Taking several hits from large, armor-piercing bombs, the great ship went down in less than nine minutes. As the President spoke to Congress, asking them to declare war on Japan, sailors were cutting through the still burning wreckage of the USS Arizona attempting to save others who were trapped inside the ship. The last survivor from the Arizona was pulled from the wreckage that afternoon.
The loss of life that day wasn’t restricted only to military personnel, or even to Pearl Harbor. Forty nine civilians of very different backgrounds, ages, and locations on the island of Oahu also took a heavy toll.
AMVETS is committed to ensuring that December 7, 1941, which President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared “A date which will live in infamy,” will always be remembered and preserved through the USS Arizona Memorial and the Wall of Remembrance was dedicated in 1962. Unfortunately, the Wall of Remembrance, a permanent memorial with all the names inscribed in marble panels, began to deteriorate over many years, making them hard or impossible to read. In 1983, AMVETS raise the $250,000 dollars needed to replaced the Wall of Remembrance, which was rededicated in 1984.
Thirty years later the Wall of Remembrance once again faced the challenges of deterioration and needed replacement. As keepers of the Wall, AMVETS again honored our commitment and raised the $350,000 dollars needed to replace the 138 Olympian White marble panels adorned with the names of the fallen. Construction on the Memorial began in August 2014 and the wall was rededicated this past Veterans Day 2014.
