PEARL HARBOR: Awakening a Sleeping Giant

Below deck on the Arizona the carnage was the same. Hundreds of men were at their battle stations, including the entire ship’s band. The band members were all passing ammunition under Number One forward turret and simply disappeared in the cataclysmic explosion. In that terrible instant, over 1100 of her 1731-man crew perished and others died within minutes.

Some men were still alive below deck. Most of these were in the aft portion of the ship where steel bulkheads and armor afforded protection from the magazine explosion. All power and communications were severed, but these men realized that the ship had been hit hard.

Water began entering the ship and rose quickly as the Arizona settled to the bottom. It reached a bank of huge batteries that provided backup power for the turrets in case the normal power source failed. As the water flowed over the batteries, it released dense clouds of lethal chlorine gas. Men scrambling to escape the rising water now encountered an even deadlier hazard. Some made it safely to the upper deck; many others died from drowning, chlorine gas, or severe wounds.

Seaman 3c Martin Matthews was hanging on to the concrete mooring quay when the Arizona blew up. He had been standing on the ship’s stern where William Stafford left him to go to his battle station. Within the space of only several minutes, the peaceful morning suddenly was transformed into a nightmare that he could not even comprehend.

Screaming aircraft engines, nearby bomb explosions, black smoke, yelling men, and total confusion replaced the serenity of his morning of the Arizona. He was now frightened. He did not join the Navy for this and was not trained for it. He did not even belong on the ship.

While watching the attack from the ship’s stern, Matthews felt the ship shudder from an exploding bomb that just missed the bow. Within a minute several large bombs hit near the Arizona’s aft turrets. One of them blew him overboard. He swam to the mooring quay only fifty feet away and hid behind it as more aircraft dove at the Arizona. He was still scared, but at least now he was not alone. Several other sailors, also blown off the ship, hid behind the quay as well.

Then came the horrendous blast as the Arizona’s forward magazines detonated and the forward section of the ship disappeared in smoke and flame. Debris of steel, timber, canvas, and bodies rained down. Although none of the debris hit him, it completely terrified him. He thought that a fifteen year-old-boy should not have to see this. He watched the remainder of the first wave attack from behind the quay and saw aircraft continue to strafe the ship which now had settled on the bottom, but still burned fiercely.

When the aircraft left, he thought that the shore would be a safer place to be. His swim to Ford Island was long as he tried to avoid large patches of oil leaking from the Arizona. On shore, he had to convince a nervous Marine with a rifle that he was really a sailor from the Arizona. His oil-covered uniform made identification difficult.

Matthews spent the remainder of the morning cleaning up and the afternoon helping to clear debris from the wrecked PBYs at the seaplane ramp. Later, during the war he served on eight different U.S. ships, two of which were sunk.

Don Stratton felt the ship shudder from the first two bomb hits, but stayed at his post with others in the port antiaircraft director high above the Arizona’s main deck. When the magazines exploded, the entire world shook and a gigantic sheet of flames totally engulfed the director. In an instant Stratton’s entire body was immersed in an excruciating heat that he could never have imagined.

His hair burned off, his T-shirt was on fire, and most of his skin was seared. When the flames surrounding the director subsided, miraculously all the men inside of it were still alive. Stratton discovered, however, that they still could not escape. The ladderway down to the deck was too hot to touch and the deck below them was burning.

Crewmen on the Vestal alongside the Arizona saw their plight. They threw over a heaving line followed by a heavier line which Stratton’s group tied to the director platform. In spite of severely burned hands, six of Stratton’s crew climbed hand over hand down the line to the Vestal. Of the 45 men who worked in the control areas high on the forward mast, only Stratton’s group of six survived.

The six men were taken off the Vestal immediately by launch to shore and then by truck to the Navy hospital. Stratton was burned over 60 percent of his body. He transferred shortly to a mainland hospital where, after nine months and five skin grafts later, he received a medical discharge from the Navy. Stratton still wanted to fight, however, and early in 1944 he reenlisted in the Navy. He spent the remainder of the war on the destroyer U.S.S. Stack.

Gunner’s Mate John McCarron regained consciousness in the water after the magazine explosion blew him, Foster, and Lightfoot overboard. Foster landed on one of the Arizona’s launches, suffering a broken nose, and badly burned feet.

While lying in the launch, Foster looked up at the bridge where Admiral Kidd and Captain Van Valkenburgh had just arrived a minute earlier. It was completely immersed in flame and resembled a huge blast furnace. Foster later dove into the water and swam to Ford Island. Lightfoot had inhaled flames which severely burned his lungs, He died from these wounds two weeks later.

A big launch picked up McCarron who had passed out again. He regained consciousness three days later in the Navy hospital. His head and arms were badly burned and encased in bandages. Doctors considered his survival a miracle. The heavy uniform he was wearing for shore-patrol duty that morning probably saved his life. His face was disfigured by the burns, but he recovered sufficiently to remain in the Navy. He retired from the Navy in 1969.

The Marines stationed in the Arizona’s mainmast had a difficult time escaping to Ford Island. While the men stood on the mooring quay, a bomb exploded nearby and blew Shapley and several others into the oil covered water. Although now badly dazed and almost totally naked, Shapley kept the group together in the water and watched over them. He led them through the burning oil, debris, bombing and strafing, which soon exhausted all of them.

Corporal Earl Nightengale was totally exhausted and did not think that he could make it to Ford Island. Shapley grabbed Nightengale, held him around the chest, and pulled him toward the shore. Shapley, himself, was completely spent and slipped beneath the water several times.

He fought to stay alive and forced himself to the surface. He grabbed Nightengale again each time he surfaced and continued toward the shore as though obsessed. Finally, his feet touched bottom and he released Nightengale, who was able to crawl on to the shore himself.

On shore, several hundred men milled about, many in shock and moaning. All were burned to some degree and covered with a sticky coat of oil. Shapley later received the Silver Star for risking his own life to save Corporal Nightengale. His action also allowed Nightengale to later become a famous radio personality and world renowned announcer.