Tribute to Pearl Harbor & USS ARIZONA

Sinking at Pearl Harbor

BB-39 USS Arizona

Pennsylvania class battleship:

Displacement: 31,400 tons (normal) / 35,929 tons (full load)

Length: 608'

Beam: 106'3"

Draft: 33'6"

Speed: 21 knots

Armament: 4x3 14"/45, 12x1 5"/51, 8x1 5"/25, 8x1 .50-caliber MG, 2 21" tt; 3planes

Complement: 2555

Propulsion: Steam turbines, 12 boilers, 4 shafts, 31,500 hp

Built at New York Navy Yard and commissioned 17 Oct 1916

Reconstructed at Norfolk Navy Yard 1931 :

7 Dec 41; bombed and torpedoed at Pearl Harbor

The Arizona is a symbol of the start of America's war in the Pacific. In Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, it was torn apart when a bomb crashed into an ammunition magazine, sending the battleship to the harbor floor in less than nine minutes. Its loss of 1,177 crewmen -- 77 percent of them assigned to the ship at the time -- constitutes the single greatest naval disaster in American history .

Memoial wall inside memorial

Photo taken by T. Temple (1989)

My dad served in the US NAVY during WWII and says that when his ship came into Pearl Harbor, almost a month after the attack, his entire ship's company was called to the abovedeck and a right-hand salute as they passed by the ARIZONA, to honor her men and crew. He also said that the ship was still smoking and smoldering. He said that it was the most chilling experience he ever had.

photo taken from Navy barge heading toward memorial

Photos taken by Truman Temple (1989)

A Graphic of Arizona memorial and ghost ship outline was done by Cyndi Temple using Photoshop 5.5 and a combination of photos.

This is a humbling place to visit. No matter how much you've read about the attack on Pearl Harbor, nothing prepares you for what you experience aboard this memorial. It's a shrine. Hard to believe that it's been 60 years this year. One side of the memorial is wall with all the names of those who died at Pearl Harbor that day. I have a photo that was taken the day I went.

The sun was high above and had settled right behind the flag amidships the memorial. I aimed my camera straight up, towards the flag and clicked. I thought for sure that the film was toasted. That photo not only came out, but it's my pride and joy. It reminds me of my visit to the memorial. This photo was entered in a photo contest, and wil be published in a book called "Sketches of the Eye". It is one of 750 photos so chosen. The photo is called "Long May it Wave". This is not a trick photo, I have the negative to prove it.

This is a great site, dedicated to the USS ARIZONA.

Please click on the button with the silhouette of the ARIZONA to visit the site.

Nowadays, the USS MISSOURI is stationed in Pearl Harbor.

BB-63 MISSOURI

The Missouri, with its famous Surrender Deck, represents the other bookend of World War II -- its conclusion. And its history is as storied as the Arizona's is tragic. The Missouri, whose hull was laid in 1941, was in action as recently as 1991, when its tomahawk missiles pounded Iraqi positions in Kuwait and Baghdad during Operation Desert Storm. The Missouri was decommissioned the next year (the second time in its history it had been mothballed -- both times docked at Bremerton, Wash.) and ultimately came to rest in Honolulu. As if in a symbolically protective gesture, the Missouri's famed 16-inch guns point directly over the top of the Arizona, which lies submerged a few hundred feet away.

It isn't the same type of battleship as the ARIZONA, but she kicked some serious butt during WWII and again in DESERT STORM. As did the battleships NEW JERSY and IOWA. . I would like to pay homage to those battleships by including a photo of their crests.

BB-61 USS IOWA BB-62 USS NEW JERSY USS MISSOURI BB-63 USS WISCONSIN BB-64