HISTORY

USS Arizona in the East River, New York City, returning from her maiden voyage to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, December 26, 1916. She is accompanied by many tugs, and has small pine trees mounted in her mast tops. Tug Hudson is in the lower center (photo: Enrique Muller, Jr.

Courtesy of Sid Taylor, 1983. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command).

The shipyard was finally left on April

3, 1917, and three days later, the United

States declared war on Germany. The

USS Arizona, as a component of Battleship Division 8 of the Atlantic Fleet, never took part in any combat operations.

She remained on the Atlantic coast of the

United States and her crew was mostly

employed with training exercises. One of

the reasons the ship was never sent to

the battlegrounds of Europe was a lack

of fuel oil at British ports. Supporting the

British Grand Fleet was therefore Battleship Division 9, which used older coal

burning vessels.

Wilson back to America. The crisis, brought about by the Greek occupation of the

Turkish port of Smyrna (Today’s Izmir),

led to the diversion of the Arizona from

Brest to Smyrna, where the deployment

of her naval infantry unit ensured the safe

evacuation of the American consulate and

present US citizens onto her decks. She

then sailed to Constantinople, today’s

Istanbul, where the American Consul disembarked. The Arizona then continued

on to the United States, arriving in New

York on June 30.

Steaming in formation with other Atlantic Fleet battleships, during gunnery practice, circa

1917 (photo: H. E. Coffer, 1983. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command).

The USS Arizona didn’t leave for Europe until after the end of hostilities, and

arrived at the British port of Portland

on November 30, 1918. Later, together

with another nine battleships and 28

destroyers, she escorted the steam ocean

liner George Washington with President

Woodrow Wilson on board to the French

city of Brest, where the American President took part in the Paris Peace Conference. The USS Arizona left port with the

entire group on December 14, and after

a two-week voyage reached New York on

December 26, 1918, where she was met

by celebrations to signal the end of the

war. The USS Arizona returned to Europe

in April of the following year, as a part of

the convoy that was to escort President

March 2022

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