Claude Ortiz still remembers the panicked sailors banging from the inside of the hull of the overturned USS Oklahoma.

It was Dec. 7, 1941, and the battleship had rolled over after taking five torpedoes. Altogether, 429 crew were killed. But after the attack, dozens remained trapped inside.

Ortiz, a Pearl Harbor shipyard worker, was strong — he later took sixth place in a Mr. America contest — and he was called on to chisel through the steel hull to save the trapped sailors.

"So I cut a hole about 30 inches in diameter and everyone started jumping out. Some guy grabbed me and kissed me," the now white-haired Ortiz said with a laugh.

He became a hero that day, but it was just part of the remarkable story of Claude Ortiz.

Ortiz is a paniola, record-holding rodeo rider, saddle maker, champion weightlifter, Navy veteran and among the Pearl Harbor shipyard workers who pitched in to save others on Dec. 7, 1941.

The spirit of that accomplishment — if not the physical strength — is still embodied in the 87-year-old Hawai'i man who in January lost his lower left leg to diabetes.

"When I think back, sometimes I still think I can do it, ride and all that, because I used to like to go to the ranch and help them round up cattle," Ortiz said.

He still does ride two horses he has in Pupukea — he had 27 at one time — but right now he's convalescing at the Veterans Affairs Community Living Center on the grounds of Tripler Army Medical Center.

EXTENDING THANKS

Today, Ortiz will get a bit of recognition and thanks from the shipyard and from state Sen. Norman Sakamoto, D-15th (Waimalu, Airport, Salt Lake), who will express the Senate's appreciation to Ortiz "for his exceptional leadership and outstanding service to our country."

"Our Navy will always remember the heroic civilians like Claude who, on the morning of Dec. 7, jack-hammered through the hull of the USS Oklahoma to save the lives of our sailors, pulled sailors to safety from oil-covered water, and rushed to fight the hundreds of fires burning across Pearl Harbor," said shipyard commander Capt. Greg Thomas. "After the attack, Claude and the shipyarders resurrected the U.S. Pacific Fleet from the bottom of Pearl Harbor, repairing 15 of 18 major ships damaged in the attack — ships that returned to battle and carried the war home to Japan."

Sakamoto called Ortiz an "unsung hero." He and Thomas will give their thanks today at 2 p.m. at the VA center.

ACTION-FILLED LIFE

The recognition of Ortiz has become even more poignant with the passage of 67 years; the Senate citation says he is believed to be the only surviving member of the shipyard team that rescued 32 men from the Oklahoma.

An initial attempt to free the men was made using a blowtorch, but the fumes killed some of the trapped sailors. Ortiz, a chipper and caulker, was recruited because of his skill with the pneumatic tool that could cut through the battleship's hull.

Before the escape route was fully opened, panicked men were trying to squeeze their way out, cutting themselves in the process. At the time, Ortiz didn't think much of what he did, he said. It was years later that the lifesaving effort really sunk in.

Last year, at a Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard centennial event where Ortiz was recognized, several of the men he saved were present. One kissed him again.

Ortiz, of Chinese, Filipino and Spanish descent, grew up where Hickam Air Force Base is now. He worked at Kahuku Ranch and became a paniola.

He once held a bulldogging world record. During the week, he worked at the shipyard, and on weekends he was on the ranch.

On Dec. 7, Ortiz was working on the destroyer USS Shaw in a floating drydock when he saw the Japanese planes winging over. A bomb exploded on the Shaw, killing some sailors, injuring others and throwing Ortiz against a railing.

He later volunteered for the Navy, and saw action in the South Pacific on a destroyer.

Ortiz said in 1945 he took sixth place in the Mr. America contest. He married his wife, Delilah-Mae, when he was 27 and she was 16.

"They say I robbed the cradle, but she robbed the old man's home," Ortiz joked yesterday.

The couple had eight children and took in 43 over the years from broken homes, said Delilah-Mae Ortiz, who surfs and skydives at age 76. This year marks their 60th wedding anniversary.

SPIRIT STILL STRONG

Ortiz was the subject of the book "The Aloha Cowboy." Just don't call him a "paniolo," with an "o" at the end instead of an "a."

Ortiz launches into a lecture about how the Hawai'i word for cowboy came from "Espanola," how "paniolo" was a change made by a mistaken Mainlander who wrote about the cowboy tradition, and how that word has a completely different — and undesirable — meaning in Hawaiian.

Yesterday, looking frail in a wheelchair but with a quick smile and laugh, Ortiz talked about his love of riding horses. He wore a baseball hat that says "Paniola / Kupuna."

"Oh yeah, I still like to ride, but my wife always tells me, at my age, I've got to watch it now," he said. "I don't know, something about me, sometimes I like to be macho."

He still loves galloping.

"I can still ride, but to get on a horse, I have a hard time now, but once I'm on, I'm OK," he said.

In three years, he'll be 90, and he still plans to be riding.

"I hope so," he said.