 She was laid down at the Brooklyn Navy Yard on 6 January 1941, launched on 29 January 1944 and commissioned on 11 June with Captain William Callaghan in command.The ship was the third of the "Iowa" class, but the fourth and final "Iowa"-class ship commissioned by the U.S. Navy.The ship was christened at her launching by Mary Margaret Truman, daughter of Harry S. Truman, then a United States Senator from Missouri.