Officials at USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park in Mobile will hold a public ceremony Tuesday marking the 80th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the 1941 surprise assault that drew the United States into World War II.
The commemoration is set for Tuesday, December 7, at noon on the Fantail of the USS Alabama, the historic battleship that served in both the Pacific and Atlantic theaters during the war and has been a centerpiece of the Mobile waterfront park since 1965.
The ceremony will include the reading of the names of Alabamians who lost their lives during the December 7, 1941 attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, which killed more than 2,400 Americans and sank or damaged 21 ships, including eight battleships. The event is open to the public.
Battleship Memorial Park, located along the west bank of Mobile Bay, is home to the USS Alabama (BB-60), a South Dakota-class battleship commissioned in 1942, as well as the submarine USS Drum (SS-228) and a collection of military aircraft, armored vehicles, and other artifacts. The park was designated an Alabama Historic Landmark and remains one of the Gulf Coast’s most visited military heritage sites.
Monday marks the 80th year since the attack on Pearl Harbor, the defining event that ended American isolationism and set the nation on a course toward full involvement in the Second World War. Memorial observances are held nationwide each December 7 to honor those who served and sacrificed on what President Franklin D. Roosevelt called “a date which will live in infamy.”
How the battleship came to Mobile
The USS Alabama earned nine battle stars during World War II. When the Navy slated the ship for scrapping in the early 1960s, a statewide campaign that included spare change collected by Alabama schoolchildren raised the money to bring it to Mobile. The battleship arrived in 1964 and opened to visitors in January 1965, and it was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1986.
