The USS Arizona (BB-39) was a Pennsylvania-class battleship of the United States Navy. The vessel was named in honor of the 48th state. She was first commissioned in 1916 and saw action in World War I. The USS Arizona is best known for her dramatic sinking, with the loss of 1,177 lives, during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, an event that brought about US involvement in World War II. The wreck was never salvaged, and continues to lie at the floor of the harbor. Some parts of the wreckage were removed, for example, a mast and anchor from the Arizona are in Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza and one of the original Arizona bells now hangs in the University of Arizona. The university built their $60 million student union to the shape of the Arizona's bow.

As of 2008, 66 years after the explosion that destroyed Arizona, oil leaks from the hull still rise to the surface of the water. The Arizona continues to leak about a quart of oil per day into the harbor. Survivors from the crew say that the oil will continue to leak until the last survivor dies.[citation needed] Many of the survivors have arranged for their ashes to be placed in the ship, among their fallen comrades, upon their death and cremation. The Navy, in conjunction with the National Park Service, has recently overseen a comprehensive computerized mapping of the hull, being careful to honor its role as a war grave. The Navy is considering non-intrusive means of abating the continued leakage of oil to avoid the further environmental degradation of the harbor.

One of the survivors, Lonnie Cook (who is now living in Oklahoma), had this to say about the terrible ordeal on that day. 'I enlisted in the U.S. Navy on 4/3/40 and went on board U.S.S. Arizona for duty in June 1940. On December 7, 1941 I was to go to Honolulu on liberty, so I was up and took a shower in the bow of the ship and returned to lower handling room of turret #3. I was changing clothes in front of my locker when the bombs began to drop. Chief Turret Captain came in the turret said Japs were bombing us. We started up in the turret to our battle stations. I was on the shell deck when the bow of the ship blew up. The turret crew gathered up in the gun room and it was very smoky. It was thought by our leader that we were being gassed. They had us pull off our 'T' shirts and stuff them in the sight ports. We soon found the smoke was inside the turret.
We were told to go out on the Starboard Quarter deck and get life rafts in the water. We took off all the burned & wounded men we could find. When we were told to abandon ship, the ship had sunk far enough so I could step off the deck into a motor launch. I was taken to the bomb shelter on Fort Island'.