photo #2590063

Just a month before the Berlin Wall would begin to fall, the U.S. Navy and its allies in the Pacific held a gargantuan set of naval drills dubbed Pacific Exercise 1989, or PACEX '89 for short. It was the largest combined allied armada since the end of World War II and worked as a symbolic showcase of the Reagan military buildup that played a significant hand in breaking the Soviet Union. In total, some 54 vessels of U.S., Korean, Japanese, and Canadian origins—as well as a number of submarines that were never disclosed—combined forces to show just how outgunned Russia was in the Pacific and how they could operate together as a cohesive fighting force. These include the aircraft carriers USS Enterprise (CVN-65) and USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70), the battleships USS New Jersey (BB-62) and USS Missouri (BB-63), the nuclear-powered guided missile cruiser USS Long Beach (CGN-9) and the amphibious command and control ship USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19). A number of the cutting-edge Ticonderoga class guided missile cruisers are also seen flanking the central lineup of capital ships.- Tyler Rogoway