Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam Commemorates USS Nevada 100th Anniversary

17 March 2016

From Petty Officer 1st Class Phillip Pavlovich

PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii -- Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam (JBPHH) held a flag raising ceremony at the USS Nevada Memorial commemorating the 100th anniversary of the ship’s commissioning Mar. 11.

During the ceremony the USS Nevada (BB-36) Battleship flag was raised over the memorial while simultaneously a similar flag raising ceremony was being held in Nevada state capitol Carson City.

“That was a good ship,” said Jim Taylor, Navy Region Hawaii Pearl Harbor survivor liaison, who delivered the opening remarks. “They had a tremendous crew. They got that ship underway on a Sunday morning with half the crew ashore.”

The commemoration ceremony for the Nevada, commissioned on March 11, 1916, was organized by Navy Region Hawaii public affairs office and John Galloway, head of the Battleship Nevada Remembrance Project.

“The organization was created to honor a ship that is relatively unknown in history,” said John Galloway. “This ceremony means everything to me.”

“Getting the ship underway, while taking fire and putting out fire was an incredible event,” said Taylor. “I hope the people here watching the ceremony go home and Google the Nevada or get a book about it. It was an amazing ship. If this ceremony encourages just one person to seek out more information about this ship I would be very happy.”

During the attack on Pearl Harbor the Nevada got underway with only a portion of its crew onboard. After the ship was hit by Japanese torpedoes and fearing the ship might sink and block the channel, its crew beached the battleship at Hospital Point on JBPHH.

“This was a rewarding experience,“ said Culinary Specialist 2nd Class David Johnson, a member of the color guard for the ceremony. “It's mind boggling to think about what the crew of the Nevada went through. It’s very easy to sympathize with what happened especially if you went through a similar experience such as a fire.”