USS Oklahoma (BB-37)

International arms and fuse in Bloomfield had contracts to supply war-related materials.

New York's shipbuilding of Camden, and this is Camden, New Jersey, not Pennsylvania, was building all sorts of warships, including two, USS Oklahoma and USS Utah, both battleships that were sunk in World War II at Pearl Harbor.

Interesting to note that the first American warships, both destroyers, sunk in the World Wars were built at New York ship.

The USS James Jones in World War I and the USS Reuben James just before the U.S. entered World War II.

I mean, a lot of these, I mean, a lot of these guys were young.

I mean, the, the sale down in Arizona and the Oklahoma were 17 and 18 years old.

And, and, uh, You didn't have to be much older before you might find yourself in a position of considerable responsibility.

Yeah.

We saw it.

With those Americans who died on the battleship Arizona and Nevada and West Virginia and California and Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Maryland and Oklahoma.

On those battleships and many other aircraft and warships, lives were lost because leaders failed to act.

And the same thing happened on September 11th, 2001.

Mm.

You know, my, my wife's grandfather was on the Oklahoma when Pearl Harbor got hit, and he helped a lot of people to-

Oh, yeah

... that were drowning to, to shore.

Maybe it's Arizona.

Maybe it's Oklahoma.

Your ship is the center of the universe.

For 40 years, the entire Navy has been built around the battle line.

Thirteen months later, on December 7, 1941, Japan did it at Pearl Harbor on a scale nobody had imagined.

Eight battleships of the Pacific Fleet were sunk or damaged.

Arizona and Oklahoma were a total loss.

And here's something I want you to go ahead and file away.