USS Arizona (BB-39)

USS Arizona, 1920s
History
United States
Name:	Arizona
Namesake:	US state of Arizona
Ordered:	4 March 1913
Builder:	Brooklyn Navy Yard
Cost:	$16,000,000
Laid down:	16 March 1914
Launched:	19 June 1915
Commissioned:	17 October 1916
Decommissioned:	29 December 1941
Struck:	1 December 1942
Identification:	Hull number: BB-39
Fate:	Sunk during the Attack on Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941
Status:	Memorial wreck
General characteristics (as completed)
Class and type:	Pennsylvania-class battleship
Displacement:	29,158 long tons (29,626 t) (standard) 31,917 long tons (32,429 t) (deep load)
Length:	608 ft (185.3 m)
Beam:	97 ft (29.6 m)
Draft:	29 ft 3 in (8.9 m) (deep load)
Installed power:	29,366 shp (21,898 kW) (on sea trials)
Propulsion:	4 shafts 4 sets of Parsons steam turbines 12 Babcock & Wilcox water-tube boilers
Speed:	21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph)
Range:	8,000 nmi (15,000 km; 9,200 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement:	2290
Armament:	4 × 3 – 14-inch/45 guns 22 × 1 – 5-inch/51 guns 4 × 1 – 3-inch/50 AA guns 2 × 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes
Armor:	Belt: 13.5–8 in (343–203 mm) Bulkheads: 13–8 in (330–203 mm) Barbettes: 13 in (330 mm) Turrets: 18 in (457 mm) Decks: 5 in (127 mm) Conning tower: 16–14 in (406–356 mm)

USS Arizona was a Pennsylvania-class battleship built for and by the United States Navy in the mid-1910s. Named in honor of the 48th state's recent admission into the union, the ship was the second and last of the Pennsylvania class of "super-dreadnought" battleships. Although commissioned in 1916, the ship remained stateside during World War I. Shortly after the end of the war, Arizona was one of a number of American ships that briefly escorted President Woodrow Wilson to the Paris Peace Conference. The ship was sent to Turkey in 1919 at the beginning of the Greco-Turkish War to represent American interests for several months. Several years later, she was transferred to the Pacific Fleet and remained there for the rest of her career.

Aside from a comprehensive modernization in 1929–31, Arizona was regularly used for training exercises between the wars, including the annual Fleet Problems (training exercises). When an earthquake struck Long Beach, California, in 1933, Arizona's crew provided aid to the survivors. Two years later, the ship was featured in a Jimmy Cagney film, Here Comes the Navy, about the romantic troubles of a sailor. In April 1940, she and the rest of the Pacific Fleet were transferred from California to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, as a deterrent to Japanese imperialism.

During the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, Arizona was bombed. After a bomb detonated in a powder magazine, the battleship exploded violently and sank, with the loss of 1,177 officers and crewmen. Unlike many of the other ships sunk or damaged that day, Arizona was irreparably damaged by the force of the magazine explosion, though the Navy removed parts of the ship for reuse. The wreck still lies at the bottom of Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial, dedicated on 30 May 1962 to all those who died during the attack, straddles the ship's hull.

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