A Ship on the Mall: Tucson’s USS Arizona Memorial at the University of Arizona

🔹 What You’ll Hear in This Episode:

• The Vision Behind the Memorial
  How David Carter’s student days at the University of Arizona inspired a bold idea to honor the lives lost aboard the USS Arizona in a uniquely local way.

• Designing with Purpose
  A behind-the-scenes look at how the memorial’s full-scale outline and 1,177 bronze medallions were meticulously planned to reflect both the physical and human scale of the tragedy.

• Stories Etched in Bronze
  Touching narratives of the young men who died—brothers, cousins, friends, even father-son duos—and how research is giving voice to those long forgotten.

• Education Through Innovation
  Plans to introduce interactive technology allowing visitors to explore personal histories and connect with the memorial through mobile access.

• Personal Reflections from a Community Historian
  David Carter shares the emotional moments, challenges, and enduring community impact of creating this tribute.

🕯️ Why It Matters:

This episode serves as a powerful Memorial Day reflection, reminding us how local spaces can carry national memory. Through storytelling and civic design, Tucson becomes home to one of the most meaningful mainland tributes to Pearl Harbor.

On December 7, 1941, the USS Arizona was lost in the attack on Pearl Harbor, taking with it 1,177 sailors and Marines. The ship never sailed again, but its legacy echoes across the nation and now finds a powerful, permanent presence right here in Tucson.

In this special Memorial Day episode, we revisit our 2018 conversation with David Carter, the designer and visionary behind the USS Arizona Mall Memorial on the University of Arizona campus. This episode goes deeper than our original broadcast and includes extended segments and never-before-heard stories from that moving interview.

The memorial itself is stunning in both scale and symbolism. A life-sized outline of the ship stretches nearly 600 feet across the UA Mall and is anchored by 1,177 bronze medallions embedded in the ground. Each medallion carries a name, a birth year, and a solemn reminder of a life cut short. It is a space for remembrance, reflection, and education planted firmly in the heart of Wildcat territory.

🧭 The Vision and the Voice Behind the Memorial

David Carter’s journey to bring this tribute to life began decades ago when he was a journalism student at the University of Arizona. He recalls walking through the old Student Union and discovering a small, almost hidden museum with relics from the USS Arizona. That quiet moment of discovery would eventually grow into a public vision to create a memorial that not only preserved history but made people feel it.

In his conversation with host Tom Heath, Carter shares the story of how a casual discussion in 2012 became the seed of something monumental. The idea was simple in theory: outline the ship on the mall and name every person who perished. But the execution was profound. Working with university officials, veterans, and his wife Bobby Jo, Carter helped shape a memorial that captures both the physical scale of the ship and the emotional scale of the loss.

Bobby Jo has since compiled hundreds of profiles on the men who died that day. These are not just names in bronze. They are brothers, cousins, fathers, and friends, many from small towns across the country. Some enlisted underage. Others were orphans of the Depression. Through their research, the Carters have uncovered family stories long forgotten and in doing so created a bridge between our modern world and a moment that forever changed history.

📱 A Future of Interactive Remembrance

What makes the USS Arizona Mall Memorial unique is not just its powerful physical presence but its evolving digital future. David Carter envisions a world where visitors, especially students, can use their smartphones to connect directly with the lives memorialized in bronze. Imagine walking across the mall and being able to search for sailors from your home state, your age, or your last name. Imagine standing above a medallion and reading the story of a 17-year-old boy who died at sea, his photo glowing softly on your screen.

This forward-thinking vision adds another layer to the memorial through accessibility and engagement. By making history more personal and more immediate, Carter hopes to awaken a deeper understanding among younger generations, especially those walking the same path he did as a Wildcat.

Tom Heath’s conversation with Carter is a blend of memory, design, and passion. It is a reminder that honoring the past is not just about what we build. It is about the stories we tell and the connections we create.

🕊️ Walk the Deck, Share the Story

If you are in Tucson or passing through, we invite you to visit the USS Arizona Mall Memorial on the campus of the University of Arizona. Take the time to walk the outline, pause at the medallions, and reflect on the sacrifice of those who served. It is free, open to the public, and one of the most meaningful pieces of public memory in the city.

🎧 Listen to the episode to hear the full conversation with David Carter and discover stories you will not find anywhere else.

Have a personal connection to the USS Arizona? Know a story that should be preserved? We want to hear from you.

Visit our Contact Page or click the Contact button at the top of the site and tell Tom all the details. Your story might just be the next piece of Tucson’s living history.

Tom Heath
Good morning. It’s a beautiful Sunday in the Old Pueblo. And you’re listening to Kate RT. Tucson. Thank you for spending a part of your brunch hour with us on your downtown Tucson community. Sponsored, all volunteer powered rock and roll radio station. This week, we honor Memorial Day by revisiting a powerful 2018 conversation with David Carter, the designer of the USS Arizona memorial.

