On November 11, 1999 The Washington Post reported: “Two weeks ago Captain Earl R Fox learned that he is the last world war II veteran still on active duty in the US armed forces.” The Post wrote that Fox described himself as “the last direct physical link between today’s military and the warriors of Midway, Normandy and Iwo Jima.”
There is legitimate controversy over which ship was America’s first true battleship. But the Navy answers that question relatively clearly- USS Indiana was, from the outset, called "Battleship Number One."