This September 1956 All Hands feature took readers inside the naval ordnance facilities responsible for manufacturing and reconditioning the massive 16-inch guns that armed the Navy’s Iowa-class battleships. The article covered the precision machining, bore inspection, and quality testing required to maintain the guns’ accuracy and structural integrity across decades of service. Gene Slover’s note: “I believe the guns described here were from the USS Missouri when she was regunned in 1954 at the The Washington Navy Yard (WNY), the oldest shore establishment of the U.S. Navy, founded in 1799 on the Anacostia River. It operated for many years as a full‑fledged shipyard and ordnance plant, building and repairing ships, and today serves as a ceremonial, administrative, and technical hub for the Navy (including headquarters for several Navy systems commands). These guns were still in place in the 1991 Desert Storm.”
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