Museum ship USS Little Rock, the last surviving Cleveland-class cruiser of the 27 completed for the United States Navy, sits here in Buffalo in front of you. She was the first U.S. Navy ship named for Little Rock, Arkansas. Commissioned in mid-1945, she was completed too late to see combat during World War II, retired after the war and entered the Atlantic Reserve Fleet in 1949.
In the late 1950s she was transformed into a Galveston-class guided-missile cruiser. Her aft six-inch and five-inch guns were removed to accommodate the Talos missile system, and like three of her sister Cleveland ships she was extensively modified forward to function as a flagship. That work removed most of her forward armament to make room for an enlarged superstructure.
Recommissioned in 1960 as CLG-4 — and redesignated CG-4 in 1975 — she served in the Mediterranean, often as the Sixth Fleet flagship. Final decommissioning came in 1976. Today she sits here as a museum ship in Buffalo and as the last surviving Cleveland-class cruiser.
Picture her enlarged superstructure where the aft six-inch and five-inch guns once stood, replaced by the Talos missile system.