USS Boston (CA-69)

USS Boston (CA-69): Guns First, Then History

Commissioned on 30 June 1943, USS Boston was a Baltimore-class heavy cruiser that fought through the Pacific War earning ten battle stars, and then made naval history by becoming the first American heavy cruiser converted to carry guided missiles, pointing the way to the future of naval warfare while still carrying the guns of the past.

Boston fought through the Central Pacific campaign alongside her sister Baltimore. She participated in the Marianas, Philippine Sea, and Leyte Gulf campaigns, the chain of engagements that systematically destroyed Japanese naval power. Ten battle stars across the entire Central Pacific drive represent one of the finest combat records in her class.

After years in reserve, Boston was selected for a conversion that would make history. Recommissioned as CAG-1 in 1955, she became the first American heavy cruiser armed with surface-to-air guided missiles, the Terrier system aft, while retaining her forward 8-inch turrets. The hybrid "single-ender" configuration was deliberate: test the new missile technology while keeping proven gun capability. Boston became a live laboratory for the weapons that would define naval warfare for the next half century.

Her Vietnam-era service as CAG-1 earned five additional battle stars, combat deployments in Southeast Asian waters where both guns and missiles proved useful. She was reclassified CA-69 again in 1968 when the Terrier system was removed, and decommissioned on 5 May 1970.

Fifteen battle stars across World War II and Vietnam. Pioneer of missile cruiser technology. First of a new kind. Tactically Acquired's USS Boston (CA-69) collection honors a ship that fought in two wars and two technological eras, and changed American naval power in between.