restored to its Korean War era appearance and would have been called a “Geedunk” by its 1940s and 1950s customers. Geedunk is a 1920s slang term thought to have its origins in Harold Teen, a popular comic strip first published in 1919. The comic featured Pop Jenks’ Sugar Bowl soda shop and his special Geedunk sundaes, a concoction of ice cream and hot chocolate eaten by “geedunking” a large ladyfinger cookie.

Chief Petty Officers are the backbone of the Navy, bridging the gap between enlisted and officers as the most senior enlisted personnel aboard. Selected for their technical experience and leadership capability, Chiefs served as mentors, problem solvers, and advocates for young officers and sailors alike. The CPO Legacy Center was created to honor their legacy and the vital role they serve within the U.S. Navy.

DID YOU MO?: Each year the Battleship Missouri hosts the Chief Petty Officer Legacy Academy for CPO selectees. They train, learn, and live aboard, striving to earn the right to hold the coveted rank of Chief Petty Officer. Their graduation ceremony is held on the fantail, directly above this space.

There are two chow lines on board the battleship: the Missouri Express line on the port side and the Truman Line on the starboard side. The Missouri Express was where sailors could get fast food, such as hamburgers, hot dogs, french fries, soup, salad, and sandwiches. The Truman Line provided more selection and complete meals. The enlisted galley produced over 5,000 crew rations a day in the 1980s and 90s.

The Truman Line was named in honor of President Harry S. Truman, whose daughter Margaret christened the Missouri in 1944. The Truman family returned to USS Missouri in 1947 for a conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. During this 12-day cruise departing from Norfolk, Virginia, the Trumans made a point to have meals with both officers and enlisted crew, endearing themselves to those on board.

Like bakers on shore, bakers in the Navy worked long shifts that began in the evenings or in the wee hours of the morning to prepare baked goods for the day. The bakeshop worked round the clock to produce 1,800 loaves of bread a day. In addition to bread, the ship's bakers made biscuits, pies, and donuts.

 

 

This is one of three USMC berthing areas for enlisted members of the Missouri’s Marine Detachment (MarDet) who functioned as the ship’s primary security force. Marines also performed ceremonial duties and acted as the ship's landing force. This berthing space is located in close proximity to the MarDet “War Room” adjacent to the Truman Line and the USMC small arms locker by the Bread Room.

DID YOU MO?: The 5” gun mount operated by the ship’s MarDet is located on the 02 Level, just above the Surrender Deck.

The machine shop helped keep the ship and her crew self-sustaining while underway by repairing or replacing machinery on board. The highly skilled crew could bend pipes, work sheet metal, fabricate, weld, and repair just about anything that was needed.

DID YOU MO?: The enormous lathe visible through the open doorway is one of the many original 1940s-era equipment still on board. Due to its massive size, it had to be installed while the ship was being constructed and the rest of the ship was built around it.

DID YOU MO?: The “American Made” eagle mural isn’t just patriotic. U.S. warships are considered U.S. soil, so anything fabricated on board while the ship was in service is considered to be made in the USA.

Sleeping areas for the enlisted crew on a ship are called berthing spaces. Each berthing area is designated for a particular department or division. The racks you see on the second deck of USS Missouri were installed in the 1980s and are similar to what you would find on an active warship today. They are referred to as “coffin racks” because many racks opened—like a coffin—to reveal storage space underneath. Each one has a reading light, privacy curtain, and an Emergency Escape Breathing Device (EEBD) to provide oxygen should the sailor have to evacuate the space in an emergency. There are approximately 1,662 of these racks on the ship occupying spaces on three different deck levels. Storage lockers for uniforms and personal effects are located beneath or near their rack.

DID YOU MO?: All Navy ships today have separate sleeping quarters for men and women. That is not the case with USS Missouri as no women ever served aboard. The battleship was decommissioned in 1992, one year prior to the authorization for women to serve on combatant ships in the U.S. Navy.

The Post Office provided all the same postal services at sea as on land including delivery, united parcel service, express mail service, stamp sales, and money order sales. In WWII, the Post Office saw an average of 2,500 outgoing letters. In the 1980s, the Post Office conducted one million dollars’ worth of postal business and carried over a million pounds of mail each year.

DID YOU MO?: When ships were resupplied at sea during underway replenishment (UNREP), mail, movies, and news from the homefront were exchanged in addition to cargo, ammunition, and fuel.

 

 

Dental facilities like this served the entire crew and offered services that varied from routine cleanings to lost fillings to root canal surgeries. These spaces were staffed by a Senior Dental Officer, an Assistant Dental Officer, as well as several Dental Technicians. While dental emergencies were handled at any time, the Dental Clinic was open from 0745 – 0900 and from 1245 to 1330 Monday through Friday and examined approximately 150 of the crew each month. Dental Records for the crew also were maintained here and could be checked out in the event of off-ship dental appointments.

DID YOU MO?: USS Missouri’s Dental Prosthetics Lab was armed with state-of-the-art dental equipment to create restorative appliances to treat missing teeth or broken parts of teeth, jaw, and palate. This included dental implants, crowns, and bridges. Only porcelain work and metal frameworks had to be fabricated on shore.

DID YOU MO?: During General Quarters (battle stations), the Dental Officers would each staff a Battle Dressing (triage) Station on board the ship and be ready to receive wounded sailors.

When the Mighty Mo was modernized in 1984, the Computer Learning Center was established to offer personnel on board the opportunity to work with the latest in computer technology. MONÉT, the Missouri’s computer network, was installed in January of 1989 and is considered the first shipboard intranet in the U.S. Navy. This network connected all the personal computers on the ship and allowed sailors to e-mail each other and share data.

This exhibit walks the visitor through World War II, beginning with the home front in 1941 and ending with the surrender of the Japanese in 1945. The exhibit features fragments from USS Oklahoma and the Navy's relief efforts after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 as well as personal artifacts from members of USS Missouri's crew.

On 11 April 1945, USS Missouri was struck by a kamikaze plane on the starboard aft quarter. Today, the USS Missouri Memorial Association partners with the Chiran Peace Museum in Japan to display artifacts from kamikaze pilots. The exhibit explores the origins of the kamikaze program, displays the last letters of kamikaze pilots, and features donations from Missouri's WWII crewmembers who turned scraps from the plane into letter openers, bracelets, and art.