ARIZONA
Battleship No. 39:
From: DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN NAVAL FIGHTING SHIPS, James L.
Mooney, ed., Naval Historical Center, Department of the Navy,
Washington, DC., 1991
displacement. 31,400 tons
length. 608'
beam. 97'1"
draft. 28'10" (mean)
speed. 21 k.
complement. 1,081
armament. 12x14", 22x5", 4x3", 2x21" torpedo tubes.;
class. "PENNSYLVANIA"
The second ARIZONA (Battleship No. 39) was laid down on 16 March
1914 at the New York Navy Yard; launched on 19 June 1915;
sponsored by Miss Esther Ross, daughter of a prominent ARIZONA
pioneer citizen, Mr. W. W. Ross of Prescott, Ariz.; and
commissioned at her builder's yard on 17 October 1916, Capt.
John D. McDonald in command.
ARIZONA departed New York on 16 November 1918 for shakedown
training off the Virginia capes and Newport, proceeding thence
to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Returning north to Norfolk on 16
December to test fire her battery and to conduct torpedo-
defense exercises in Tangier Sound. The battleship returned to
her builders yard the day before Christmas of 1916 for post-
shakedown overhaul. Completing these repairs and alterations on
3 April 1917, she cleared the yard on that date for Norfolk,
arriving there on the following day to join Battleship Division
8.
Within days, the United States forsook its tenuous neutrality in
the global conflict then raging and entered World War I. The new
battleship operated out of Norfolk throughout the war, serving
as a gunnery training ship and patrolling the waters of the
eastern seaboard from the Virginia Capes to New York. An oil-
burner, she had not been deployed to European waters owning to a
scarcity of fuel oil in the British Isles-the base of other
American battleships sent to aid the Grand Fleet.
A week after the armistice of 11 November 1918 stilled the guns
on the western front, ARIZONA stood out of Hampton Roads for
Portland, England, and reached her destination on 30 November
1918, putting to sea with her division on 12 December to
rendezvous with the transport GEORGE WASHINGTON, the ship
carrying President Woodrow Wilson to the Paris Peace Conference.
ARIZONA, one of the newest and most powerful American
dreadnoughts, served as part of the honor escort convoying the
American President to Brest, France, on 13 December 1918.
Embarking 238 homeward-bound veterans in the precursor of a
"Magic Carpet" operation of a later war, ARIZONA sailed from
Brest for New York on 14 December, and arrived off Ambrose Light
on the afternoon of Christmas Day, 1918. The next day, she
passed in review before Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels,
who was embarked in the yacht MAYFLOWER off the Statue of
Liberty, before entering New York Harbor in a great homecoming
celebration. The battleship then sailed for Hampton Roads on 22
January 1919, returning to her base at Norfolk on the following
day.
ARIZONA sailed for Guantanamo Bay with the Fleet on 4 February
1919, and arrived on the 8th. After engaging in battle practices
and maneuvers there, the battleship sailed for Trinidad on 17
March, arriving there five days later or a three-day port visit.
She then returned to Guantanamo Bay on 29 March or a brief
period, sailing for Hampton Roads on 9 April. Arriving at her
destination on the morning of the 12th, she got underway late
that afternoon for Brest, France, ultimately making arrival
there on 21 April 1919.
The battleship stood out of Brest harbor on 3 May, bound for
Asia Minor, and arrived at the port of Smyrna eight days later
to protect American lives there during the Greek occupation of
that port-an occupation resisted by gunfire from Turkish
nationals. ARIZONA provided temporary shelter on board for a
party of Greek nationals, while the battleship's marine
detachment guarded the American consulate; a number of American
citizens also remained on board ARIZONA until conditions
permitted them to return ashore. Departing Smyrna on 9 June for
Constantinople, Turkey, the battleship carried the United States
consul-at-large, Leland E. Morris, to that port before sailing
for New York on 15 June. Proceeding via Gibraltar, ARIZONA
reached her destination on 30 June.