Tom Heath
In December of 2016, survivors gathered on the University of Arizona mall for the dedication of this unique tribute. It’s a life size outline of the ship and a solemn plus solemn plaza bearing 1177 medallions, each honoring a sailor or marine lost during the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. My name is Tom Heath. Today is May 25th, and you’re listening to Life Along the Streetcar.

Tom Heath
Each and every Sunday we shine a light on social, cultural and economic forces shaping Tucson’s urban core from a mountain to the University of Arizona and all stops in between. You’ll get the inside track right here on 99.1 FM, streaming on Downtown Radio Talk or through the Downtown Radio Tucson app on your phone. If you want to connect with us directly about the show, follow Life-Long A Streetcar on Facebook and Instagram, or head over to Life Along the Streetcar Dawg.

Tom Heath
Most episodes are posted there with audio and video. Plus, you’ll find past shows, info on our book, and an easy way to reach out. Well, as I mentioned, we are going to be revisiting an interview with David Carter, but this one’s a little bit different than what we aired back in 2018. At the time, we were doing multiple segments per show, and we didn’t have time to air the entire, interview we did with David.

Tom Heath
We edited into a shorter version. So what you’re going to hear today is part of that interview that was aired in 2018, but also, footage that we have never shared before. It’s our tribute to Memorial Day. And this is recorded on the U of A mall. So there’s little wind and background noise.

David Carter
I’m David Carter. I was the creator and project designer for the USS Arizona mall Memorial. We’ve thus far, accomplished two of our three objectives with this attempt to have a mainland tribute to the 1177 sailors and marines who were killed on the USS Arizona, Pearl Harbor. We have on the mall now, since December 2016, a full scale outline of the deck of the ship.

David Carter
It covers 1.3 acres, almost 600ft long, almost 100ft wide. It’s a little bit difficult to try to grasp the extent of it from any given position. You almost have to sort of walk that out way to get a get a sense of. I had 15 seconds of the same, day before the 75th anniversary of Pearl Harbor on on the CBS Evening News, when I was explaining the ABC in the original layout of the outline of the deck.

David Carter
We began at the curb in front of Old Man when we got down to. There’s a concrete retaining wall in front of the desert card. We had 5/8 of an inch to spare. We ended up slightly tweaking that alignment, but that was an example of something that are useful. It was meant to be in this location, on this spot.

David Carter
The outline issue explains something of the scale of the of the ship. But within this, was 39ft wide. So 90ft across, our three inch grass medallions to each of the men who were killed on the ship. And that is the second step that’s conveying the human scale of the loss. And we’re trying here to, have something of an entree to younger people.

David Carter
So on each of these medallions, we have the year born and year die. One window survived into first century, 1942, a do away from getting care to Cisco. Before he died. All the others, died in 1941. Most of them on December this moment. Died during the attack. The Japanese bombs, blew up forward magazine. Smooth enough to the forward portion of the ship.

David Carter
Out of the water. And instantly cure, most of those 1177 sailors and Marines, the third aspect that we hope we can have in place, before too much longer, is something that has a wi fi aspect where someone with a phone or ability to plug in to, wi fi on the mall here will be able to call up any given name and where we have photos, see, on a phone a photo of that guy and read about him and his family.

David Carter
In the case of 26 families, when the word came, it was not that one. Sir had been killed, but the two had died on a ship. So there are 26 pairs of medallions that have italic notation to the top saying brother up, and the initials of the other brother, and then the corresponding inscription for the, for the other one.

David Carter
There’s also a, similar inscriptions for a father and son who were killed on the ship. What, research. But my wife has made very clear she now is compiled, going on 400 profiles of the men killed on the ship. And they’re still working away on that. I hope to shortly be retired and be assisting her in completing that work.

David Carter
But what what she has found is that it wasn’t just brothers and father and son. There were dozens and dozens of cousins on the ship. There were uncles and nephews. There were scores of guys who were best friends. Typically growing up in small towns. And then there was one man, who grew up outside of Waterloo, Iowa.

David Carter
William Ball, you know, ball.

David Carter
Five brothers who grew up with him played ball with him when they heard of his dad on years on and they went down to list and they insisted that they all be allowed to serve together.

David Carter
In November 1942. They were on the white cruiser USS Juneau, which it’s a large ship, but it took two Japanese torpedoes before the five brothers were killed, and almost immediately, the fifth brother survived for over a day before he also succumbed before the Navy was able to rescue those who who were still alive. So those were the five Sword and Brothers.

David Carter
It was an famous World War Two movie made about them, about their experience. There was a destroyer named after them that is, today tied up, outside, Buffalo, New York. So it was an Arizona connection to the worst of the incidents where brothers and relatives were. Perished. Here. The talk about, age, mathematics.

