Saturday, February 23, 2008

USS Arizona Memorial - Museum

The small museum is a very solemn place. The tour of it is greatly enhanced with the Audio tour.

Here is a postcard sent by a crew member while the ship was docked in Bremerton, Washington, directly West of Seattle. Here's an aerial shot of the current naval docks there, showing 3 aircraft carriers and several other ships.
This is an embroidered pillow from the ship.
This is a telegram sent to the wife of the one of the men killed. It'll be impossible for you to make out the words so I've transcribed them below.
Dec 12, 1942
Washington DC 11 206A
Mrs. Paxton T Carter
4507 Elizabeth St Bell Calif

The Navy Department deeply regrets to inform you that your husband
Acting Pay Clerk Paxton Turner Carter United States Navy was lost
in action in the performance of his duty and in the service of
his country ^ The Department extends to you its sincerest sympathy
in your great loss ^ To prevent possible aid to our enemies please
do not divulge the name of his ship or station ^ If remains are
recovered they will be interred temporarily in the locality where
death occurred and you will be notified accordingly

Rear Admiral C W Nimitz Chief of the Bureau of Navigation




Here's a scale model of the USS Arizona. Pay particular attention to the upper gun turret, as its presence will have great significance later.
This is a scale model of the Japanese Imperial Majesty Ship called the Akagi. It carried 1,600 men and Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, who was the commander of the Hawaii Operation. It and 3 other Japanese aircraft carriers were sunk just 6 months after the Pearl Harbor Attack, during the Battle of Midway.
Here's a scale model of the Memorial, showing how it sits over top but not actually touching the hull of the Arizona.

1 comment:

Kelli said...

The carriers that you can see in the arial of the base at Bremerton are mothballed carriers, they are not currently in use although there IS an aircraft carrier currently stationed there. Just thought your readers might like to know as a search for information on the carrier(s) stationed at Bremerton will probably not let them know that the ones they can see are not currently operational.