FIRST US Battleship with dedicated anti-aircraft guns -- USS TEXAS (BB-35), LaPorte TX
N 29° 45.313 W 095° 05.348
15R E 297992 N 3293490
When her 3-inch anti-aircraft guns were installed in 1916, the USS TEXAS (BB 35) became the first US battleship in the fleet to be equipped with dedicated anti-aircraft defenses.
Waymark Code: WMG2XK
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 01/05/2013
Views: 13
The USS TEXAS (BB 35) can boast a number of firsts, but the one we have chosen to waymark is the installation of the 3-inch guns which were designed to serve as the first dedicated anti-aircraft defenses on a battleship in the US Navy.
This fact is shared with visitors on a small plaque on the aft portside gun, but is also explained on Wikipedia: (
visit link)
"USS Texas (BB-35), the second ship of the United States Navy named in honor of the U.S. state of Texas, is a New York-class battleship. The ship was launched on 18 May 1912 and commissioned on 12 March 1914.
. . . .
The Texas was decommissioned in 1948, having earned a total of five battle stars for service in World War II, and is presently a museum ship near Houston, Texas.
Texas is notable . . . for her sizable number of firsts: the first US battleship to mount anti-aircraft guns, the first US ship to control gunfire with directors and range-keepers (analog forerunners of today's computers), the first US battleship to launch an aircraft, one of the first to receive the CXAM-1 version of CXAM production radar in the US Navy, the first US battleship to become a permanent museum ship, and the first battleship declared to be a US National Historic Landmark." [end]
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