WILMINGTON, N.C. (AP) - The Battleship North Carolina is celebrating its 50th annual Memorial Day observance with a speech by U.S. Sen. Richard Burr.
Burr will speak Monday at the event, which includes music by a military band.
The battleship is now is a state memorial to World War II veterans and the 10,000 North Carolinians who died during that war.
It was commissioned in April 1941 and participated in every major naval offensive in the Pacific area of operations.
The battleship later served as a training vessel for midshipmen before being decommissioned in June 1947. A campaign to save the ship from being scrapped was successful, allowing the ship to arrive in North Carolina in October 1961.
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