5 things to know when visiting Tucson's USS Arizona Mall Memorial

Parking

Park at the Second Street garage (blue pin on the map) on the southeast corner of North Mountain Avenue and East Second Street. This is the closest parking structure to the memorial. Expect to pay for parking. If you haven’t parked at the UA before, follow these steps: You’ll receive a ticket when you enter the parking garage. Take it with you when you leave your car. Pay on the first level when you return to the garage at the cashier window — you’ll need the ticket you received when you came in. Your ticket will reflect that you paid and you can use it to open the gate when you leave. If the gates are open when you arrive, you’re in luck. Parking is free that day.

Since the Second Street garage may be unavailable when the university is in session, there are other garages: Cherry Avenue, on Cherry near the stadium, the Sixth Street garage, at Sixth Street and Santa Rita Avenue, and the Tyndall Avenue garage at Tyndall and Fourth Street. The rules are the same: take your ticket with you and pay the cashier when you return. These garages are a longer walk, but still not too bad.

Where is it?

The memorial is at the west end of the University of Arizona Mall (red pin on the map), which is almost the exact size to hold the outline of the USS Arizona. Upon leaving the Second Street garage at the Mountain Avenue end, walk past the traffic circle and through the Student Union breezeway. Cross the street and you will be at the mall.

What to expect

The west portion of the University of Arizona Mall is almost the exact size to hold the outline of the USS Arizona. You’ll find the outline of the ship on the ground. The main part of the memorial is the section where the bridge of the ship would be. There you’ll find medallions — 1,177 of them — one for each of the men who died on the ship as a result of the attack along with information about them.

Accessibility

The parking garages have elevators and the memorial is at ground level. There are wheelchair accessible places to get up the single step to the memorial. Most of the memorial is grass, so moving about in a wheelchair might be slow. The “bridge” area, where the medallions and names are, is paved. The medallions are easily seen by someone in a wheelchair. There is no shuttle to take you from the parking garage to the memorial — it is for students and employees only. If you are in a wheelchair, scooter or have limited mobility, it would be wise to have a companion with you.

How it came to be and how you can help

The project was the idea and design of David Carter, whose father spent most of World War II in the Pacific theater. He felt that outlining the ship on the University of Arizona mall would give a sense of the huge scale of the ship and the scale of the loss of human life.

Construction began in the fall of 2016 and was completed just in time for the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The memorial was dedicated December 4, 2016.

The project was funded entirely from contributions. Upkeep will also be paid for with contributions, which may be made online at ussarizonamallmemorial.org

NATICK, Mass. — A World War II museum in Massachusetts is displaying artifacts commemorating the Pearl Harbor attack ahead of the Dec. 7 anniversary.

The International Museum of World War II says it recently acquired a life ring from the USS Arizona.

The battleship was among those destroyed in the surprise attack by Japan on the U.S naval base in Hawaii that prompted the U.S. to enter the war in 1941.

The ship's sunken remains are now a national memorial.

The museum, located in the Boston suburb of Natick, also displays many other artifacts related to the attack.

Among them is Japan's formal declaration of war against the U.S., pieces of Japanese planes shot down at Pearl Harbor and women's panties that read: "Remember Pearl Harbor, Don't Get Caught with Your Pants Down."