On March 23rd, a 640 pound piece of steel arrived at Cape Henlopen State Park. Thanks to the wonderful folks at Federal Express, the relic from the USS Arizona, which was sunk on December 7, 1941 at Pearl Harbor, was transported from Pearl Harbor to BWI Airport and then trucked to Fort Miles. The fast and efficient service provided by FEDEX was donated to FMHA and the Fort Miles Museum by FEDEX.
Arizona relic shipment arrives at Fort Miles.
Pallet Conveyor! – designed by Brax Hudson
Upon arrival, maintenance personnel from Cape Henlopen State Park pitched in and helped move the crated artifact into temporary storage. The final step was facilitated by a creative pallet conveyor designed on the spot by Lewes artist Brax Hudson, a long-time enthusiastic supporter of the Fort Miles Museum. Many thanks to the Parks staff and management!
Parks staff loads crated relic onto pallet conveyor with assistance of Brax Hudson
BACKGROUND:
The USS Arizona/BB39 was a Pennsylvania class battleship commissioned in 1916. At the time of the Pearl Harbor attack, eight battleships were anchored in the harbor. The Arizona was one of the first to be struck and suffered a catastrophic explosion sinking the ship. Of its crew, 1,177 Navy sailors and Marines perished. Only 337 crewman survived the explosion of nearly one million pounds of gunpowder. The blast was caused by a 1760 pound armor-piercing bomb which struck the forward magazine of the Arizona. The attack on Pearl Harbor and the sinking of the USS Arizona marked the formal entry of the United States into World War II.
The acquisition of this relic completes a nine-year vision of FMHA President Dr. Gary Wray to exhibit artifacts representing the beginning of WWII and the end of the war. The initial artifact, acquired in 2016, is a 16-inch gun barrel from the USS Missouri that was shipped from Virginia by barge and then transported by rail to Fort Miles. Subsequently the barrel was refurbished and painted by FMHA Bunker Buster volunteers and mounted on a gun carriage in the Museum’s Artillery Park.
It is this barrel from the center gun of the forward turret of the Missouri under which the Japanese Prime Minister surrendered to Allied Forces represented by General Douglas MacArthur. World War II literally ended in the shadow of the barrel now on display at Fort Miles.
Following this success, FMHA contacted the administrators of the USS Arizona Relics Program. This program, established in 1995, authorizes the U.S. Navy to sanction delivery of pieces of the Arizona wreckage to qualifying educational institutions and not-for-profit organizations.
The Fort Miles Museum and FMHA qualified for this program and thus commenced a continuous two-year effort spearheaded by FMHA Board Member Cliff Geisler to work with the Navy to ultimately identify a piece of the Arizona wreckage to be acquired and transported to Fort Miles.
FMHA Board Members (L to R): Cliff Geisler, Dr Gary Wray, Jim Pierce and Mike Dunkes proudly hold a flag that flew over the USS Arizona in 1980 donated by Lewes City Councilman Dennis Riordon. Thank you, Dennis!
LOGISTICS:
The wreckage from the Arizona was flown from Pearl Harbor to Baltimore-Washington Airport and then transported by truck to Fort Miles. In order to initiate the shipment of the relic, Navy Seabees stationed at Pearl Harbor cut the 10 foot long, 3 foot wide 640 pound section of the aft deck superstructure from Arizona wreckage lying in the foothills of the Waipio Peninsula, which juts out into Pearl Harbor. During the construction of the USS Arizona Memorial, which was dedicated in 1962, wreckage from the ship’s main deck and superstructure was moved to the Waipio Peninsula foothills.
Mike Dunkes greets FEDEX drivers.
The Seabees from Construction Battalion Maintenance Unit (CBMU) 303 Detachment Pearl Harbor were tasked by Jim Neuman, History and Heritage Outreach Manger of the Arizona Relics Program, to cut and crate this large relic to prepare it for shipment. CBMU 303 did a fantastic job! Our thanks.
Thanks to the efforts of FMHA Board Member Mike Dunkes and FMHA Bunker Buster volunteer Jeff Schellinger, Federal Express offered to both fly and truck the crated artifact to Fort Miles. Below is a photo of Mike Dunkes greeting the FedEx personnel who drove the relic from BWI to Fort Miles. A job well done and, once again, our thanks.
In conjunction with the arrival of the relic, FMHA received a certificate of authenticity and a schematic of where the relic was located on the Arizona. The schematic confirms this piece of the aft deck superstructure was located beneath a wooden stand which was erected so a US flag could be raised and lowered daily on what remained of the ship.
USS Arizona Certificate of Authenticity
Relic Location Schematic
NEXT STEPS:
This large piece of wreckage from the Arizona will be moved inside the Fort Miles Museum later this spring. At the same time, planning and fundraising will commence to design and fabricate a permanent home for the relic adjacent to the USS Missouri gun barrel. This location will enable thousands of visitors to see and appreciate the significance of the exhibit during all hours Cape Henlopen State Park is open to the public.
Once the permanent exhibit is completed, the Fort Miles Museum will be one of only two places in the continental United States where visitors can see in close proximity relics from the day World War II started and the day the War ended. Viewing these exhibits with their historical symmetry will be a special museum experience.
