LCT 763 moves toward shore as USS Arkansas opens fire with her 12-inch guns. Arkansas, commissioned in 1912, was one of the “old ladies.” “This was more firepower than I’ve ever heard in my life,” said a correspondent who later covered Korea and Vietnam. “Most of us felt that this was the moment of our life, the crux of it.” General Omar Bradley said of the initial salvo from the warships, “I never heard anything like it in my life.”