LAKE HAVASU CITY – The Lake Havasu City Marine Corps League and the city this month received an artifact from the USS Arizona, the battleship stationed in Pearl Harbor and attacked by Japanese forces on December 7, 1941: “a date which will live in infamy.” It was one of 18 ships sunk or run aground; some 1,177 sailors and marines perished on board the ship.
The twisted steel relic is about 4-feet by 6-feet and weighs 520 pounds, including the wooden crate in which it was shipped. Lake Havasu’s newest piece of history was taken from the aft deckhouse of the superstructure of the vessel. The USS Arizona Relics Program was established in 1995 and authorized by the Navy to move pieces of the wreckage to educational institutions and not-for-profit organizations across the county.
A permanent home in the city will be secured for display of this important irreplaceable reminder of the cost of freedom.