USS Arizona (BB-39)

History

USS Arizona (hull number BB-39) was a Standard-type battleship built for the United States Navy in the mid-1910s. Named in honor of the 48th state, she was the second and last ship in the Pennsylvania class. After being commissioned in 1916, Arizona remained stateside during World War I but escorted President Woodrow Wilson to the subsequent Paris Peace Conference. The ship was deployed abroad again in 1919 to represent American interests during the Greco-Turkish War. Two years later, she was transferred to the Pacific Fleet, under which the ship would remain for the rest of her career.

The 1920s and 1930s saw Arizona regularly deployed for training exercises, including the annual Fleet Problems, excluding a comprehensive modernization between 1929 and 1931. The ship supported relief efforts in the wake of a 1933 earthquake near Long Beach, California, and was later filmed for a role in the 1934 James Cagney film Here Comes the Navy before budget cuts led to significant periods in port from 1936 to 1938. In April 1940, the Pacific Fleet's home port was moved from California to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, as a deterrent to Japanese imperialism.

On 7 December 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and Arizona was hit by several air-dropped armor-piercing bombs. One detonated an explosive-filled magazine, sinking the battleship and killing 1,177 of its officers and crewmen. Unlike many of the other ships attacked that day, Arizona was so irreparably damaged that it was not repaired for service in World War II. The shipwreck still lies at the bottom of Pearl Harbor beneath the USS Arizona Memorial. Dedicated to all those who died during the attack, the memorial is built across the ship's remains.

Text from Wikipedia: USS Arizona, CC BY-SA 4.0, lightly trimmed.

Wars and campaigns

From Wikidata (CC0).

Key dates

1. 1914
   The keel of battleship number 39 (hull number: BB-39) was laid on the morning of 16 March 1914 with Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin Delano Roosevelt in attendance.
2. 1917
   Arizona left the yard on 3 April 1917, and three days later, the United States declared war on Germany.
3. 1919
   Arizona sailed from New York for Hampton Roads on 22 January 1919; she continued south to Guantanamo Bay on 4 February and arrived on four days later.
4. 1925
   The first two simulated an attack on the Panama Canal from the west, while in 1925 they attempted to defend the Hawaiian Islands.
5. 1931
   On 19 March 1931, even before Arizona was put through post-modernization sea trials, she hosted President Herbert Hoover for a brief vacation in the Caribbean.
6. 1937
   On 2 January 1937, Rear Admiral John Greenslade assumed command of Battleship Division Two from Bloch and transferred his flag to the battleship Maryland on 13 April.
7. 1941
   Captain Franklin Van Valkenburgh relieved Train on 5 February 1941.
8. 1941
   Arizona was placed "in ordinary" (declared to be temporarily out of service) at Pearl Harbor on 29 December 1941, and was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 December 1942.
9. 2004
   In 2004, the US Navy and the National Park Service oversaw a comprehensive computerized mapping of the hull, being careful to honor its role as a war grave.

Dates and events quoted from the same Wikipedia article (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Records that place someone aboard this ship

A ship history doesn't name everyone who served. These records do:

• Navy muster rolls, 1939–1949 (National Archives guide)
• Deck logs: how to get them (Naval History and Heritage Command)
• Crew lists research guide (NHHC)
• Search the National Archives Catalog for “USS Arizona”

More history

• Naval History and Heritage Command (DANFS)
• National Park Service
• Wikipedia: USS Arizona