Entering the New York Navy Yard for upkeep soon thereafter, the
battleship cleared that port on 6 January 1920 to join
Battleship Division 7 for winter and spring maneuvers in the
Caribbean. She operated out of Guantanamo Bay during this
period, and also visited Bridgetown, Barbadoes, in the British
West Indies, and Colon, in the Canal Zone, before she sailed
north for New York, arriving there on 1 May 1920. Departing New
York on 17 May, ARIZONA operated on the Southern Drill Grounds,
and then visited Norfolk and Annapolis, before returning to New
York on 25 June. Over the next six months, the ship operated
locally out of New York. During this time she was given the
alphanumeric hull designation, BB-39, on 17 July 1920, and, on
23 August, she became flag ship for Commander Battleship
Division 7, Rear Admiral Edward V. Eberle. Sailing from New York
on 4 January 1921, ARIZONA joined the feet as it sailed for
Guantanamo Bay and the Panama Canal Zone. Arriving at Colon, on
the Atlantic side of the isthmuian waterway, on 19 January,
ARIZONA transited the Panama Canal for the first time on that
day, arriving at Panama Bay on the 20th. Underway for Callao,
Peru, on the 22d, the fleet arrived there nine days later, on
the 31st, for a six-day visit. While she was there ARIZONA was
visited by the President of Peru. Under way for Balboa on 5
February 1921, ARIZONA arrived at he destination on the 14th;
transiting the canal again the day after Washington's Birthday,
the battleship reached Guantanamo Bay on the 6th. She operated
thence until 24 April 1921, when she sailed for New York,
steaming via Hampton Roads.
ARIZONA reached New York on 29 April, and remained under
overhaul there until 15 June. She steamed thence for Hampton
Roads on the latter date, and on the 21st steamed off Cape
Charles with Army and Navy observers to witness the experimental
bombings of the ex-German submarine U-117. Proceeding thence
back to New York, the battleship there broke the flag of Vice
Admiral John D. McDonald (who, as a captain, had been ARIZONA's
first commanding officer) on 1 July and sailed for Panama and
Peru on 9 July. She arrived at the port of Callao on 22 July as
flagship for the Battle Force, Atlantic Fleet, to observe the
celebrations accompanying the centennial year of Peruvian
independence. On 27 July, Vice Admiral McDonald went ashore and
represented the United States at the unveiling of a monument
commemorating the accomplishments of San Martin, who had
liberated Peru from the Spanish yoke a century before.
Sailing for Panama Bay on 9 August, ARIZONA became flagship for
Battleship Division 7 when Vice Admiral McDonald transferred his
flag to WYOMING (BB-33) and Rear Admiral Josiah S. McKean broke
his flag on board as commander of the division on 10 August at
Balboa. The following day, the battleship sailed for San Diego
arriving there on 21 August 1921.
Over the next 14 years, ARIZONA alternately served as flagship
for Battleship Divisions 2, 9 or 4. Based at San Pedro, during
this period, ARIZONA operated with the fleet in the operating
areas off the coast of southern California or in the Caribbean
during fleet concentrations there. She participated in a
succession of fleet problems (the annual maneuvers of the fleet
that served as the culmination of the training year), ranging
from the Caribbean to the waters off the west coast of central
America and the Canal Zone; from the West Indies to the waters
between Hawaii and the west coast.
Following her participation in Fleet Problem IX (January 1929),
ARIZONA transited the Panama Canal on 7 February for Guantanamo
Bay, whence she operated through April. She then proceeded to
Norfolk Navy Yard, entering it on 4 May 1929 to prepare for
modernization.
Placed in reduced commission on 15 July 1929, ARIZONA remained
in yard hands for the next 20 months; tripod masts, surmounted
by three-tiered fire control tops, replaced the old cage masts;
5-inch, 25-caliber antiaircraft guns replaced the 3-inch, 50s
with which she had been equipped. She also received additional
armor to protect her vitals from the fall of shot and blisters
to protect her from torpedo or near-miss damage from bombs. In
addition, she received new boilers as well as new main and
cruising turbines. Ultimately, she was placed in full commission
on 1 March 1931.
A little over two weeks later, on 19 March 1931, President
Herbert C. Hoover embarked on board the recently modernized
battleship, and sailed for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands,
standing out to sea from Hampton Roads that day. Returning on 29
March, ARIZONA disembarked the Chief Executive and his party at
Hampton Roads, and then proceeded north to Rockland, Maine, to
run her post-modernization standardization trials. After a visit
to Boston, the battleship dropped down to Norfolk, whence she
sailed for San Pedro on 1 August 1931, assigned to Battleship
Division 3, Battle Force.
Over the next decade, ARIZONA continued to operate with the
Battle Fleet, and took part in the succession of fleet problems
that took the fleet from the waters of the northern Pacific and
Alaska to those surrounding the West Indies, and into the waters
east of the lesser Antilles.
