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The Day the Oklahoma Died
(March 22, 2010) |
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Almost everyone knows about the 7 December 1941 attack on Pearl
Harbor, Hawaii by the air and naval forces of the Empire of Japan.
Even today's school age children are taught some limited history
about that battle. And of course there is the most famous battleship
in US Naval history still lying on the ocean bottom at "Pearl," the
USS Arizona. The US Park Service has a wonderful floating memorial
positioned directly over the Arizona. You can take a navy launch out
to the sight and look down into the water and see the top of that
ship. I have made that sad boat ride a number of times in my life.
But there were other battleships damaged that day. In fact there
were nine battleships attacked by the Japanese. Three never returned
to naval service; the USS Arizona, the USS Utah and the | |
Van E. Harl |
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USS Oklahoma. There is a memorial of some kind for eight of the nine
battleships to include the six that continued to fight during WW II,
but there is no memorial for the USS Oklahoma. |
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The Oklahoma took nine torpedoes in her side as she lay tied up at
Pearl Harbor and rolled over with her keel sticking out of the water
in eleven minutes. The Oklahoma had a ship's complement of 2166 Navy
and Marine officers and enlisted men. 429 officers and crew died as
a result of the attack, but not all at the same time. When the
Oklahoma rolled over men were trapped alive in an upside down world
of total panic and chaos.
It was Sunday morning and the crew of the USS Oklahoma, were known
for their nights on the town. The ship was actually supposed to
still be out to sea patrolling in a circle around the Hawaiian
Islands. But along with all nine of the battleships, the Oklahoma
was advised that there was to be an admiral's inspection on Monday,
8 December. So the Oklahoma crew was on shore leave Saturday night,
the 6th of December, knowing that on Sunday they had a full day of
work getting the ship ready for the admiral's visit. When the attack
started around 8:00 am Sunday morning many of the crew were sleeping
it off in their racks below decks and never made it up to the main
deck before the ship rolled over. |
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USS Oklahoma: December 7, 1941 |
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Father Aloysius Schmitt was conducting church call when battle
stations sounded and the men were told "this is no drill." His
assigned position was below decks at a dressing station where he
could tend to wounded sailors. He would die while trying to help an
injured sailor get through an open hatch. Father Schmitt would
become the first military Chaplin killed in WW II. He could have
made it out but navy protocol dictates, "the senior man is the last
to leave" and he was assisting junior sailors scrambling to safety
when the ship rolled over. Men trapped inside started banging on the
bulkhead trying to get the attention of passing small boats. On the
8th and 9th of December after cutting holes in the exposed bottom of
the Oklahoma, 32 men were pulled out alive. Banging continued
through the 10th of December but nothing could be done. The sound
was coming from below the water line and the sailors standing watch
over the Oklahoma could only wait and listen until the banging
stopped and the trapped sailors suffocated. The three Barber brothers, Leroy, Randolph, and Malcom
who joined the Navy together in 1940 were all assigned
to the Oklahoma and died, never |
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to be returned home for burial. Four hundred bodies were
recovered but only 35 could actually be positively
identified. Most of the remains were buried in a mass
grave at the Punch Bowl National Cemetery in Hawaii,
with no markings of the crew member's names to tell who
might be interned there. Through the efforts of Kevin
King of Oklahoma City a stone marker now identifies the
grave site as the resting place of USS Oklahoma crew
members. |
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For more information about the USS Oklahoma go to
www.ussoklahoma.com and read about history of the ship and the men
who last served onboard. The sound track with aircraft attacking,
waves lapping and the banging on the hull of the Oklahoma by
trapped, dying men brings this history straight to you. Also,
because of a five year effort of Mr. King a memorial has finally
been planned, to be constructed at Pearl Harbor. Mr. King has
crisscrossed the country flying and driving at his own expense to
meet and record the history of surviving members of the Oklahoma. He
has attended ship's reunions to capture the history directly from
the sailors who were there on December 7th. He has flown to Hawaii
six times meeting with Navy, Marine and US Park personnel trying to
move the memorial project long, but in the meantime we keep loosing
Oklahoma survivors.
There are about 100 crew members still alive, but every year that
total gets smaller. Mr. King has taken in hundreds of photos lent to
him by sailors and marines who survived as well as photos of men who
did not survive, that family members have contributed. He is
painstakingly recording and preserving these images. Many are
already on the above web site.
The war did not stop for the USS Oklahoma crew members who were able
to swim away in the oiled filled burning waters of Pearl Harbor. The
sailors and marines who survived the attack went on to be assigned
to other ships, to fight and in some cases die in combat
engagements. The dedication ceremony was on 7 December 2007 at a
site on Ford Island near where the Oklahoma capsized.
USS Oklahoma Memorial,
PO Box 7734,
Edmond, OK 73083-7734
is the address you can send your support. We must remember the USS
Oklahoma and her lost crew members. | |
By
Van E. Harl
Copyright
2006, Revised 2010 About Author:
Major Van E. Harl, USAF Ret., was a career police officer in the U.S. Air
Force. He was the Deputy Chief of police at two Air Force Bases and the
Commander of Law Enforcement Operations at another. Major Harl is a graduate of
the U.S. Army Infantry School, the Air Force Squadron Officer School and the Air
Command and Staff College. After retiring from the Air Force he was a state
police officer in Nevada.
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