LONGVIEW — SAC Manufacturing in Longview is helping to restore Pearl Harbor, one of America’s most iconic places.
Owner David Gillespie says he received an email months ago requesting a bid to renovate the original dry docks of the harbor.
According to the Library of Congress, the largest of the docks is Drydock No. 4 at 1,089 feet long and 59 feet deep. It could easily fit the Iowa-class battleships used during World War II.
Many of the now-famous ships docked at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 were once upgraded and modernized on the dry docks of Pearl Harbor.
During the Japanese Attack on December 7, the USS Pennsylvania was in the dry dock.
Her crew became one of the first ships to fire on the Japanese planes during the attack. And because of her location off Battleship Row, she received relatively little damage during the attack.
But now that the dry dock is no longer in use by the Navy, SAC is hoping to preserve this important piece of American history.
"When we heard it was going to be a historical renovation project, we worked hard to be apart of the project,” Gillespie says. “The total cost of the project is 34 million dollars and we’re responsible for $30,000 of it."
His company will ship 6,000 pounds of specialized metal to Pearl Harbor. It will travel to California before catching a boat ride to Hawaii. Once all the materials arrive, Gillespie says it will take six months to complete the project.