David Carter
But the typical age of, one of the, the names on the to die is how old were with his name? There was one guy from Tucson. He was still 17 when he died. One quarter of the men who were killed were still teenagers when they died. Five of them were still 16 years old when they died because they had enlisted illegally.

David Carter
Flannery. The late 1930s in much of the country, it was still the aftermath of the Great Depression. There were huge number of men on the ship who were orphans. Their economic prospects were minimal. It seems then that the average age is somewhere, in that 1920 to 23 range. That’s right. Which is exactly the the average age of the student walking across this campus every day.

David Carter
Right. So, so we hope that we can have a number of different aspects to a phase of this where, if you’re here at the university and from Michigan, you want to see the map of your seat. You can you can do that in sequence. Or if you want to see, the men who are just were the same age as you are now.

David Carter
You can also do that. Our hope is that we can have perhaps six different positions around the outline of that ship, where from that position, you can be able to see on, on a phone or a laptop, a view of the ship from that position, understand what it looks like, just get goosebumps at least one arm or it’s just walking.

David Carter
The outline of this is so inspiring. But just to get that view of the would be amazing.

Tom Heath
We are talking with David Carter, the designer of the USS Arizona memorial. This was an interview done back into 2018, and, we’re airing parts of it that we’ve never, put on the show before. And we’ll be back to the second half of this interview in just a moment. But I do want to remind you that you’re listening to lifelong the streetcar on downtown radio.

Tom Heath
99.1 FM and streaming on downtown radio.org.

David Carter
This podcast is sponsored by Tom Heath and the team at Nova Home Loans. If you’ve enjoyed this podcast, continue listening or head over to life on the Street Khou.com. For current events and information on what to do while visiting Tucson. Tom Heath and MLS number 182420 Nova and MLS number 3087. The UK number 0902429. Equal Housing Opportunity.

Tom Heath
If you’re just joining us, we are in the middle of an interview that was recorded back in 2018 with David Carter, the designer of the USS Arizona mall memorial on the U of A campus. And we are airing some elements that have never been on our show before. So it is a somewhat new and somewhat, borrowed from the past, but it’s our way of showing respect and honoring Memorial Day.

Tom Heath
This is the second half with David Carter. This isn’t something that.

David Carter
Just happens, but what what drew you to this project in the beginning, or why did you think this was important, and how did it end up on the U of A mall? Well, I was a U of A student in the late 60s, early 70s, and, I was a journalism major. I wrote one article for The Wildcat, but was often dropping in, visiting friends who worked on the Wildcat.

David Carter
It was on the second floor of the student union and across the hallway was a small museum with memorabilia from the USS Arizona. Years later, that first student union, which had the bell in a tower, with grille work in front of it where you couldn’t you couldn’t see the bell and the and the small museum up on the second floor, where most people had no idea it existed.

David Carter
The replacement, Student Union was built circa 2000. And you can now see the bell. It’s visible in the new tower and directly around the corner from the tower on the first floor. And a highly visible area is the small museum. And a beautiful aspect of it is that it incorporates, brass, windows and doors from the first student union.

David Carter
So it’s a very nautical aspect to to the museum. I was talking in 2012. Mark Kelly came to Centennial Hall to provide a community update on the rehab with his wife. Gabby Giffords in the aftermath of the January 8th shootings here, there was, a small gathering, backstage beforehand. And I was talking with Frank for years, who for decades was the head of the bookstore.

David Carter
I knew that he had been part of the planning on that, on the new student union. And I was congratulate. I had been by recently and had seen the scene, the new the tower, the student union, small museum. And I was congratulate him on that. We were we were talking about it when in my mind’s eye, I could visualize the nearly six foot long, one 100 scale model of the ship, which is in the in the museum here.

David Carter
It’s the ship as it was in 1935. It’s an excellent model, but from having visited, World War Two destroyers, similar to the one that my father served on, I knew that a model doesn’t begin to convey scale. It’s hard for anyone, to translate the scale of a model, even if it’s a round number, like 1 to 100 into the the size.

David Carter
So I, I said to Frank, it would be great if we could outline this ship album on the wall to convey that scale in a fraction of a second later, I said, and if we could include the names of each of the men who perished on that day on the ship, that would convey the human scale. So that was one of the steps, 1 to 2.

David Carter
And then gradually, evolved the idea of trying to further expand what’s out here with the help of, of wi fi. If. We can have people be able to come in and see photos of, for example, three of the men, including a guy who at the time was 15 when they were at bootcamp. That really is is it’s so powerful to see an image like what I would imagine for the families who were just talking earlier, before the interview, of someone whose husband was the the nephew of someone that was on the Arizona and, and hearing about this was something of the being today, December 7th, that they wanted to come out and be

David Carter
a part of that. And this is you know, this has been up for two years now. This has been open and to talk about for some time. So there’s still families just learning about this and the research that you and your wife are doing 100 stories. I would imagine that’s just opening up a whole nother realm of of a historical perspective on this event.

