 In 1950 North Korea invaded South Korea , prompting the United States to intervene in the name of the United Nations . President Harry S. Truman was caught off guard when the invasion struck , but quickly ordered U.S. Forces stationed in Japan into South Korea . Truman also sent U.S. based troops , tanks , fighter and bomber aircraft , and a strong naval force to Korea to support the Republic of Korea . As part of the naval mobilization New Jersey was recalled from the mothball fleet to provide seaborne artillery support for U.N. and South Korean troops . New Jersey was recommissioned at Bayonne on 21 November 1950 , Captain David M. Tyree in command , and proceeded to the Caribbean , where she welded her crew into an efficient body which would meet the demanding requirements of the Korean War . She sailed from Norfolk , Virginia 16 April 1951 and arrived from Japan off the east coast of Korea 17 May . Vice Admiral Harold M. Martin , commanding the United States Seventh Fleet , placed his flag in New Jersey for the next six months . 
