Computer models helping to tell story of Pearl Harbor

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BRUCE ASATO / BASATO@STARADVERTISER.COM
Don Stratton held a model of a cooking pot found on the ship.

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Don Stratton, who was a sailor on the USS Arizona during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, and one of just a handful of USS Arizona survivors still living, held Monday a 3-D printed model of a soda bottle — the original of which was found on the sunken battleship. At right is Pete Kelsey, strategic projects executive from Autodesk, who used the data collected in the 3-D modeling programs to enable the 3-D printing of the artifacts.

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Software experts are unveiling preliminary results of the first comprehensive digital survey of the USS Arizona Memorial in hopes 3-D computer models of the historic ship will one day help the National Park Service tell the story of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Several agencies and businesses, including the National Park Service, Oceanic Imaging Consultants Inc., Shark Marine Technologies Inc. and Navy Mobile Diving Salvage Unit 1, worked together for six months last year to capture images of the historic sunken vessel.

During a news conference Monday at the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center, Pete Kelsey, strategic projects executive for Autodesk Inc., a software corporation, said the survey project’s work marked the first time several technological tools, ranging from terrestial laser scanning to multibeam side-scan sonar, were used together to collect data.

Kelsey, a member of the project’s dive team, said he hopes the medium will help survivors and others tell the story of Pearl Harbor. The survey team has completed the measurement phase.

The next step, Kelsey said, is creating 3-D computer models of the memorial based on the collected data. Models have been created out of sandstone of items the dive team discovered, including a cooking pot used in the ship’s galley.

Scott Pawlowski, chief of cultural and natural resources of the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument, said the project’s aim is to use the computer models as another way to educate the public about the Dec. 7, 1941, attack and the sacrifices made for freedom. About 1.8 million people visited the memorial last year.

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At the news conference, USS Arizona survivor Don Stratton, 92, shared his personal experience of the attack. Stratton, then 19, suffered burns to more than 70 percent of his body from a fireball shortly after a 1,757-pound armor-piercing aerial bomb penetrated the Arizona’s forward deck and blew up ammunition and fuel stores.

He and six other shipmates, who also suffered severe burns, negotiated the burning deck to safety on the USS Vestel, moored alongside.

Stratton said items discovered and pending computer models will honor his fallen shipmates.

"They’ll be remembered forever," he said, referring to the 1,177 USS Arizona crewmen who perished in the attack, a majority entombed inside the ship.

Stratton’s son Randy, who also attended the news conference, commended software experts for their work to preserve the history of Pearl Harbor.

"It’s truly touching for me and touching for my dad," he said.