Pearl Harbor: Save Tacoma's historic ship

Re: “75 years after Pearl Harbor, Tacoma ship’s legacy lingers,” (TNT, 12/4).

I enjoyed your article. Responses to the Pearl Harbor attack are recalled including riots in Seattle and the treatment of Japanese-Americans. The article also reveals a Pearl Harbor survivor, the former Coast Guard cutter Tiger, now serving as a floating breakwater for a Tacoma marina.

Fewer and fewer people remember the Pearl Harbor attack. Its importance is fading like the sinking of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor a few generations earlier. Younger generations recall the 911 attacks like we recall Pearl Harbor.

We should do more to stem the erosion of memory. One way would be to bring the Tiger ashore and place it on a bed of gravel. Sand blast and paint the Tiger’s pitted steel again. Landscape around it grandly. Place a granite marker in front, with benches facing the historic relic.

Let the memory of those who perished below decks in the USS Arizona, Utah and Oklahoma not be lost to us. The Tiger, as a preserved relic would be a poignant reminder.

This story was originally published December 7, 2016 at 2:18 PM with the headline "Pearl Harbor: Save Tacoma's historic ship."