Oklahoma Historical Society Pearl Harbor; Oklahoma Battleship - An Appointment at Pearl

These are the souvenirs of a ship, resting now in the historical society. One a huge polished wooden wheel, more easily associated with some Mississippi riverboat. Two a strangely antiquated-looking silver service, and three an anchor, firmly embedded in concrete of few blocks away. Since they represent all that is left of the ship, which once carried the name of Oklahoma around the world, it is appropriate that they should be here, though very few Oklahomans ever saw her. She was a peacetime ship, her guns dedicated to peace, and they never fired a shot in anchor. She saw only one battle was destroyed in it, and left behind just three things, a wooden wheel, a set of silver, and an anchor, each imprinted the same USS Oklahoma. The souvenirs of her long journey to an appointment at Perth.

The year was 1977, the year Oklahoma became a state, but outside the provincial embrace of sinners and boomers, other things were happening in the world. With the defeat of the Spanish, America had become a true world power. As a demonstration of that power, President Pogador Roosevelt ordered the U.S. Navy to undertake approved around the world, and he called the task force the Great White Fleet. Its announced purposes were peaceful, but it recalled Roosevelt's advice to speak softly and carry a big stick. One of the fleet's more important destinations was Japan, where American immigration policies and oriental pride had produced friction. The Great White Fleet was met with great politeness, and by a Japanese fleet, exactly equal in numbers and size.

As the Great White Fleet returned, the United States was embarking on an ambitious program of naval construction, especially battleships. In 1910, the Navy announced plans for two new sisterships, the Nevada and the Oklahoma, each to cause $7 billion. The keel for the Oklahoma was laid in New Jersey on March 23, 1912. She was 583 feet long, displaced 27,500 times, and could make 20 knots. Appropriately, the Oklahoma was the first of the oil-fueled battleships. She carried 10-14 inch guns and 25 inch cannon mounted behind armor 18 inches thick. Inside, her crew of more than 850 men lived in the best of warship accommodations for the day, and on one wall was a reminder of Oklahoma, a mural painted by the Indian artist Blue Eagle. The Oklahoma was launched on March 24, 1914, christened by the daughter of Governor Cruz, and blessed by Oklahoma Bishop, E.E. Harz, who prayed that the ship might never become a mere instrument of destruction, but always a minister of peace. A crowd of 60,000 persons watched, and among them was the assistant secretary of the Navy, Franklin Develle Roosevelt.

The battleship Oklahoma moved in peace for only three years before the United States entered World War I. Then she joined her sister ship in Nevada, and together they steamed across the Atlantic to Ireland. From that base they spent the war convoyed merchant ships and putting submarines, but saw no action. The Oklahoma had fought no battles, but when the war was over, she received a place of honor in the Navy, assigned as one of the escort ships for President Wilson, on his way to France for the peace. In this at least, the Oklahoma fulfill the Bishop's prayer at her launching that she might be an instrument of peace. The President's escorts also included the battleships in Nevada, Utah, and Pennsylvania. They were destined to spend many of the peaceful years together, and to be together when that peace finally ended. With the President safely home, the Oklahoma went back to peacetime cruises, and in 1927 went into dry dock for extensive overhaul.

The old circular mass were replaced with modern tripods. In taking note of the threat of air attack, the Navy laid down an extra five-inch armored deck as bomb protection. Against the future possibility of torpedo damage, thick armored blisters were placed along the side of the ship. With these changes, the Oklahoma was once again returned to the fleet, assigned to the Pacific. A new scout plane pilot came aboard Scott Cunningham, later to be naval commander of Wake Island. In these peacetime years, battleships like the Oklahoma were the ultimate expression of national power. A nation's stature was judged by the number and quality of its capital ships. The fleet was the first line of defense, and a magnificent line it was, moving out of a harbor like San Francisco into the open unlimited sea. Overhead, the cables of the yet unfinished San Francisco bay bridge were suspended in the fog. Reminders that the bridge was strongly opposed for fear that it might be bombed and thus bottled up the entire Pacific fleet.