On 17 September 1938, ARIZONA became the flagship for
Battleship Division 1, when Rear Admiral Chester W. Nimitz
(later to become Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Fleet) broke his
flag on board. Detached 27 May 1939 to become Chief of the
Bureau of Navigation, Nimitz was relieved on that day by Rear
Admiral Russell Willson.
ARIZONA's last fleet problem was XXI. At its conclusion, the
United States Fleet was retained in Hawaiian waters, based at
Pearl Harbor. She operated in the Hawaiian Operating Area until
late that summer, when she returned to Long Beach on 30
September 1940. She was then overhauled at the Puget Sound Navy
Yard, Bremerton Wash., into the following year. Her last flag
change-of-command occurred on 23 January 1941, when Rear Admiral
Wilson was relieved as Commander, Battleship Division 1 by Rear
Admiral Isaac C. Kidd.
The battleship returned to Pearl Harbor on 3 February 1941 to
resume the intensive training maintained by the Pacific Fleet.
She made one last visit to the West coast, clearing "Pearl" on
11 June 1941 for Long Beach, ultimately returning to her
Hawaiian base on 8 July. Over the next five months, she
continued exercises and battle problems of various kinds on
type training and tactical exercises in the Hawaiian operating
area. She underwent a brief overhaul at the Pearl Harbor Navy
Yard commencing on 27 October 1941, receiving the foundation
for a search radar atop her foremast. She conducted her last
training in company with her division mates NEVADA (BB-36) and
OKLAHOMA (BB-37), conducting a night firing exercise on the
night of 4 December 1941. All three ships moored at quays
("keys") along Ford Island on the 5th.
Scheduled to receive tender availability, ARIZONA took the
repair ship VESTAL (AR-4) along side on Saturday, the 6th. The
two ships were thus moored together on the morning of 7
December; among the men on board ARIZONA that morning were Rear
Admiral Kidd and the battleship's captain, Capt. Franklin van
Valkenburgh.
Shortly before 0800, Japanese aircraft from six fleet carriers
struck the Pacific Fleet as it lay in port at Pearl Harbor, and
in the ensuing two attack waves, wrought devastation on the
Battle Line and on air and military facilities defending Pearl
Harbor.
On board ARIZONA, the ship's air raid alarm went off about 0755
and the ship went to general quarters soon thereafter. Insofar
as it could be determined soon after the attack, the ship
sustained eight bomb hits; one hit on the forecastle, glancing
off the face plate of turret II to penetrating the deck to
explode in the black powder magazine, which in turn set off
adjacent smokeless power magazines. A cataclysmic explosion
ripped through the forward part of the ship, touching off fierce
fires that burned for two days; debris showered down on Ford
Island in the vicinity.
Acts of heroism on the part of ARIZONA's officers and men were
many, headed by those of Lt. Comdr. Samuel G. Fuqua, the ship's
damage control officer, whose coolness in attempting to quell
the fires and get survivors off the ship earned him the Medal of
Honor. Posthumous awards of the Medal of Honor also went to Rear
Admiral Isaac Kidd, the first flag officer to be killed in the
Pacific war, and to Capt. Van Valkenburgh, who reached the
bridge and was attempting to fight his ship when the bomb hit on
the magazines destroyed her.
The blast that destroyed ARIZONA and sank her at her berth
alongside of Ford Island consumed the lives of 1,103 of the
1,400 on board at the time-over half of the casualties suffered
by the entire fleet on the "Day of Infamy ."
Placed "in ordinary" at Pearl Harbor on 29 December 1941,
ARIZONA was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 December
1942. Her wreck was cut down so that very little of the
superstructure lay above water; her after main battery turrets
and guns were removed to be emplaced as coast defense guns.
ARIZONA's wreck remains at Pearl Harbor, a memorial to the men
of her crew lost that December morn in 1941. On 7 March 1950,
Admiral Arthur W. Radford, Commander in Chief of the Pacific
Fleet at that time, instituted the raising of colors over
ARIZONA's remains, and legislation during the administrations
of Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy
designated the wreck a national shrine. A memorial was built; it
was dedicated on 30 May 1962.
ARIZONA (BB-39) was awarded one battle star for her service in
World War 11.
Transcribed and edited by:
Larry W. Jewell
[email protected]
