In 1983, SRC was tasked with mapping and photo-documenting the remains of USS Arizona in its final resting place in Pearl Harbor. The National Park Service was responsible for managing a major national shrine that was largely hidden from view and for which no management precedent existed. During and after the war, Navy salvage teams had cut away most of the ship’s superstructure. Eventually a memorial was built over the sunken ship’s hull, which is a grave for nearly 1,000 U.S. Servicemen.

After developing a basic understanding of what was there, the next set of questions focused on answering the question “what’s happening to what’s there?” What sort of hull integrity remained? Was the ship in imminent danger of collapse? Where was the oil coming from that leaked so conspicuously from the ship? Research designed to answer those questions began in the late 1980s, and have continued in recent years. For the past two decades the Submerged Resources Center has been spearheading the National Park Service’s research on America’s most hallowed war memorial.

• November 2002 - Deployed long-term environmental monitoring instruments. Matthew A. Russell, Project Director

• August 2002 – Conducted sub-bottom profiling around USS Arizona and USS Utah sites with the US Geological Survey. Partnered with US Navy Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit One, the Naval Facilities Engineering Service Center and Titan Maritime to collect hull samples from Arizona using hydraulic hole saw. Matthew A. Russell, Project Director.

• December 2001 – Mapping operation for geo-rectification of original USS Arizona map completed in 1985. Matthew A. Russell, Project Director.

• June 2001 – Systematic interior ROV investigation with VideoRay ROV of USS Arizona. Comprehensive Ecorr and pH measurements from stem to stern, both port and starboard of Arizona for ongoing corrosion study with University of Nebraska metallurgists. Installed crack monitors and partnered with the US Army 29th Engineer Battalion Survey Platoon to collect GPS points for sub-centimeter accuracy in monitoring Arizona movement. Completed comprehensive open-porthole survey for interior inventory and oil assessment on cabin overheads. Partnerships with Discovery and History Channels for underwater production for 60th commemorative documentaries. Matthew A. Russell, Project Director

• October 2000 – Completed USS Arizona videomosaic with National Geographic Magazine. Brett Seymour, Project Director.

• September 2000 – Mapping operation to inventory and photo-document artifacts on USS Arizona. Partnership with National Geographic Magazineto conduct interior investigations and create videomosaic of USS Arizona. Established preliminary Ecorr and pH measurements at frame 85 with University of Nebraska metallurgists. Larry Murphy, Project Director.

• September 1999 – Collection of Arizona encrustation for analysis by University of Nebraska metallurgists. Daniel Lenihan, Project Director.

• August–September 1998 - Relocated and reestablished 12 monitoring stations from 1986. These were relocated, PVC studs were put back in place, and photographs taken. Three bio-fouling and metal hull samples were collected and sent to University of Nebraska metallurgist Bill Weins for analysis. Gas and oil samples collected for analysis at the fuel lab on the Navy base. Daniel Lenihan, Project Director.

• June-July 1990 – Side scan sonar survey and ROV search in 1000-1300-foot depths for Japanese midget submarine lost during Pearl Harbor attack. Cooperative project funded by National Geographic Society involving NPS, US Navy, Deep Sea Systems Inc, Science Applications International Corporation and American Underwater Search and Suvey, LTD. Daniel Lenihan, Project Director.

• June 1988 - Side scan sonar survey of portions of Pearl Harbor and Pearl Harbor Defense Perimeter with US Navy for Japanese attack aircraft and Japanese midget submarine related to Dec 7, 1941 invasion. Daniel Lenihan, Project Director.

• May-June 1987 – Final data from the USS Utah was obtained, and mooring chains of the USS Arizona were surveyed for structural integrity. Daniel Lenihan, Project Director.

• July-August 1986 – Biofouling / corrosion monitoring study of Arizona. Planimetric view was resurveyed in greater detail for Arizona map. The USS Utah survey was initiated. The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) filmed project for international documentary “Science, Salvage or Scrap.” Daniel Lenihan was overall Project Director, Larry Murphy was over the Utah site and Larry Nordby coordinated resurvey of planimetric view for added detail to place in scale model being constructed by Robert Sumrall at Annapolis based on SRC maps. Major assistance came from MDSU-One under Commander Dave McCampbell and Long Beach reservists under Commander Otto Orzech.

• 1985 – Mapping data from 1984 field operations were rendered into a set of five-part drawings of the ship by NPS diving illustrator Jerry Livingston. In addition to the three measured drawings (planimetric, port and starboard elevations), two oblique sketches were added to the presentation. The drawings won that year’s John Wesley Powell award for historic display.

• 1984 – USS Arizona site was completely surveyed in order to render the site in an architectural style for a series of three perspective drawings (planimetric view and starboard / port elevations). In addition, the site was completely videotaped for interpretive and archeological purposes.

• September 1983 – Ten day dive assessment was conducted including rough sketches and video documentation.

• August 1982 – Daniel Lenihan snorkeled over the site with Memorial Superintendent Gary Cummins and agreed to initiate underwater survey.

References:

• Lenihan, Daniel J., Editor, 1989, Submerged Cultural Resources Study: USS Arizona Memorial and Pearl Harbor National Historic Landmark. Submerged Resources Center Professional Report No. 9. National Park Service, Santa Fe, NM.

• Russell, Matthew A., 2002, USS Arizona: Preserving an American Icon in Immersed Vol. 7, No. 3 (Fall 2002).

• Lenihan, Daniel J., 1991, The Arizona Revisited in Natural History Magazine, Vol. 100, No. 11 (November 1991).

• Murphy, Larry, 1987, Preservation at Pearl Harbor in APT Bulletin, Vol. 9, No. 1, 10-14.

• Lenihan, Daniel J., 2002, Chapters 12 & 22 in Submerged: Adventures of America’s Most Elite Underwater Archeology Team. Newmarket Press, NY.

• Jasper, Joy Waldron, James P. Delgado and Jim Adams, 2001, The USS Arizona: The Ship, the Men, the Pearl Harbor Attack, and the Symbol That Aroused America. St. Martin's Press, New York.

• Stillwell, Paul, 1991, Battleship Arizona: An Illustrated History. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD.

• Linenthal, Edward Tabor, 1991, Sacred Ground: Americans and their Battlefields. University of Illinois Press.