Now he is in all hands of death, now he is in all hands of death, with the Navy, with the Navy, calling at the same time. When the Oklahoma join the Pacific Plate in the 1930s, there was already trouble with Japan.

Manchuria had been invaded, the gunboat finized sunk. The Japanese Navy was being secretly expanded and was already superior to the Pacific Fleet in every respect. Island bases west of Hawaii were left unportified to assure the Japanese of our peaceful intentions. Their names became famous later, Wake, Wong and Midway. But for all the uneasiness, there was still peace in the Pacific. In 1940, the Pacific Fleet headquarters were moved to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The Oklahoma went along, arriving at her new home on December 6, 1940. The Oklahoma's new forge was rapidly becoming an important strategic base when she arrived. There was a general fear that a war might be approaching.

Pearl Harbor wasn't considered a likely battleground, but the Philippines' work and reinforcements were going through Hawaii. Pearl Harbor, the Pearl of the Pacific, had long been a primary Navy base, and now it was the funnel through which long overdue supplies were going west. The emphasis was on training, but for all the work, Hawaii was a comfortable place and the agreeable climate added to its general quality of peace. In December of 1941, the Oklahoma had just come back from a short trip to the west coast for repairs. There had been training exercises on her return, but we can surely was the general rule. So the weekend of December 6 found the Oklahoma tied up in Pearl Harbor with seven other battleships. There had been some staff discussion about keeping the ships in port. More messages have been received from Washington, including one that warned of the definite possibility of war. The aircraft carriers had put to sea a few days earlier carrying planes to reinforce Wake and Midway. The enterprise had been the last to leave, and with its departure, the fleet was stripped of effective air cover. The commander decided there was less risk in keeping the battleships in port than putting to sea without air cover.

But an attack was not seriously considered at Hawaii. The Japanese were already moving towards Southeast Asia in strength, and no one thought them capable of mounting two major attacks at once. So with the carriers gone, Pearl Harbor settled down for a pleasant weekend. The battleship Oklahoma, surrounded by the familiar forms of the Nevada, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Utah, and California, rock slowly at her birth, completely unaware of the ship's steaming full speed from the north. On the morning of December 7, 1941, six Japanese aircraft carriers, two battleships, two cruisers, and nine destroyers, were 275 miles north of Hawaii, charging full speed through the sea. They had just completed an amazing naval maneuver, sailing 10 days across the northern Pacific, completely undetected.

aboard the carriers, 360 planes were ready to take off on their mission to destroy the United States Pacific fleet. The first pilot reported it was calm and serene inside the harbor, not a trace of smoke from the ships. They were lined up side by side in an orderly manner. It was 750 in the morning of December 7 and the time of peace had run out. There were 94 ships in Pearl Harbor that morning, but the Japanese pilots knew exactly what they wanted, and one of their first targets was the Oklahoma.

Just as the first bomb fell, the Oklahoma was hit by three torpedoes. She immediately started to list, even before the general quarters alarm was sounded. Two more torpedoes hit above the armored belt, while bombs hit all around. There was no time to pass on the watertight compartments, and the extreme list made it impossible to fire the guns. The order was given to a bandanship, but 400 of the crew were unable to get out. Twenty minutes after the first torpedo struck, the war was over for the Oklahoma. She was upside down, her masks stuck in the mud, while all around the battle raged. There was no time to pass on the watertight compartments.

There was no time to pass on the watertight compartments. There was no time to pass on the watertight compartments. After such a disaster, a formal declaration of war was only a formality. There was no time to pass on the watertight compartments.

There was no time to pass on the watertight compartments. The carrier enterprise was only 200 miles south of Burl Harbor when the attack came, but she escaped and quickly launched planes to assist the defenders. Some were shot down by nervous anti-aircraft gunners. The battle over, the enterprise returned to the harbor. The United States had only three carriers in the Pacific against 10 for Japan, but those three had been the number one targets of the attackers. The fact that all three were missing from Pearl Harbor had been a bitter disappointment of the Japanese commanders. Still, the site which greeted the crew of the enterprise was grand enough.

