Christening and Launching
February 16, 1942
Henrietta McCormick Hill, the wife of U.S. Sen. Lister Hill, christened the USS Alabama with a bottle of champagne before the ship launched from Norfolk Navy Yard in Portsmouth, Virginia. The sixth ship named after the state of Alabama by the U.S. Navy, the 680-foot-long Alabama displaced 35,000 tons of water and carried 129 guns. The ship served in the Atlantic and Pacific theaters during World War II as it voyaged 218,000 miles, shot down 22 enemy aircraft and earned 9 Battle Stars for action that included the “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot” and the invasion of Saipan.
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