The USS Oklahoma's Clock

From the Dec. 12, 2012, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette "Clock from sunken battleship to be displayed at Soldiers & Sailors" by Torsten Ove.

The Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall and Museum is getting a clock that was once aboard the battleship USS Oklahoma that was sunk at Pearl Harbor on that fateful day.

The heavy bronze clock was made by the Seth Thomas Co. and inscribed "CS Okla" and "galley."  It is believed that it was mounted in the kitchen and one of thirty or so clocks on board the ship.

Dan Heller of Marionville, Pennsylvania, an infantryman who was at World War II's Battle of the Bulge donated it.  Although not a Navy man, his first wife worked at an Army-Navy surplus store in Altoona and when it closed in the 1960s she was asked if she wanted anything.  She didn't, but her her husband had his eye on the clock, so she got that.

Neither the Navy or the Seth Thomas Company could provide proof that it was on the Oklahoma. The Navy did say the dates etched in the back did correspond with an overhaul on the ship that took place before the war.

The Oklahoma turned turtle during the attack and remained that way until 1943 when it was uprighted and refloated.  Its guns and superstructure were sold for scrap.  The hull later sank while under tow to San Francisco in 1947.

Here's Hoping That It Is From the Oklahoma.  --GreGen