[Pages H4398-H4399]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              COMMEMORATING 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF MIGHTY MO

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Kennedy). The Chair recognizes the 
gentleman from Hawaii (Mr. Case) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CASE. Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize the 75th birthday of one 
of the most iconic ships ever to sail the seven seas, the U.S. Navy's 
USS Missouri.
  Mighty Mo, our last battleship, was commissioned June 11, 1944, after 
being laid down and launched at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. She went on to 
one of the longest and most distinguished careers of any Navy ship 
ever, earning 11 battle stars in three wars: World War II, the Korean 
war, and Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm.
  But she is best known for her role not in war but in peace. For of 
course it was on her decks at anchor in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945, 
V-J Day, that General Douglas MacArthur accepted the surrender of 
Japan, ending World War II.
  Mighty Mo was finally struck from the register in 1995. For the last 
two decades, she has been moored in a place of honor at Pearl Harbor, 
alongside her fallen sisters--most notably, the USS Arizona--as a 
living museum under the loving stewardship of the USS Missouri Memorial 
Association in partnership with the U.S. Navy.
  On her decks next year, on September 2, we will recognize the 75th 
anniversary of the end of the Second World War. But for today, let us 
simply

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wish Mighty Mo a heartfelt hau'oli la hanau, happy birthday, and many 
more to come. Mahalo.

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