We accompanied Don Stratton with a group of US Navy, US Coast Guard, and US National Park Service all dressed formal uniform out to the memorial with the flag flown at half mast and everyone silent but tears were almost audible as they streamed down faces and people made throat clearing sounds trying to not shed tears. I think it will make an impression on a lot of people, I really do.” Now, when I go back and remember, it’s a little easier. After that, it was extremely hard to return. At the time of the explosion, it was self-preservation. I don’t know anybody in the galley that survived that day. When presented with the 3D print of the cooking pot for the first time, Stratton said, “ That is amazing. We handed Don the print of the artifacts that remain on the ship today. What an amazing man that makes you just stand in awe and respect and truly a fine representative of America's finest generation. Imagine burns over most of your body and diving into a harbor under attack with bombs and torpedoes with oil on the surface engulfed in fire, not being able to see, and pulling yourself to another ship by rope, and then after a long hospitalization re-enlisting back to active duty. Don Stratton's story of survival and loosing all his unit is a story one will never forget for as long as I live. This past Memorial Day was significant and emotional when Pete Kelsey and I got to meet one of the less than a dozen remaining survivors that were aboard the USS Arizona during the attack, US Navy veteran Don Stratton. It was another amazing result and you can even see all the organic life living on the bottle and the US NPS artifact tag. Here is the resulting 3D digital model of the Coke bottle generated by Autodesk ReCap Photo and an image of the mesh in Autodesk Memento. It has remained on the deck of the USS Arizona since 1941. Here you can see a photo of the 1941 Coke bottle complete with a US National Parks tag on it. Here is the resulting 3D digital model of the cooking pot generated by Autodesk ReCap Photo. These were items used by people not just another inanimate object under the water. You truly feel the significance when down on the USS Arizona of all the lost lives and historical record of events and yet you still see objects the men used daily including the cooking pots, plates, coke bottles, shaving kits, shoe soles and more. This cooking pot was in the ships galley and used to cook meals for the service members onboard the USS Arizona. Here you can see a photo of the cooking pot as it rests on the deck of the USS Arizona covered in sponges and organic debris after over 70 years. Jerry immediately and without hesitation offered to 3D print the two artifacts in color and put me in contact with his 3D printing ninja Kyle Gifford who also uses Autodesk products like Autodesk Maya. I reached out to local Utah 3D printing company and their amazing CEO Jerry Ropelato. It was a natural and positive and beneficial use of 3D printing to be used in education and at the USS Arizona Memorial and World War II Valor in the Pacific. We could imagine the idea of people being able to hold accurate representations in 3D in their own hands of objects that currently rest on the deck of the USS Arizona. I will never forget falling asleep in my wetsuit only to be awoken by tourists walking by and some taking photos of me under the dock as I lay there in a hot neoprene wetsuit.Īfter creating the 3D models and colleague Craig Barr touching up the model in Autodesk Mudbox, the models were so amazing we knew they had to be 3D printed. It was truly exhausting work and many of us found ourselves when resting on the dock falling asleep almost instantly after surfacing from a dive and doing this over 14 hours a day. Easier said than done and definitely physically demanding capturing hundreds of photos in a orbiting sequence exercising good buoyancy and control. Here is one of the project divers with a camera in an underwater housing taking photos. The models created by Autodesk ReCap Photo were highly detailed given that we captured the photos SCUBA diving in very limited visibility water sometimes having to swim inverted upside down to photograph the objects and also prevent the silt from being stirred up. The items were a cooking pot and a Coke bottle. Two of the artifacts captured using photos and Autodesk ReCap Photo were iconic and historically significant as they had been in the hands or used by those onboard during the Pearl Harbor attacks of December 7th, 1941. Autodesk partnered with the US National Park Service to undertake the most complete study of the USS Arizona in 30 years both above and below water using many 3D capture technologies.