USS Arizona Memorial

The Park

• Location / Visiting the Park
• Museum and Visitors Center
• Audio Tour
• Park Volunteers
  • Everett Hyland
  • Robert G. Kinzler
  • Thomas Unger
  • Herb Weatherwax
  • Rodney West
  • Al Rodrigues
  • Sterling Cale

History

• Creating the Memorial

Links

• National Park Service - USS Arizona Memorial
• Pearl Harbor Survivors Association
• Volunteers in Parks - NPS
• Take Pride in America

Media Gallery

• USS Arizona Media

Dedicated USS Arizona Memorial Volunteers include, from left, Everett Hyland, Ray Emory, Gilbert Hatter, Robert Kinzler, John Newton, Stanley Igawa, and Herb Weatherwax. Missing from the photo is volunteer Hilma Chang.

USS Arizona Memorial

Volunteers

On Sunday, January 11, 2004, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton and Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle honored ten USS Arizona Memorial volunteers with the “Take Pride in America Secretarial Award” for contributing over 3,000 hours each of service at the park. Citing volunteerism as an integral component of budget challenged national parks, Secretary Norton added, “These ten patriots, seven of whom are survivors of Pearl Harbor, have demonstrated their love of country through an extraordinary personal commitment to the USS Arizona Memorial. As good stewards of national history and public land, they are a great example for all Take Pride in America volunteers.”

Park Superintendent Doug Lentz praised the volunteers’ dedication to the Memorial, adding, “Our volunteers have a personal connection to the Memorial and their emotion and enthusiasm rubs off on the visitor.”

Honored at the ceremony were Hilma Chang, Ray Emory, Richard Fiske, Gilbert Hatter, Everett Hyland, Stanley Igawa, Robert Kinzler, John Newton, Herb Weatherwax, and (posthumously) Warren Verhoff. Together these individuals have contributed over 60,000 hours of volunteer service to the USS Arizona Memorial

Skip Wheeler is the Volunteers in Parks (VIP) coordinator for the National Park Service at the Memorial. The successful and popular program has grown from 8,000 to 22,000 hours a year. “Team effort is what makes this program grow,” he said after the ceremony. “Our volunteers are crucial and are here…because this is something they believe in, it’s something that provides them with a real sense of personal pride.”
With the aid of the loyal volunteers and caring and devoted Pearl Harbor survivors, visitors get a true sense of what the USS Arizona Memorial is all about.

For more information about volunteerism and the Take Pride in America visit to the USS Arizona Memorial, visit www.takepride.gov.