In memory of the  USS Arizona

Using an idea from my brother-in-law, Ty Adkins, we hit the beach with our blueprints and  started in on the sand around 11:00 am.... thinking all along that we'd have plenty of time to finish before sundown. 

Well, at 18 feet 6 inches, this sculpture turned out to be a lot more work than anticipated. 

At around 1:00 pm, a nearby beach dweller by the name of Mario walked up and announced: "I want you to know, I called the newspaper on you guys. Someone should be here around 2:00"

Ty and I looked at each other, and at our very unfinished project and thought, "Oh no!" 

Two o'clock was fast approaching... there was no way it'd ever be done, but we still attacked the project with a vengeance.  When David Tucker, the cameraman/reporter for the Daytona Beach News Journal finally arrived, at least the main part of the structure was up.  David snapped lots of photos, with this one finally making it into the paper:

Battle lines in the sand
	Photo by David Tucker June 15, 2001; Page 03C Section: News-JournalSECTION C Article ID: 0106150287
Ron Masters of Palm Bay works with care and finesse on a very detailed sand sculpture -- in this case, it's the battleship USS Arizona, memorialized at Pearl Harbor and now this week on Volusia County's beach. Masters and his brother in law, Ty Adkins, said they made several detailed sand sculptures during their stay this week at the Dolphin Beach resort in Daytona Beach Shores. Masters said he photographs the completed sculptures and puts them on his Web site, Sandcastling.com.

This sculpture lasted the night, but early the next morning a couple of "Zeros" (in the image of teenage boys, accidentally fell into the sculpture. As though a 20 foot battleship is something that you just casually miss.)

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