ussoklahomabb37

USS Oklahoma, one of the first two oil-powered battleships of the US Navy. She was bombed and sunk at Pearl Harbor in 1941. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Oklahoma_%28BB-37%29

Vought VE-7G, BuNo A-5693, as per the Joe Baugher site: www.joebaugher.com/navy_serials/firstseries1.html "A5693 crashed during catapult test Oct 26, 1923, USS California."

She was launched on 23 March 1914, sponsored by Lorena J. Cruce, the daughter of Governor of Oklahoma Lee Cruce. USS Oklahoma (BB-37), the only ship of the United States Navy to ever be named for the 46th state, was a World War I-era battleship and the second of two ships in her class; her sister ship was Nevada. She, along with Nevada, were the first two U.S. warships to use oil fuel instead of coal. Commissioned in 1916, Oklahoma served in World War I as a member of BatDiv 6, protecting Allied convoys on their way across the Atlantic. After years of spending time in the Pacific and the Scouting Fleets, Oklahoma was modernized from 1927 to 1929. She rescued American citizens and refugees from the Spanish Civil War in 1936; after returning to the West coast in August of that year, she spent the rest of her life in the Pacific. She was sunk by Japanese bombs and torpedoes on 7 December 1941, in the attack on Pearl Harbor, taking 429 of her crew with her as she capsized. She was uprighted in 1943, but unlike most of the other battleships damaged in the Pearl Harbor attack, she was never repaired and returned to duty. Instead, Oklahoma was stripped of guns and superstructure, and sold for scrap. She sank while under tow to the mainland in 1947. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Oklahoma_(BB-37)

Another Bain/LOC photo from the launching of the "Oklahoma":

My great grandfather helped build her.