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  • USS Arizona

    Couldn't find a thread to use. Here's a neat then and now slider of the Arizona by the Brooklyn Bridge. Scroll down a bit and a few launching related pictures.

    The USS Arizona: A Battleship Blog

  • #2
    Release Date: 12/3/2014
    By Brandon Bosworth, Assistant Editor, Ho'okele
    PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (NNS) -- Four Sailors who were serving on the USS Arizona during the Dec. 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor returned and visited the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickham (JBPHH) Dec. 2.

    Upon arrival, survivors John Anderson, Louis Conter, Donald Stratton, and Lauren Bruner were piped aboard and saluted by an honor guard of service members from several branches of the armed services while the Pacific Fleet Band played patriotic music.

    Lt. Cmdr. Alex Torres, assigned to JBPHH, was the lead coordinator for the ceremony. It was his second time serving in this capacity.

    "I was in charge last year and was asked to do it again this year," he said. "I feel very privileged."

    Boatswain's Mate 1st Class Leszek Romero, also assigned to JBPHH, was the one to actually pipe the Arizona survivors aboard.

    "This is an amazing honor," he said. "These men are definitely part of one of the greatest generations."

    Romero, a native of Honduras, joined the U.S. Navy Sept. 11, 2001 and credits men like the ones being honored for inspiring him to enlist.

    After the arrival ceremony, the four veterans participated in a press conference. They spoke of their experiences and answered questions from the audience. Many people said they were impressed that four men in their 90s could make such a long, exhausting trip, to which Stratton simply replied, "Everybody has to be someplace."

    This year marks the 73rd anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It is also be the final year the USS Arizona Reunion Association will hold an official reunion. On Dec. 7, the survivors will mark the occasion by holding a ceremony aboard the USS Arizona Memorial when they will pour a "final toast" to their shipmates.

    The four survivors said they were confident that they would have another reunion in the future, official or not.

    "I don't think this will be our last one," said Conter. "We still have some time to go."

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    • #3
      Coffee reading. The Arizona from building up to Dec 7th.

      USS Arizona: Before Pearl Harbor, the mightiest ship at sea

      Comment


      • #4
        Arizona stories...

        USS Arizona profile: Lonnie Cook

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        • #5
          Is their any stories available on the crew who survived, how did the war go for them?

          What about the aircrew who hit her, what would happen to them? Any survive the war? I would suggest in later years it would become quite enlightening living with the memory of being the aircrew that participated in such a famous tradegy.

          Comment


          • #6
            In that news article, every few paragraphs is a link to articles about other crew members. Have not seen anything about Japanese pilots that might still be alive.

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by Samuels creek View Post
              What about the aircrew who hit her, what would happen to them? Any survive the war? I would suggest in later years it would become quite enlightening living with the memory of being the aircrew that participated in such a famous tradegy.
              Well. Mr. Tora, Tora, Tora himself below survived the war and lead a rather interesting life afterward, including settling in the US.

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              • #8
                I recall reading in the Milwaukee Journal an interview that was done with the Japanese spy who was in Hawaii to let the attack planes know that they were undetected. But it also reported an interview with the lead pilot of the first wave and how it was almost a disaster -- on their part.

                If undetected, he was to fire ONE flare. The Dive Bombers were then to fly up to a higher altitude and let the torpedo bombers go in first. The Dive Bombers did start climbing BUT the torpedo bombers remained at their standard altitude rather than reforming for attack. In other words, the leader of the Torpedo Bombers did NOT see that SINGLE flare.

                You see, TWO FLARES would mean the Dive Bombers should go in first and the Torpedo Bombers follow up.

                So the flight leader sent up a SECOND FLARE. As Murphy's Law would have it. The Dive Bombers thought that Second flare meant for them to go in first. The leader of the Torpedo Bombers thought it was a SINGLE flare and they would go in first.

                There were reports that at times some of the Japanese airplanes "Nearly Collided" with each other. It is not impossible to think that some of them actually did (as in that phoney Disney movie -- only the design of the bombs was accurate). But if any did collide because of the confusion as to how many flares were fired, we were not going to let that out. Of the 24 (as I recall) Japanese planes that were shot down by ship anti-aircraft fire and the two lonely P-40 Warhawks we were able to get off the ground, it is not illogical to thing that a Torpedo Bomber got into the way of a Dive Bomber pulling out of his attack.

                But we would never let THAT be public. For morale purposes, every enemy plane destroyed was by American gunfire.
                Able to leap tall tales in a single groan.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by RustyBattleship
                  I recall reading in the Milwaukee Journal an interview that was done with the Japanese spy who was in Hawaii to let the attack planes know that they were undetected. But it also reported an interview with the lead pilot of the first wave and how it was almost a disaster -- on their part.

                  If undetected, he was to fire ONE flare. The Dive Bombers were then to fly up to a higher altitude and let the torpedo bombers go in first. The Dive Bombers did start climbing BUT the torpedo bombers remained at their standard altitude rather than reforming for attack. In other words, the leader of the Torpedo Bombers did NOT see that SINGLE flare.

                  You see, TWO FLARES would mean the Dive Bombers should go in first and the Torpedo Bombers follow up.

                  So the flight leader sent up a SECOND FLARE. As Murphy's Law would have it. The Dive Bombers thought that Second flare meant for them to go in first. The leader of the Torpedo Bombers thought it was a SINGLE flare and they would go in first.

                  There were reports that at times some of the Japanese airplanes "Nearly Collided" with each other. It is not impossible to think that some of them actually did (as in that phoney Disney movie -- only the design of the bombs was accurate). But if any did collide because of the confusion as to how many flares were fired, we were not going to let that out. Of the 24 (as I recall) Japanese planes that were shot down by ship anti-aircraft fire and the two lonely P-40 Warhawks we were able to get off the ground, it is not illogical to thing that a Torpedo Bomber got into the way of a Dive Bomber pulling out of his attack.

                  But we would never let THAT be public. For morale purposes, every enemy plane destroyed was by American gunfire.
                  It's sort of a variation on a theme, not unlike the situation at Midway where all of the torpedo bombers were blown out of the sky, either by Zeros or anti-aircraft fire; but the Japanese had so concentrated on what they perceived as the imminent threat, that they were seemingly totally unaware of the dive bombers at a much higher altitude. The Japanese CAP was practically at sea level when the dive bombers rolled in hot and went to work. None of that was planned; just pure, blind luck in play. You know that old adage about how sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. We were lucky, period.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by desertswo View Post
                    Well. Mr. Tora, Tora, Tora himself below survived the war and lead a rather interesting life afterward, including settling in the US.
                    He did indeed, except that we could've done without him totally effing up the historical narratives of Pearl Harbor and Midway in the Western world for the past 60 years.

                    Claiming he was in charge of the boat transport for the surrender delegation to the USS Missouri and witnessing the signing from her decks was mere jackassery on his part.
                    “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by TopHatter View Post
                      He did indeed, except that we could've done without him totally effing up the historical narratives of Pearl Harbor and Midway in the Western world for the past 60 years.

                      Claiming he was in charge of the boat transport for the surrender delegation to the USS Missouri and witnessing the signing from her decks was mere jackassery on his part.
                      He burnished his resume, an age old art...

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by tbm3fan View Post
                        He burnished his resume, an age old art...
                        His resume is one thing. The historical record is something else entirely.
                        “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          It's a shame that the USS Pennsylvania wasn't preserved in honor of the Arizona at Pearl Harbor.

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