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The U.S.S. Arizona is the most famous of all American battleships, due to her tragic loss in the opening moments of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Along with her sister ship Pennsylvania, Arizona represented the continual advance in battleship design taking place during the era of the naval armaments race between Great Britain, Germany and other major naval powers just prior to World War I. With twelve 14" guns mounted in four triple turrets, Arizona was fully the equal of any of her foreign contemporaries in battle-worthiness and speed, a symbol of American naval power.
After a shakedown cruise to Guantanamo Bay following commissioning in 1916, Arizona spent the World War I years based at Norfolk, Virginia, as a gunnery training ship. Arizona was not one of the American ships sent to Great Britain to serve with their Grand Fleet during the war as she had oil-fired boilers and neither England or the United States had sufficient tankers and infra-structure available to support a squadron of the newer oil-fired battleships at the time. The earlier coal-burning American battleships like the Utah were sent instead, seeing no combat action during the war.
Following the German surrender, Arizona escorted the transport George Washington, with President Woodrow Wilson on board, to Brest, France en route to the Paris Peace Conference. Returning to New York with homeward bound American veterans on board, Arizona began her long peacetime service in the American Battle Fleet, serving as the flagship of Battleship Divisions 2, 3, or 4 in the Atlantic for some 14 years. Arizona was extensively modernized beginning in July of 1929. During her modernization, she received heavy tripod masts, new fire control gear and a new battery of 8 - 5"/25 cal. anti-aircraft guns as well as many other structural improvements including anti-torpedo bulges. Transferred to the Pacific Fleet in 1938, Arizona became the flagship of Battleship Division One under Rear Admiral Chester W. Nimitz and later Rear Admiral Isaac Kidd. By 1940, Arizona was home-ported at Pearl Harbor.
On December 7, 1941, Arizona was moored at Battleship Row, inboard of repair ship Vestal. Arizona was hit by five bombs; one, a modified armor-piercing naval shell, detonated deep in the ship near the starboard side of turret #2. Arizona’s forward magazines exploded, killing 1,177 men and completely destroying the forward part of the ship. (Admiral Kidd and Arizona’s Captain, Franklin van Valkenburg, were both killed on the Arizona’s bridge; both were awarded the Medal of Honor.) Today, the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial gracefully honors this ship and all those killed on December 7th 1941, a symbol of the need for eternal vigilance. Since 1941, many Arizona survivors have chosen to be buried with their shipmates aboard the Arizona and their names have been added to the Roll of Honor on the memorial. (DBoyer 2007)
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