David Carter
It’s it’s something that, Bobby Joe is, is taking the lead and trying to convey, the personal aspects and, and the stories, the fact that, well, last summer, she was she was able to get hold of a fellow, in Hillview, a small community about 70 miles north of Saint Louis in, corn country in Illinois.

David Carter
And he thought he could, get hold of the woman that had a county or regional storage society. He did had her call back. And Bobby Joe had known that there were two men. Joe, and had died on the Arizona. The woman, talked with her for about half an hour, explaining everything that she had been able to gather about these two men, and Bobby Joe was very interested, but she was, thinking of, well, this is great.

David Carter
I need to get to work on it. And she just began to thank the woman for her help when the woman said, well, are you not interested in the other two men? My wife did not know that there were four men from Hillview, which in 1940 had a population of 540 girls. That two of them went on the ship initially.

David Carter
The two others followed success successively. And all four were killed. They were not related. They were within three years of each other in the local small high school. But even though not related to a small town, with that, every single person seemed likely knew them, and the impact on them. We set out everything here in alphabetical order, irrespective of rank.

David Carter
The to and seaman second class, brand new to the Arizona immediately precedes in alphabetical order. His medallion immediately precedes that of Captain Franklin. Jimbo Cooper’s skipper of the ship. How are you figuring out what stories to investigate and what names to do first? It’s a bit of a mix. Somebody has been asked. Something is readily available.

David Carter
And we’re it’s it’s it’s known or there’s there’s a connection or someone calls, and or emails, and there’s a connection. But also partly it’s, it’s trying to systematically work through, the names early in 2019, the National Park Service at Pearl Harbor. Is expecting to finally post, the high res scans that had been made.

David Carter
Personal records called bricks. They were in cardboard, rectangular containers in the executive officers quarters. On the ship. On the ship? They were all seen on the fire bridge for the case. There’s only for three days before anyone could get on the ship. We’re hoping that the information in each of those bricks will be a real, like we’re trying to compile.

David Carter
There were be hopes. I remember when this, at the inaugural, events, in 2016, you had survivors of the USS Arizona. Are they still all living? Have they? Are they passed? There are today five, remaining survivors. And of those five, amazingly, two were up on the range finder platforms. In the in the port platform, they were partly sheltered by the 36 inch diameter mass of the ship on which the fell.

David Carter
That’s here today. Was hung, when the forward magazines exploded, a bit to the starboard or right side of the number two turret. They that blast, killed all the men who were in the starboard or control, unit. The ones on the port side. Because of the foremast and being a little bit further away, were able to to get out.

David Carter
A line was passed to them from the rest of the, repair ship tied up next to the tourism. And a seaman there disregarded an officer’s orders to sever the line so the vessel could try to get out into the harbor. So there were I think it was 8 or 9 men from that, fire control director of a steel box that were able hand over hand to get off.

David Carter
Both Lauren Bruner, one of the survivors today, and Don Stratton, they were in, hospital for nine months before returning to service throughout the war. With both of them in succeeding years who had operation after operation for skin grafts because of the burns that they received. Bruner came out here in 2016. In September, when the university laid out, Hawaii at the at the football stadium here.

David Carter
And Brennan was introduced at half time. Beforehand that after that, that day, he had fielded questions for about 45 minutes from, Navy and Marine, ROTC students. One of those students, pretty sharp guy, managed to email him. A couple months later, he knew that Bruner lives, outside Los Angeles. He said that I’ll be graduating in June.

David Carter
Received my commission assignments. And would you be willing to come over and give me my first salute? And Bruner, who is, at the time was, 94, 95, said absolutely. So we hope to get posted, on a website, a video of that person on the phone. Who else was, this is an amazing undertaking. Step one of the physical scale and step two of the of the, human scale is, is quite amazing.

David Carter
And I’m excited about step three of this historical perspective that’s coming. What technology and time and energy. There’s there’s so much, so much to look forward to. Thank you for your time. Thank you for doing this. Thank Bobby Joe for us. Thank you.

Tom Heath
That was David Carter, the designer of the USS Arizona memorial on the U of A campus. I want to thank you for tuning in today. And you can always reach us at life along the streetcar.org. If you’ve got any questions or, have show suggestions. James Porter is our executive producer. Amanda Maltose is our associate producer, and I’m Tom.

Tom Heath
He’s your host. Our opening music is from Ryan Hood, and we’re leaving you today with the accidentals for a 2017 album Odyssey. It’s called Memorial Day. Have a great week and tune in next Sunday for more life along the streetcar.