She was one of the mightiest battleships of her time, measuring 608 feet in length and 97 feet at the widest point in her beam. She carried twelve 14 inch guns in four turrets and 22.5 inch .51 caliber guns. Her displacement was 31,400 tons with a mean draft of 29 feet.
Arizona served the Atlantic Fleet during WWI and joined the Pacific Fleet in 1921. She was the flagship of Battleship Division one, participating in many maneuvers, and fleet problems designed to be used in the event of a war against Japan in the South Pacific.
On the morning of December 7, 1941, about 1,447 of her full complement of Navy and Marine officers and men were aboard: about 50 had been unable to return to the ship from shore liberty. When she sank, more than half of her crew had been killed, around 800 of them going down with the ship, 1,117 died on the ship.
Artifacts of the USS Arizona BB-39
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