Oklahoma History Center - WW2 USS Oklahoma Items

[aznation]

My wife and I recently visited this museum here in Oklahoma City which is really nice and found that they had a few USS Oklahoma items on display, so I thought I'd share. They also have other militaria on exhibit there. If you're ever in OKC, it's well worth a visit.

[aznation]

Some more pics. Ooops, the Carry Nation pic shouldn't be in there. Sorry. Admin can remove if they wish.

[RustyCanteen]

Nice photos, was there a sign for the officer's choker jacket? Looks like my friends coat.

 

RC

[aznation]

There was a sign at the bottom of the jacket but unfortunately I didn't get that pic. You can see that sign at the bottom of the display sign but the wording is not visible. I just remember the sign saying something about it being an oil-soaked jacket and there might have been a name on the sign as well.

[RustyCanteen]

Thanks for the photos, if I am ever in the area I will have to have a look. A friend of mine was an Ensign assigned to Turret IV, and narrowly escaped before the ship capsized. We talked often, and in the course of our talks, he said he had kept his oil soaked jacket from that day. Later, he donated it to the ship's association, and when they disbanded he had heard it was donated to a museum in the OKC area. Probably his! He passed in 2007, at 91. Great guy.

 

RC

[aznation]

If I remember correctly, I think the sign did say that it belonged to an Ensign. If you wanted to check you could contact them. I'm sure someone there would be happy to give you the information.

 

Website: http://www.okhistory.org/historycenter/

Phone: (405) 521-2491

[stealthytyler]

Is that the 45th Div museum?

[KASTAUFFER]

I wonder if that is Ens. Rommel's jacket ( later Capt.) ?

I was just reading the book Trapped at Pearl Harbor: Escape from Battleship Oklahoma the other day. I own a US Navy Good Conduct Medal recovered from the ship when she was turned upright. It belonged to the CPO who was in turret 4.

Kurt

[RustyCanteen]

Hi Kurt,

 

I'm almost certain it is his; I don't know of another oil-stained Oklahoma officer's uniform out there. He told me about donating it, and that it ended up in an OKC area museum.

 

RC

 

I wonder if that is Capt Rommel's (then Ens.)jacket.

I was just reading the book Trapped at Pearl Harbor: Escape from Battleship Oklahoma the other day.

Kurt

 

[aznation]

No, the Oklahoma History Center is not the 45th Infantry Museum. I've been to the 45th museum which is amazing but almost, if not all, military items. The Oklahoma History Center has a military section in it which is real interesting but not near the amount of the 45th museum. The Oklahoma History Center has a variety of items related to Oklahoma history in general. It's a beautiful and relatively new museum established in 2005.

 

P.S. The name Rommel rings a bell in relation to that oil-soaked jacket. Dang, I wish I had taken a picture of that sign. It's the only one I didn't. Pretty sure it's Rommel's though, now that Kurt mentioned the name.

[tsakers85]

I've been down in collections storage where they have the ship's punch bowl. It used to be in service for gubernatorial inaugurations. They made a copy of the punch bowl a number of years ago to use instead. Unfortunately, the original bowl continues to have the chemicals for the mold leach out of it.