Battleship Texas: The Lone Star Ship (2001)

More than 120 ships entered service into the United States Navy during the beginning of the 20th century. Only one survived to the end. This forty-six minute long documentary explores the famous and news-making history of the USS Texas, BB-35, the very last surviving Dreadnought-style ship in the entire world and the only ship left to have actively served in both world wars. The program begins with the construction of the famed ship, named for the great state of Texas, and her commission in 1914. The story continues as the new ship, barely finished, was sent to Mexico to stop a terrorist uprising. Interviews with military historians give insight to her incredible engineering attributes such as being the first battleship class with 14" guns - the largest guns in the world at time of completion; being the first battleship class in the US Navy to carry radar; being the flagship of the Northern Attack Group during the North African landings in 1942. Moving through her exploits in World War I, this action-packed documentary moves into even more incredible tales of heroism as we explore the battleship's involvement in World War II. In addition to emotion-filled interviews by veterans who served aboard her, telling of nightmarish kamikaze attacks and watching the heroic raising of the US flag on top of Mt. Suribachi on Iwo Jima in 1945, this documentary also contains journalistic gold - a candid talk with legendary reporter and war correspondent, Walter Cronkite, who was assigned to the Texas in 1942 to cover the action in North Africa in his very first ground action war correspondence. The program ends with the decommission of the mighty battleship in 1948, when she was transported to a small town outside Houston, Texas, to begin her second career as a museum and memorial to the men and women who served this country in the name of freedom.