Texas and her sister ship New York were the first warships to exceed the 26,000-tons of the British battle cruiser Queen Mary. Texas first deployment was to stop arms being unloaded at Vera Cruz in April 1914, this being in support of US forces trying to stop the escalation of political unrest in Mexico. After America entered World War One in 1917, Texas was dispatched to join the British Grand Fleet. She departed New York January 30th 1918 and arrived at Scapa Flow/Scotland February 11th. Until the war came to an end in November 1918, Texas was mainly used to escort convoys and occasionally track German warships.

In the early part of World War Two, Texas was used to escort convoys of supplies to Britain in the lend lease program. She first saw action while supporting the invasion of Africa in 1942. After returning to the Atlantic convoys for a while, her next deployment to a war zone was to bombard German coastal defenses at Normandy prior to the Allied landings in June 1944. Following Normandy, she steamed to the Mediterranean to support landings in the South of France. Texas then transited the Panama Canal so she could take part in the bombardment of Japanese defences at Iwo Jima and Okinawa in the final months of the Pacific War. After that war came to an end August 14th 1945, she made three trips to return US servicemen to America before being laid up at Virginia. Since 1948, she has been berthed at San Jacinto State Park/Texas to serve as a memorial for those lost in the wars. Her sister ship New York was sunk during US missile tests near Pearl Harbor in 1948.