A Visit to Grandma Martha: Stop 4 - USS South Dakota Battleship Memorial

Since we arrived at the zoo earlier than our cousins, we went to see the USS South Dakota Battleship Memorial while they finished up at the zoo. The memorial was the idea of crew members of the USS South Dakota, which fought in a lot of battles at the end of World War II.


The outside of the memorial outlines the edge of the ship in a short, cement border, and has many of the original pieces of the ship, which were taken after it was sold for scrap in 1963.




Inside the museum part, there is a model of the ship.


There was also a really nice lady who showed Ben and Cameron a lot of details about the collection. For example, this was the ship's compass and steering wheel.



This was also a neat piece of history. When the Japanese surrendered, there was only one Japanese ship still floating. The USS South Dakota captured it, and took it to harbor, capturing its flag along the way.


They also had other, more general information about life in wartime. This poster talked about the Navy WAVEs. Our Great Grandma Margie was a Navy WAVE.



Love,
Ainsley, Ben and Cameron