Post-war
Nevada then returned to Pearl Harbor after a brief stint of occupation duty in Tokyo Bay. Nevada was surveyed and, at 32⅓ years old, she was deemed too old to be kept in the post-war fleet. As a result, she was assigned to be a target ship for the first Bikini atomic experiments (Operation Crossroads) of July 1946. The experiment consisted of detonating two atomic bombs to test their effectiveness against ships. Nevada was designated "ground zero" for the first test, codenamed 'Able', which used an air-dropped weapon; as such, she was painted an "ugly" reddish-orange to help the bombardier's aim. However, even with the high visibility color scheme, the bomb fell about 1,700 yd (1,600 m) off-target, exploding above the light carrier Independence instead. Nevada also survived the second test—'Baker', a detonation some 90 ft (27 m) below the surface of the water — but she was damaged and extremely radioactive. Nevada was then towed to Pearl Harbor and decommissioned on 29 August 1946.
After she was thoroughly examined at Pearl Harbor, her final sortie came on 31 July 1948 when Iowa and two other vessels used Nevada as a gunnery target for practice. The three ships did not sink Nevada, so she was given a coup de grâce with an aerial torpedo hit amidships.
Read more about this topic: USS Nevada (BB-36)
Famous quotes containing the word post-war:
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