Naval Guns 



141 



5"I54 MARK 45 installed for testing at Dahlgren. 



after World War II. It was a brand new battleship at the end of World War II, 

 and it was taken out of service with most of the others and put back into service 

 before the Korean War. After the Korean War was over, it was parked again, 

 and then by the time of the Vietnamese War, by the time we decided we were 

 going to fight enough to need a battleship, then most of the people that knew 

 anything about that kind of naval gunnery work were gone. We had to go back 

 and get some of them out of retirement. Most of the ones that had not retired 

 still worked here. We were lucky in that regard, so this Station had a significant 

 part to play in the introduction of that ship back into the service. Most of the 

 guns that were used in that war, however, were the 5"/38's which were first 

 introduced into service in 1933 and installed on our tired old ships dating back 

 to World War II. 



