Navy divers survey mooring platforms attached to the USS Arizona wreckage in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in July 2024. (Kathleen Gorby/U.S. Navy)
Work will begin Monday to permanently remove a pair of dilapidated platforms that were connected to the USS Arizona during salvage operations following its sinking in the 1941 Japanese surprise attack.
Workers with the U.S. Navy and Pearl Harbor National Memorial will place containment buoys and anchors in the waters surrounding the USS Arizona Memorial site as a precautionary measure and in preparation for removing the platforms, the Navy said in a news release Thursday.
“Ultimately, the Navy decided to remove the historic platforms to prevent possible damage to the USS Arizona, its memorial and the environment,” the release states.
The platforms were welded to the hull of the Arizona, which sits mostly below water in Pearl Harbor, during a lengthy salvage operation in the wake of the attack on Dec. 7, 1941.
Ferries, barges and ships tethered to the platforms as workers stripped parts critical to the war effort.
In October 2023, memorial staff discovered the smaller of the two platforms had shifted, with its concrete surface now inclined diagonally in the water.
Navy and National Park Service divers assessed the condition of both platforms and the ship’s hull in the months after the decay was found.
“After a year of focused planning and analysis, the installation of this mooring system is a necessary precaution to ensure environmental protection ahead of removing the platforms later this year,” the Navy said. “Additionally, this action supports the platform removal emergency response plan.”
A Navy diver surveys mooring platforms attached to the USS Arizona wreckage in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in July 2024. (Kathleen Gorby/U.S. Navy)
The Pearl Harbor National Memorial had hoped the platforms could be repaired rather than removed.
“Our mission at the National Park Service is not just Dec. 7, 1941,” David Kilton, a spokesman for the memorial, told Stars and Stripes in November 2023. “It’s the lead-up to the attacks, the actual attack and the aftermath, continuing all the way to peace and reconciliation — a story still playing out today.”
The platforms tell a part of that story, he said.
The Navy, however, said in its news release that removing the platforms “will symbolize the completion of a salvage operation that began more than 80 years ago, involving the efforts of the U.S. Navy’s diving and salvage force, and thousands of contractors and shipyard workers drawn from the people of Hawaii and many different local communities.”
The USS Arizona Memorial opened in 1962 and honors the 1,177 crewmen who died on the battleship. The remains of 900 sailors and Marines were entombed in the doomed vessel as it sank.
It receives about 2 million visitors a year.
The plan for removing the platforms complies with state and federal laws and regulations, the Navy said.
“Additionally, all efforts will be coordinated with the Pearl Harbor National Memorial and local officials to ensure the platform removal fully respects the ship’s historic importance to the nation and its sacred status as a war grave,” the news release states.
