Tomorrow marks the 73rd anniversary of the Japanese air attack on Pearl Harbor. The two most famous Battle Ships in our history lie there today, the Arizona which at one time was hailed the mightiest battleship in the world and the Missouri where the final surrender of Japan occurred. Here is some history on the Arizona which was never decommissioned and is the final resting place of the 1,177 crew members that perished when her main magazine exploded as a result of a direct bomb hit. As a result of this attack and another earlier one on an Italian Battleship in Taranto, Italy, it was determined that the Battleship was no longer the ultimate Naval Capital ship and the Aircraft Carrier became the ultimate capital ship during WWII. Today, nuclear powered aircraft carriers and submarines are the ultimate capital ships of a nations navies.
Esther Ross, of Prescott, was 17 when she traveled to New York City to
christen the USS Arizona on June 19, 1915. In the weeks leading up to
her trip, every night after school she would practice christening by breaking
syrup bottles filled with water against a fence in the back of her house.
She and her parents stayed at the Waldorf-Astoria in Manhattan.
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