Why the USS Missouri became a museum ?

Museum ship (1998 to present)[edit]
See also: Iowa-class battleship § Cultural significance

The battleship Missouri (BB-63) begins her two mile journey back to Ford Island after being undocked by hundreds of Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard workers in 2010.[46]
With the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s and the absence of a perceived threat to the United States came drastic cuts in the defense budget, and the high cost of maintaining and operating battleships as part of the United States Navy's active fleet became uneconomical; as a result, Missouri was decommissioned on 31 March 1992 at Long Beach after 16 total years of active service.[47] Her last commanding officer, Captain Albert L. Kaiss, wrote in the ship's final Plan of the Day:

Our final day has arrived. Today the final chapter in battleship Missouri's history will be written. It's often said that the crew makes the command. There is no truer statement ... for it's the crew of this great ship that made this a great command. You are a special breed of sailors and Marines and I am proud to have served with each and every one of you. To you who have made the painful journey of putting this great lady to sleep, I thank you. For you have had the toughest job. To put away a ship that has become as much a part of you as you are to her is a sad ending to a great tour. But take solace in this—you have lived up to the history of the ship and those who sailed her before us. We took her to war, performed magnificently and added another chapter in her history, standing side by side our forerunners in true naval tradition. God bless you all.

— Captain Albert L. Kaiss[35]

Note: Cpt Kaiss passed away on On July 25, 2018, age 78

-Note: Bold is my emphasis

 

YES! and that's probably why it is now a museum in Hawaii.