USS Arizona Preservation Project 2004

Ensign Jack Arnold designed this Christmas card for Arizona's wardroom officers, probably in 1934 or 1935. Note that the lights on the tree match those on the ship. Click here for more information.

On December 7, 1941 the United States of America became directly involved in the greatest of human conflicts, World War II. Even before bombs fell on Pearl Harbor that Sunday morning, it was clear to many Americans that they would soon be at war with Japan. What was unexpected was the seemingly apocalyptic nature of the raid. Emblazoned on the minds of millions of Americans, the single most powerful image associated with the Pearl Harbor attack, was the smoking metal and twisted mast of USS Arizona.

In 1983, the Submerged Resources Center of the National Park Service was tasked with mapping and photo-documenting the remains of USS Arizona in its final resting place in Pearl Harbor. The National Park Service was responsible for managing a major national shrine that was largely hidden from view and for which no management precedent existed. During and after the war, Navy salvage teams had cut away most of the ship’s superstructure. Eventually a memorial was built over the sunken ship’s hull, which is a grave for nearly 1,000 U.S. servicemen.

To effectively manage the memorial, the National Park Service needed to answer a variety of questions, beginning with “what’s there, beneath the waters of Pearl Harbor?” To answer that, several field seasons in the 1980s were devoted to producing a comprehensive line drawing of the 608-foot battleship – the largest object ever mapped underwater at the time.

After developing a basic understanding of what was there, the next set of questions focused on answering the question, what’s happening to what’s there? What sort of hull integrity remains? Is the ship in imminent danger of collapse? Where is the oil coming from that leaks so conspicuously from the ship? Research designed to answer those questions began in the late 1980s, and have continued in recent years. For the past two decades the Submerged Resources Center has been spearheading the National Park Service’s research on one of Americas most hallowed war memorials.