USS Oklahoma Memorial - Pearl Harbor - Hawaii


USS Oklahoma (BB-37) was a Nevada-class battleship built by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation for the United States Navy in the 1910s. The Nevada class were the first super-dreadnoughts[citation needed] and oil-burning ships in the United States Navy. Oklahoma was the only US warship ever named for the 46th state.

Oklahoma, commissioned in 1916, served in World War I as a member of Battleship Division 6, protecting Allied convoys on their way across the Atlantic. After the war, she served in both the United States Battle Fleet and Scouting Fleet. Oklahoma was modernized between 1927 and 1929. In 1936, she rescued American citizens and refugees from the Spanish Civil War. On returning to the West coast in August of the same year, Oklahoma spent the rest of her service in the Pacific.

On December 7, 1941, Oklahoma was sunk by several torpedoes during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. A total of 429 crew died when she capsized in Battleship Row. In 1943 Oklahoma was righted and salvaged. However, unlike most of the other battleships that were recovered following Pearl Harbor, Oklahoma was too damaged to return to duty. Her wreck was eventually stripped of her remaining armament and superstructure before being sold for scrap in 1946. The hulk sank in a storm while being towed from Oahu in Hawaii to a breakers yard in San Francisco Bay in 1947.