The great battle fleet had been destroyed at its moorings. Of eight battleships, six were completely sunk. The other two seriously damaged. More than 2000 Americans were dead. And of all the wreck ships, the Oklahoma looked to be the most hopeless. When the smoke and shock of the Sunday morning had cleared away, it became apparent that the Japanese had made two serious mistakes in an otherwise perfect attack. One, they had not followed up their raid with more bombing. Two, they had sunk ships, but are not damaged the extensive repair shops of the Burl Harbor base.

Now the shops went to work to put the fleet back and see. The battleship Maryland was the first repair. She had been bored with the Oklahoma butt on the inside, and while the Oklahoma absorbed the torpedoes, the Maryland was sheltered. The Nevada had been run aground to prevent her sinking. She was refloated and eventually served as a flagship for the invasion of Europe. The Maryland, California, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania all went into battle later in the war, scoring impressive victories against the Japanese. The West Virginia was completely rebuilt. Traffitos had blown out a series of gashes 120 feet long and 12 to 15 feet high, and bombs had first all three decks 10 feet below the main deck level. The West Virginia was raised mostly by her own crew and became the only Pearl Harbor battleship to steam into Tokyo Bay with a victorious occupation forces in August of 1945. The Arizona had been blown in two by bomb explosions, and the decision was made to leave the wreckage as a permitted memorial to those who died in the attack, a memorial which still just strangely from the waters of the busy harbor. The successful salvage of the others left only the question of what to do with the Oklahoma. The ship was now more than 20 years old, but she had to be moved to clear the harbor.

Engineers first built a scaled model of the ship, inverted in the exact position to teach divers their way around upside down. Then divers began working to seal off the great holes torn in the hull by the torpedoes. Once those holes were closed, others were open to pump the water out, but even dry compartments were dangerous, filled with a deadly gas. Finally, after a four year of work, the Oklahoma had enough buoyancy to float. The next problem was to get the 29,000 tons of steel back in an upright position. The engineers decided to pull her back. They constructed 21 triangular timber frames 40 feet high along the bottom of the ship.

From these six heavy steel cables led to 21 huge tackles, you'd add an 8,000 to one ratio, and then to 21 electric winches set in concrete in Ford Ivan. It was March of 1943 before all these preparations were completed. The winches were turned on, and in a little over 100 hours, the Oklahoma was on her side. The entire process was repeated, and finally, the ship was afloat once more. Through the rest of the war, the Oklahoma remained in a corner of Pearl Harbor decommissioned, simply our shapeless piece of scrap metal. At war's end, there was some satisfaction for her crew. Of the great Japanese task force which attacked Pearl Harbor, only one small destroyer escaped being sunk, and of the great battleships on both sides, the Oklahoma was only the first to go. The aircraft carrier had made the battleship obsolete, and only a few years after the war, not even the victor had a single one of the battle wagons in commission. For the Oklahoma's sister ship Nevada, the end was symbolic.

Painted a gaudy orange, she served as a target ship for an atomic bomb test. Five years after the Battle of Pearl Harbor, December 5, 1946, the Oklahoma was sold to a California company for $46,000. On May 10, 1947, she left Pearl Harbor for the last time, towed by two tubs, and headed once again for San Francisco. 540 miles at sea, she broke the toll line and sank to the bottom of the ocean, the first and last casualty of the Pacific War. Each year, on December 7, a simple ceremony is held above the wreckage of the battleship Arizona, honoring the 2,000 men who gave their lives in that first great American battle of World War II, a wreath on the water, a bugle-blowing tent, and a prayer. And in Oklahoma City, a thousand miles from the nearest ocean, ceremonies are held at the base of the Oklahoma's anchor. The service is honored the dead, but also remind the living of an inscription on the base of the old anchor.

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. It is the price of liberty. It is the price of liberty. It is the price of liberty.

It is the price of liberty.