From the April 20th AzCentral.com "World War II gun barrels arrive in Arizona" Friday morning a freight train arrived in Phoenix carrying huge main armament gun barrels from two famous World War II battleships, a 14-inch one from the USS Arizona and 16-inch one from the USS Missouri.
They will be installed at Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza as "bookends of the war" in an Arizona memorial. The plaza is located at Washington Street and 17th Avenue near the Capitol.
None metal ribs are to be built between the two guns which will represent the hull of a ship plus the nine minutes it took the Arizona to sink at Pearl Harbor. Each rib will have a name plate on it with the names of the 1,900 Arizonans who died during the war.
The project cost $500,000, about half of it raised by donations. No tax dollars were used.
A dedication is planned for December 7th, the 71st anniversary of the attack.
According to the April 17th KTAR, the USS Arizona gun was not on the ship December 7, 1941, but was elsewhere being relined and later ended up on the USS Nevada (which was also at Pearl Harbor). It was used at D-Day on that ship so helped protect Joe Barrington of the previous two posts.
Small World. --GreGen
The USS North Carolina (BB-55) My all-time favorite warship. As an elementary school student in North Carolina, I donated nickels and dimes to save this ship back in the early sixties.
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