USS Oklahoma: About the USS Oklahoma

The Oklahoma (BB-27) was launched March 23, 1914. Construction began October 26, 1912 by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation in Camden, New Jersey. Part of the Atlantic Fleet with Norfolk as her home port, she sailed August 13, 1918 with the Nevada to protect Allied convoys in European waters. She was part of the escort for President Woodrow Wilson to and from France in 1919. She joined the Pacific Fleet in 1921 and the Scouting Fleet in 1927, and was modernized in Philadelphia, 1927-1929. With the outbreak of the civil war in Spain, she went to Bilbao, arriving in July 1936 to rescue American citizens and other refugees, carrying them to Gibraltar and French ports. She was with the Pacific Fleet for the next four years.

Based at Pearl Harbor from December 6, 1940 for patrols and excercises, alongside the Maryland, she sustained five torpedo attacks after the first Japanese bombs fell. Capsizing after 20 minutes, her crew boarded the Maryland to continue to serve in their capacity. Twenty officers and 395 enlisted men were either killed or missing, 32 others were wounded.

Her salvage began in March of 1943 and she entered drydocks in December. She was sold to Moore Drydock Company in Oakland, California. "Oklahoma parted her tow line and sank May 17,1947 540 miles out, bound from Pearl Harbor to San Francisco.

Oklahoma received 1 battle star for World War II service."

From Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Volume V, 1970, Department of the Navy, Naval History Division, p. 148.

Image courtesy of the National Park Service, https://www.nps.gov/perl/learn/historyculture/uss-oklahoma.htm