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This year, on December 7th for Pearl Harbor Day, I was flattered to be invited to the USS Batfish in Muskogee, OK for their annual “Pearl Harbor Tribute” Event.  The Muskogee War Memorial Park has a permanent Ham Radio Club that meets regularly at the location, and operates HF from their radio room, also from inside of the submarine itself.  For Pearl Harbor Day, they planned something special.

Several students from various areas attended the event and were able to operate the HF bands on both 20- and 40-meters.  Several classrooms in the area were also on-the-air for demonstration of HF propagation, Ham Radio operating practice and education.  The video below shows a special event with some of that operation.

Also recorded was Message Traffic from inside the USS Batfish using the callsign WW2OK, honoring the life of CPO James Booe, the Band Master aboard the USS Oklahoma killed on Dec 7th, 1941 during a Disabled American Veterans Naming Facility (in his honor) in Florida.  This was a special request from the group in Florida that honored us with the request.

We heard MANY MANY schools on the air discussing history with other ships that took the time to activate on this date.  Our youngest military licensed student sent a Traffic Message to Florida.  Each QSO with a student was unique and hopefully memorable.  From my listening vantage point, those QSOs between ships and school students were priceless and worth the effort by all those involved.

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