Arizona
Continues the War Aboard TANEY
By Warren Hartman
The
USS ARIZONA is the only Navy ship still in commission from the Pearl
Harbor attack; the USCGC TANEY is the only fighting ship still afloat
from the Pearl Harbor attack and is docked at the National Historical Museum at
Baltimore, MD.
USCGC
TANEY, known by its hull number W37, cruised nearly ¾ million miles,
earned 11 battle stars during WW II, Korean conflict, and the Vietnam War, and
is surpassed only by the carrier USS ENTERPRISE, which cruised a million
miles and was engaged in every major Pacific assault.
In
mid-1942, TANEY was in Pearl Harbor Navy Yard for a new mast and radar
antennæ. Signalman 2c Willis Partridge (later CDR, USCG, Ret.) was called aside
by our new communications Ensign. “Partridge, we are getting a new mast today
and sailing at dawn’s light, so get your halyards rigged and ready for sea.”
In
the company of a QM1c we set out to find a set of signal blocks and discovered a
large barge loaded with tripod masts and fighting tops off the ARIZONA,
headed for the scrap yard. I checked with the civilian in charge and he let us
have nearly a dozen blocks with sister hooks.
Our
assignment completed, the TANEY was now equipped with parts of the ARIZONA,
high aloft on the yardarm.
I
left the ship in 1943 but was always proud to feel we helped part of the ARIZONA
return to fight.