News : Pearl Harbor Remembered 77 Years Later

A piece of the USS Arizona on display at the

A model of the USS Arizona

Each year, on the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Alex Vasquez puts together a tribute recognizing the anniversary of that day. This year the students read the accounts of some that were there on that day. As the students read the thoughts and feelings of those there. Also on display at the tribute were items from that era including uniforms and a piece of the ship the USS Arizona, one of the ships bombed during the attack on Pearl Harbor. The USS Arizona was a battleship built for and by the United States Navy in the mid-1910s. Named in honor of the 48th state's recent admission into the union, the ship was the second and last of the Pennsylvania class of "super-dreadnought" battleships. (dreadnoughts are the ships that have the 'big' guns") The Arizona was 608' long. Construction for the ship began on March 16, 1914, and the ship launched on June 19, 1915. Weighing in at 29,630 tons. It was commissioned on October 17, 1916. It was the one of the most powerful ships built at that time. The USS Arizona was built for the United States Navy. She remained stateside during World War I, but after the war she was among the ships used to escort President Woodrow Wilson when he attended the Paris Peace Conference. Used regularly to train soldiers between wars, she also provided aid in march of 1933 to Long Beach, California following an earthquake. You can see the ship in an old James Cagney film called "Here Comes the Navy" as well. In April of 1940, she transferred to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The Arizona was bombed during the attack, which detonated a powder magazine causing the ship to explode and sink. There were 1,177 souls lost on this one ship. The Navy removed parts of the ship to reuse, but the wreck is still on the bottom of Pearl Harbor below the USS Arizona Memorial. Plans were made to build a memorial, but by 1960 less than half of the $500,000 needed to build the memorial had been raised. Elvis Presley a veteran himself, decided to hold a benefit concert which raised $54,000 and also made a personal donation to the effort. Dedicated on May 30, 1962 to all those who died during the attack, the memorial straddles but does not touch the ship's hull. There are still the remains of 900 on board the sunken ship.