Volunteers Complete Second Clean-Up of USS Arizona Memorial

HONOLULU – For the second week in a row, U.S. Navy personnel were on the USS Arizona Memorial to conduct another volunteer clean-up as the reopening of the Memorial draws ever closer..Members of the Mustang Association, consisting of Naval officers who began their military careers as enlisted, cleaned, painted and polished the Memorial.

“There are things that we do that feel like work and this doesn’t feel like work. This is an absolute honor to be out here,” said Lt. Cmdr. Jeremy Reed, the social director of the Mustang Association.

Last weekend 100 Navy Chief Petty Officers and Officers Select were on board doing the first phase of the volunteer clean-up.

“Virtually every volunteer reports that it’s a deeply personal experience doing the work in the shadow of the Memorial Shrine Room that lists the 1,177 Arizona crewmembers killed Dec. 7, 1941, with many entombed in the battleship,” said Aileen Utterdyke, President and CEO of Pacific Historic Parks, a non profit that supports the National Park Service in its stewardship of the USS Arizona Memorial.

The USS Arizona Memorial, opened in 1962, has been closed to foot traffic since May 2018 due to a failure in a floating concrete dock.

The National Park Service has not announced a re-open date, but the Navy volunteers feel their work is a sign that it’s getting closer.

USS Arizona Memorial programs continue to run as scheduled at the state’s number one visitor attraction. Visitors still view the film and go on a narrated tour of Battleship Row, but do not disembark at the memorial.

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Link: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zp40idperr3lh8c/AADHPbmN542QUJLaivZFH_yZa?dl=0

Attached video from Aug. 17, 2019 includes interviews with Lt. Cmdr. Michael Beckman, Chief Warrant Officer Jason Senecal and wife Sabrina Senecal; Lt. Eric Moore, president of the Mustang Association, and Lt. Cmdr. Jeremy Reed.

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Contact:

Jim McCoy, PHP Director of Communications

Email: JMcCoy@pacifichistoricparks.org  |  Mobile: 808-373-0419

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ABOUT: Headquartered in Waipahu, HI, Pacific Historic Parks is the non-profit cooperative association of the National Park Service and has been raising funds and providing support to NPS operations at Pearl Harbor since 1979, when the organization was known as the Arizona Memorial Museum Association. PHP also supports NPS operations at: Kalaupapa National Historical Park on Molokai; the War in the Pacific National Historical Park on Guam, and the American Memorial Park on Saipan. And PHP partners with the state of Hawaii to support the Diamond Head State Monument. PHP’s mission is to Remember, Honor and Understand World War II in the Pacific. www.pacifichistoricparks.org