[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 135 (Friday, December 8, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2201]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            USS ``OKLAHOMA''

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. DAN BOREN

                              of oklahoma

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, December 8, 2006

  Mr. BOREN. Mr. Speaker, I rise to commemorate the groundbreaking of a 
memorial to the USS Oklahoma, which sank 65 years ago today in the 1941 
attack on Pearl Harbor.
  Commissioned in 1916, the 583-foot USS Oklahoma escorted President 
Woodrow Wilson to and from France at the conclusion of World War I. She 
served in both the Atlantic and Pacific fleets through the 1920s and 
1930s, and when the Spanish Civil War erupted in 1936, she steamed to 
Bilbao to ferry American citizens to safety in Gibraltar and French 
ports. One year and a day before the Japanese attack, the Oklahoma was 
assigned to Pearl Harbor.
  The casualties aboard the USS Oklahoma represent the second-largest 
loss of life aboard any Pearl Harbor ship. Yet neither memorial nor 
marker exists to commemorate her and her crew. With today's 
groundbreaking at Pearl Harbor, we mark a significant step toward the 
creation of a lasting memorial to honor the 429 sailors, officers and 
Marines who perished on the ``Okie,'' many of whom until 2002 rested in 
unmarked mass graves.
  I am proud to have worked with Congressman Cole and the other members 
of the Armed Services Committee to pass language in the 2005 Defense 
Authorization Act providing a site for the memorial. But the real 
credit for making this project a reality goes to the Oklahoma's 
remaining survivors, the people of the State of Oklahoma and the USS 
Oklahoma Memorial Committee, which is raising private funds for the 
memorial.
  I hope that this long-overdue tribute provides some comfort to the 
Oklahoma's survivors and their families, knowing that their sacrifices 
that day will never be forgotten.

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