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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Jacqline Barnes, (410) 295-1028, jbarnes@usni.org

USS Nevada (BB-36) was America’s first modern


battleship. When her keel was laid in 1912, kings and
emperors still ruled much of the world. When she finally
slipped beneath the waves in 1948, America was the
undisputed global superpower.

Nevada was revolutionary for her time: the first


“superdreadnought”; the first U.S. warship to be oil fired;
the first to have a triple-gun main turret; and, the first to
have all-or-nothing armor. In World War I, she was based
in Queenstown, Ireland, to provide protection for
American convoys bringing troops to Europe. She
survived the naval reduction treaties of the 1920s and was
rebuilt in 1928 with the latest technology. The only
battleship to get underway at Pearl Harbor, Nevada
suffered damage from Japanese bombs and torpedoes and
sank in shallow water. Raised and repaired, she did
convoy duty in the North Atlantic before joining the
invasion fleet for D-Day and the landings in Southern
France. Shifting to the Pacific, Nevada provided
bombardment support at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. The end
of the war saw her outgunned and outmoded, but her contributions were not over. In 1946, she
survived not one but two atomic tests, the second of which left the battleship too radioactive for
scrapping. On a sunny day in 1948, Nevada was towed off the coast of Oahu and used for target
practice. After five days of pounding by everything the Navy could throw her, Nevada was
dispatched by a torpedo. She died a warrior's death.

Silver State Dreadnought is the story of a remarkable ship, but it is also the story of the
remarkable men who sailed in her. Nevada's first captain, William S. Sims, brought his unique
style of leadership to America's premiere battleship and set the tone for what became known as
the “Cheer Up Ship.” As Nevada aged, the ship gained the affectionate name “The Old Maru,”
beloved by all who served in her.

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Praise for Silver State Dreadnought:
"Like some people, certain warships have interesting lives. Nevada was such a ship. Her life
spanned two world wars, and in many ways her story reflects the Navy's history in the period
from her construction to her demise. Especially engaging are Stephen Younger's descriptions of
Nevada's actions in the Atlantic and Pacific in World War II."
—Thomas C. Hone, co-author of Battle Line and editor of The Battle of Midway

“Stephen Younger’s Silver State Dreadnought is tightly-knit, well-paced coverage of the long
career of the battleship USS Nevada. In covering the often tedious daily grind of peacetime
gunnery practice and seamanship drills with the same detail as battle action, Younger gives the
reader necessary insight into how a collection of men and steel becomes a warship.”
—Robert C. Stern, author of The Battleship Holiday: The Naval Treaties and Capital Ship
Design

Stephen M. Younger (Albuquerque, NM) is the president of Sandia National Laboratories in


Albuquerque, New Mexico. He previously served as president of National Security Technologies,
LLC and director of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. He has written extensively on national
security, anthropology, and physics.

NAVAL INSTITUTE PRESS


Publication date: 15 November 2018
World War I
7 x 10 in | 320 pp.
Hardcover
ISBN: 9781682472897 | $54.00

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