his name was alfred preis. alfred was a refugee from austria and had come here before the war to flee the nazis that had now occupied his country. when the war breaks out, he is an enemy alien because he's of german/austrian ancestry. he's arrested and held for nearly six months. they find out that he is not an enemy of the state but rather a willing immigrant ready to help the navy with design of buildings during world war ii. after the war is over, he will create his own firm, alfred preis and associates and he'll be one of the architects asked to submit a design for the new "uss arizona" memorial. his design was the winning submission. and so it called for a memorial to span the wreck of the arizona but not touch it. the design was simple and yet extremely effective because it was designed as a suspension bridge. 36 piers on either side of this ship suspend the memorial above it. the design is basically one that soars and dips and reflects what happened at pearl harbor. initially the only purposeful design in