War has played a key role in the history of the United States, from the nation's founding

right down to the present. War made the U.S. independent, kept it together, increased its

size, and established it as a global superpower. Understanding America's wars is essential for understanding American history.

Welcome to Key Battles of American History,

a podcast in which we discuss American history through the lens of the most important battles of America's wars.

Here is your host, James Early.

Thank you. your host, James Early. Hello and welcome to Key Battles of American History once again.

This is your host, James Early, as always.

And what you're about to hear is part two of my interview with Sean McIver about the battleship, Texas.

We will be discussing the career of the battleship, Texas, in World War II, which is very

interesting. It ranged all over the world. It participated in the Pacific Theater as well as the

European Theater. And then we'll talk about its brief post-war career, its decommissioning,

and then its conversion to a museum ship. And that history in and of itself is quite interesting,

and it spans over several decades, right down to the present. So without any further ado,

here's the episode. Enjoy. Okay. So now we're coming to the big one. This is a topic Sean could talk all day about. Sean could probably do an entire podcast series just on this one question, but he's going to be disciplined here. He's going to keep it relatively brief.

Yes. Tell us about the Texas service in World War II.

This may be your longest answer, but I know you and I have talked about this several times before the Texas had quite a bit of activity that had participated in in the Second

World War.

So let's hear about it.

Yeah.

So by the time of World War II, Texas was no longer the newest class of battleships. It was now the

second oldest class still in service. The Texas and the New York, now the previous class,

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