[4][5] Texas served in Mexican waters following the "Tampico Incident" but saw no action there, and made numerous sorties into the North Sea during World War I without engaging the enemy, though she did fire for the first time when shooting medium-caliber guns at supposed submarines (no evidence exists that suggests these were anything more than waves).

[17][20][22][23] Texas's main battery consisted of ten 14-inch (356 mm)/45 caliber Mark 1 guns,[24] which could fire 1,400 lb (635 kg) armor-piercing[25] shells to a range of 13 mi (11 nmi; 21 km).

The problem was quickly resolved locally, but Rear Admiral Henry T. Mayo sought further redress by demanding an official disavowal of the act by the Huerta regime and a 21-gun salute to the American flag.

[9] Due to the intensity of the situation, Texas put to sea on 13 May and headed directly to operational duty without benefit of the usual shakedown cruise and post-shakedown repair period.

She remained in the Virginia Capes–Hampton Roads vicinity until mid-August, conducting exercises and training Naval Armed Guard gun crews for service onboard merchant ships.

[33] She departed New York on 30 January 1918, arrived at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands off the coast of Scotland on 11 February, and rejoined Battleship Division 9, by then known as the 6th Battle Squadron of Britain's Grand Fleet.

[9] Texas's service with the Grand Fleet consisted entirely of convoy missions and occasional forays to reinforce the British squadron on blockade duty in the North Sea whenever German heavy units threatened.

Texas began her mission five days after her arrival at Scapa Flow, when she sortied with the entire fleet to reinforce the 4th Battle Squadron, then on duty in the North Sea.

[9] On 12 December 1918, Texas put to sea with Battleship Divisions 9 and 6 to meet President Woodrow Wilson embarked in George Washington on his way to the Paris Peace Conference.

On 10 March, she became the first American battleship to launch an airplane when Lieutenant Commander Edward O. McDonnell flew a British-built Sopwith Camel off the warship at Guantanamo Bay.

[citation needed] Later in 1919 Texas's captain, Nathan C. Twining, successfully employed naval aircraft to spot the fall of shells during a main battery exercise.

In testimony to the Navy General Board, Lieutenant Commander Kenneth Whiting attested that the increase in gunfire effectiveness with air spotting was likely to be as great as 200%.

[38] In May 1919, Texas served as a plane guard and navigational aid for the successful attempt by Navy Curtiss NC flying boat NC-4 to become the first airplane to cross the Atlantic.

[9] Texas left the Pacific on 16 January 1924[40] and returned to the east coast for overhaul and to participate in a training cruise to European waters with Naval Academy Midshipmen embarked.

[9] While operating in the Atlantic, on 25 November 1924, she sank the incomplete battleship Washington in compliance with the Naval Arms Limitation Treaty of 1922,[17] and later that fall, conducted maneuvers as a unit of the Scouting Fleet.

In January 1928, she transported President Calvin Coolidge to Havana, Cuba, for the Pan-American Conference and then continued on via the Panama Canal and the west coast to maneuvers with the fleet near Hawaii.

[8] On Sunday, 7 December 1941, the day of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the battleship was at Casco Bay, Maine, undergoing a rest and relaxation period following three months of watch duty at Naval Station Argentia, Newfoundland.

[48] On 16 November, Texas departed North Africa for the East Coast of the United States in a task force along with Savannah, Sangamon, Kennebec, four transports, and seven destroyers.

[9] The young news reporter Walter Cronkite was on board Texas starting in Norfolk, Virginia, through her service off the coast of North Africa, and thence back to the US.

He was granted permission to be flown the rest of the distance to Norfolk so that he could outpace a rival correspondent on Massachusetts to return to the U.S. and to issue the first uncensored news reports to be published about Operation Torch.

[clarification needed] The invasion fleet then headed south toward Normandy and navigated the German minefield, through which minesweepers had cleared channels; not a single Omaha Beach vessel was lost.

Meanwhile, her secondary battery went to work on another target on the western end of "Omaha" beach, a ravine laced with strong points to defend an exit road.

[51][59] On the morning of 25 June Texas, in company with Arkansas, Nevada, four cruisers and eleven destroyers, closed in on the vital port of Cherbourg to suppress the fortifications and batteries surrounding the town while the U.S. Army's VII Corps attacked the city from the rear.

The battleship continued her firing runs in spite of shell geysers blossoming about her and difficulty spotting the targets because of smoke; however, the enemy gunners were just as stubborn and skilled.

Throughout the three-hour duel, the Germans straddled and near-missed Texas over sixty-five times, but she continued her mission firing 206 fourteen-inch shells at Battery Hamburg until ordered to retire at 15:01.

[17][76] Texas sat just across from the monument at Battleground Park in the waters of the Port of Houston where she was ceremoniously decommissioned on the 21st, nine days later on 30 April 1948 her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register.

The survey revealed that the ship's watertight integrity was badly compromised, the hull was open to the sea in many places, and many compartments were full of standing rain water.

[citation needed] Texas entered the yard's floating drydock at approximately 22:30 on 13 December, at high tide with only 6 in (150 mm) to spare between her hull and the blocks she would sit on.

[81][85] On 24 February 1990, tugboats moved Texas from dry dock to Brown & Root's offshore fabrication facility on Green's Bayou for further repairs, and installation of the four mooring attachments on the starboard side of the vessel.

[115] The 1966 Steve McQueen film The Sand Pebbles shot some scenes aboard the ship, but these were removed from the final cut of the movie and subsequently lost.