63 years ago, their lives changed

By Mike Gordon and William Cole
Advertiser Staff Writers

Once again, on the shores of Pearl Harbor, history and memory will tug at the hearts of the dwindling gray warriors when they mark the moment their lives changed — 63 years ago on Dec. 7, 1941.

Survivors from the USS Oklahoma gather at the new exhibit at the USS Arizona Memorial visitor center. The exhibit, unveiled yesterday, honors the 429 men from the Oklahoma who died in the Dec. 7, 1941, attack. From left, Ed Vezey of Center, Colo.; George Smith of Tenio, Wash.; George Brown of 'Aiea Heights; Jerry Tessaro of Stockton, Calif.; and Paul Goodyear of Casa Grande, Ariz. Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser

Brown, 83, who lives in 'Aiea Heights, remembers "a kid I had joined the Navy with — Jimmy Collins. A torpedo hit in there. He didn't know what hit him."

George Smith, now 80, dived overboard and watched the Oklahoma roll over. Fourteen men trapped in compartment D-57 made a risky escape, swimming 90 feet to freedom. Two days later, 32 men were cut out of the hull and survived.

Five USS Oklahoma veterans are in Hawai'i for the 63rd anniversary, and for the unveiling of a new exhibit of wall panels and artifacts from the battleship, which capsized 12 minutes after the first torpedo hit. "I think about it (what happened that day) quite a bit," Smith said yesterday.

The ranks of the Dec. 7 survivors are thinner with each year. Time and age have done what Japanese bullets and bombs could not on that Sunday morning.

Today, the Pearl Harbor survivors will honor their losses, old and new. They'll pause for Marine bugler Richard Fiske, who was aboard the USS West Virginia during the attack, and sailor Noel B. Chapman, who was assigned to the USS Arizona with his brother, Naaman. There were 37 sets of brothers who were part of the Arizona crew.

Naaman was among 1,177 crew members who died when the battleship was sunk in the harbor. Noel's remains will be placed in Gun Turret 4.

Fiske, who was a poignant fixture at the memorial, died in April. On the last Sunday of each month, he would play taps and lay two roses at the Arizona — one for American casualties, and one for the Japanese — using money sent by Japanese bomber pilot Zenji Abe, with whom Fiske later became friends.

Abe, 88, today will carry on the tradition, with the Japanese daughter of a friend playing taps on the viola.

Chapman also died earlier this year, and divers will place his ashes aboard the Arizona this afternoon. Yesterday, meanwhile, the remains of Photographer's Mate 2nd Class Thomas C. Molay were interred on board the USS Utah off Ford Island.

The ghosts of sailors lost don't haunt Smith as much, but he still has unfinished business with the Oklahoma, which went down where the USS Missouri now is berthed as a floating museum.

"It's kind of rough for me in a way because I don't like the Missouri being there," Smith said. "There's nothing here (besides the new Arizona visitor center exhibit) that says USS Oklahoma. You can go over to Ford Island and look around, and you won't see it."

Veterans are pushing for a permanent memorial on Ford Island.

Jenni Burbank of the National Park Service lowers an urn from the pier of the USS Utah Memorial to Navy divers for the interment of Thomas C. Molay in the USS Utah in Pearl Harbor. Photographer's Mate 2nd Class Molay was serving aboard the USS Utah on Dec 7, 1941. Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser

Arizona Memorial historian Daniel Martinez said six out of about a dozen of the Pearl Harbor survivors who volunteer at the memorial have died in the last year.

The National Park Service and the U.S. Navy will mark this historic day with separate, simultaneous ceremonies. Both will mark the moment the attack began — 7:55 a.m. — with a moment of silence.

Martinez said there are about 700 invited guests for today's ceremonies, and another 800 to 1,300 members of the public are expected, in addition to the approximately 3,200 people who visit the memorial daily.

Author and U.S. Naval Institute historian Paul Stillwell will be the keynote speaker at the park service's program at the Arizona visitor center. The program runs from 7:45 to 9 a.m.

Vice Adm. Gary Roughead, deputy commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, will be the keynote speaker at the Navy ceremony on the memorial. The ceremony is by invitation only.

The young will honor the fallen, too. Tyler Dietrich, a 9-year-old from Ashland, Ky. suffering from a brain tumor, received a Make-A-Wish Foundation trip to Hawai'i to attend the Pearl Harbor ceremonies in honor of his great-grandfather.

The service also will include more than 40 wreath presentations, a rifle salute, echo taps, honors rendered by the destroyer USS Chung-Hoon and Hawai'i Air National Guard F-15 flyover.

Reach Mike Gordon at mgordon@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8012. Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-5459.