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The U.S.S.
Arizona -
Timeline of Her Life |
At anchor in Port Angeles,
Washington
16 August 1928.
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Presidential Welcome
The USS Arizona held a very special niche in history.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, was
at the laying of the first keel plates of the ship, in the New
York Navy Yard, Brooklyn, New York, 16 March 1914. He was
President of the United States when she was sunk. He was at the
birth and death, as the 32nd president.
Launching took place 19 June 1915 and the next year, 17
October 1916, the USS Arizona was commissioned.
13 December 1918 the USS Arizona escorted President Wilson,
our 28th president, to Brest, France, along with the Atlantic
Fleet. She did not go overseas in the first World War because
she was an oil burner not a coal burner as was the rest of the
Atlantic Fleet. She was, actually, involved as a training ship
and she patroled the eastern seaboard.
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U.S. Fleet of Battleships ,
November 1936.
Leading ship is the USS Arizona, followed by USS Nevada, USS
Maryland and USS Texas.
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Dressed
For The Job
1929-1931, the USS Arizona's cage masts were replaced with
tri-pod masts during a complete renovation at Norfolk Navy Yard
in Virginia.
After Arizona was recommissioned in March 1931, our 31st
President, Herbert Hoover, joined the USS Arizona BB-39, for a
cruise to the West Indies.
The Arizona was transfered to the Pacific Coast permanently
in the early 1930's.
Arizona spent the next 9 years protecting our western
shores. Held maneuvers, gunnery practice, entered dry dock in
Puget Sound, Washington and Hunters Point, San Francisco,
California to keep her "ship shape' and prepared for conflicts
that might require her fire power.
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Last known official photo of the
Arizona
18 January 41.
This was taken one day before she sailed from Bremerton,
Washington, out of the Puget Sound Navy Yard with a new
configuration, the 'bird bath' (anti-aircraft platform atop the
mainmast).
Courtesy of Oree Weller, Survivor, N. Division
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Her Time Comes To An
End
The Arizona was destroyed by a projectile that struck the
starboard (right side) side of the deck just forward of the
number two turret. The resulting blast, a force of one kiloton
(equivalent to 1,000 tons of TNT) broke Arizona's back and
obliterated the forward part of the ship. Only one man survived
the blast from the bridge area. Everyone below decks was killed.
Nine years later, a simple platform was erected above the
deck of the sunken and rusting hull of Arizona. Salvage work on
the sunken ship had been completed during the war. All usable
parts were used aboard other warships and scrap metal was
returned to the war effort.
7 March 1950, Admiral A. W. Radford, Commander-in-Chief
Pacific Fleet, ordered our National Ensign to be flown above the
Arizona from that day forward on the new flagpole attached to
the sunken superdreadnaught.
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