USS Oklahoma memorial running full steam ahead

By John Greiner

Published: October 7, 2007

With nine weeks to go, planners of the USS Oklahoma Memorial say everything is on schedule for the Dec. 7 dedication of the memorial to 429 sailors and Marines on Ford Island in Pearl Harbor.

"It is going to happen, and it is set in fast-setting concrete,” said Tucker McHugh, an Edmond banker and co-chairman of the memorial committee. "All the wheels are in motion ... airlines, tickets.”

"Ground work at the memorial site is 75 percent complete,” said Sen. Jim Reynolds, a member of the committee.

He said the group is past the "worry stage” on the project.

"We are on a tight timetable, but we are refusing to accept any failure. We want it done 100 percent,” Reynolds said.

Reynolds began working on the memorial in 2001 with USS Oklahoma survivors.

The granite and marble for the memorial is being cut and engraved at EuroCraft, a Glenpool-based marble and stone fabrication company.

Reynolds, R-Oklahoma City, said plans are to have a special ceremony at the state Capitol this month, tentatively Oct. 18, when stone for the memorial will be shipped to Hawaii.

McHugh, a former naval commander, said trucking companies have donated vehicles to take the marble and granite to California, where it will be shipped to Hawaii.

The plan is to have everything at Ford Island by Nov. 1, he said.

Rear Admiral Greg Slavonic, co-chairman of the memorial committee, said it will take four to five days to ship the marble and granite to Honolulu. EuroCraft will send people to Hawaii to erect the memorial after the stone arrives, Slavonic said.

Johann Skaftason, president of EuroCraft, said each of the 429 pieces of white marble will be engraved with the name of one of those killed Dec. 7, 1941.

Each piece of black granite will have text about the memorial on it, McHugh said.

The dedication will be at noon Dec. 7 — 66 years after the USS Oklahoma capsized when it was attacked by Japanese aircraft during the surprise attack that propelled America into World War II.

The memorial committee recently received a $250,000 check from the Oklahoma Centennial Commission for costs associated with the memorial.

A year ago, the centennial commission gave $100,000 for the memorial.

The committee's original goal was to raise at least $1 million, but McHugh said last week the actual cost may be about $1.1 million.

As of Friday, the memorial committee had received $995,000 in private and public funds, meaning about $100,000 still is needed.

"If something should happen and if we appear to be falling short, the governor and Centennial Commission have assured us they will see it through,” Reynolds said.

He said Rep. Tom Cole, R-Moore, and Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Tulsa, included a provision in the 2005 defense bill to grant a plot of land on Ford Island for the USS Oklahoma Memorial.

Slavonic said a reception will be held at the Pacific Aviation Museum after the noon dedication on Dec. 7.

"We are

refusing to accept any failure. We want it done 100 percent.”

Sen. Jim Reynolds

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