bertram31.com

Interment of USS Arizona survivors who requested burial with their shipmates who were lost in the attack on Pearl Harbor

I never knew about this service.. I suspect many of you did not either...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgE2KiPd ... ata_player" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Frank, Thats the least we can do for those men..Cant Imagine living through that hell...My Fathers Uncle Calvin Higgins was lost off Okinawa on the USS Morrison, 19 years old, only son of Leroy & Harriet, tried three times to enlist before they finally allowed him to sign up, to this day I have a trunk full of letters from Calvin to his Mom...I have read them many times and have my kids read them as well, just because they really don't get it. My most precious possesions are the rifle he bought and never got to shoot and the double barrell he knocked a nice whitetail over with. The picture of him with his dog and the deer are in my office and the flag given to Harriet, better known as Aunt Hattie, rests proudly on my mantle with all his metals...BH

It WAS a very special generation that I was fortunate enough to have witnessed as a kid. Examples to live up to. They came back as quiet men who did not see themselves as heroes. No egos, no bravado. I have found out stuff about friends and relatives 60 years later that you could not imagine what they did and lived through. There is nothing more I can say than "thank you"...and that's nowhere near enough.

[img][/img]

This is the USS Bennington CVA20 pausing by the USS Arizona Memorial Day 1958.
The Captains Gig is approching the Arizona to place a wreath on the ship.
Notice the oil is still seeping from the tanks. The exact number of sailors and marines
who were entombed in the ship are forming the word ARiZONA the Marines are in
there dress blues and you can see them forming the outside of the "A". I cannot
anymore remember the number, 1,036? This was before the current building type
memorial was put in place and affords a full view of the ship.
I was in the conning tower just aft of of the bridge by the flag hoist when
this pic was taken from one of our helos.
As a side note back then there was the frame of a downed ZERO I believe it was.
Alongside the path from the NCO club quite a walk from where we were usually
tied up in Pearl. We of course always drank a bid to much and on our walk back
It was always a tradition to stop at the airframe and saulue it by
relieving ourselfs on it.

Looks like it was still leaking fuel......

I read somewhere that fuel is still leaking from the hull today.

was there about 6 years ago and yes it was still leaking oil

I was there in June and still oil droplets would rise to the surface.
The place has a impact on you. I cant really explain it