At long last, 66 years to the day after it was sunk by Japanese torpedoes, the USS Oklahoma has a lasting memorial at Pearl Harbor. On Friday, December 7, more than a dozen survivors of the sneak attack and the families of some of the 429 who died, attended ceremonies at Ford Island, and officially dedicated the new USS Oklahoma Memorial, on a site just about 150 yards from where the “Okie” was moored on December 7, 1941.
On a day that began with a moving tribute to all who served, and those who died, at Pearl Harbor on the day the Japanese struck, the USS Oklahoma was honored with the unveiling of a marble and granite monument that commemorates the battleship that suffered the second-largest loss of life in the Japanese attack. Dignitaries from the states of Oklahoma and Hawaii, the U.S. Navy, the National Park Service, members of the USS Oklahoma Memorial Executive Committee, survivors and family members of the Oklahoma’s crew attended the nearly 2-hour ceremony.
Sun and showers alternated throughout the memorial service and dedication, forcing those gathered under tents to protect them from the wind and rain. However, for those who had worked so long and hard to secure the site and create the memorial, it was a glorious day.
The ceremony began with a welcome from Rear Admiral Doug McClain, a former student at Putnam City High School in Oklahoma City, who is now Director of Global Operations for the U.S. Strategic Command. Following a traditional Hawaiian blessing and the invocation, the colors were presented by the Navy Junior ROTC from Claremore, Oklahoma and the Marine Junior ROTC cadets from U.S. Grant High School in Oklahoma City. The U.S. Marine Corps Band played the National Anthem.
(above: Governor Brad Henry speaks at the USS Oklahoma Memorial Dedication ceremony at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii)
Then, architect Don Beck discussed the design of the memorial, and its 429 marble posts, each of which contain the name of one of those who died aboard the mighty battleship.
Honored speakers included (in order of speaking) Linda Lingle, Governor of Hawaii; Admiral Timothy Keating, U.S. Pacific Command; Mary Fallin, U.S. Representative from Oklahoma; Tom Cole, U.S. Representative from Oklahoma; Neil Abercrombie, U.S. Representative from Hawaii; Brad Henry, Governor of Oklahoma; and Lyle Laverty, Assistant Secretary of the Interior. Oklahoma State Senator Jim Reynolds introduced USS Oklahoma survivor Ed Vezey and Lisa Ridge, granddaughter of USS Oklahoma Petty Officer Paul Nash, for comments.
(above: USS Oklahoma survivor Ed Vezey of Center, Colorado was among the speakers at the dedication ceremony.)
Signalman 1st Class Paul Goodyear, a USS Oklahoma survivor who was one of the driving forces behind the memorial, then raised the American flag above the site. The ceremony closed with a 21-gun salute, taps and the playing of Amazing Grace on a lone bagpipe.
Among the Oklahomans at the service, we saw Governor Brad Henry and First Lady Kim Henry; Treasurer Scott Meacham; U.S. Representatives Tom Cole and Mary Fallin; Speaker of the House Lance Cargill; State Representative Gary Banz; State Senator Jim Reynolds; State Representative Ryan Kiesel; and State Representative Guy Liebmann.
Also, former State Representatives Debbie Blackburn and Greg Piatt; Dr. Bob Blackburn, Executive Director of the Oklahoma Historical Society; the members of the USS Oklahoma Memorial Executive Committee, including co-chairs Tucker McHugh and Admiral Greg Slavonic; memorial architect Don Beck; Blake Wade, Jeannie Edney, and Lou Kerr from the Oklahoma Centennial Commission; the survivors and their families.
(above (l-r): Kevin King and State Senator Jim Reynolds do a “rubbing” on one of the posts at the USS Oklahoma Memorial.
The USS Oklahoma was raised in 1943, made sea-worthy and sold for scrap. In May, 1947, she sank in a storm, about 540 miles out of Hawaii, while being towed to San Francisco. She rests there now, and almost 400 of her crew members, most unidentified, are entombed at the Punchbowl National Cemetery in Honolulu.
Jeff Phister, co-author of “Battleship Oklahoma (BB-37)” writes:
Built to keep the peace, not once in her twenty-five years of service were her massive 14-inch guns fired in belligerence. She was a great ship – with a proud crew. Neither will be forgotten.
Ah hui ho (until next time), Dick Pryor
April 8th, 2008 at 6:32 pm
It’s over 60 yrs to later. I guess the USS Utah Memorial will be next.
July 5th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
When visiting the memorial we noticed one name (C. Dusset) was in all caps. All the other names had the frirst names in lower case. Was this just an oversite by the computer operator who carved the names, or is there a reason for this?
October 3rd, 2008 at 8:08 am
MY GREAT UNCLE, WILLIAM McNIGHT CURRY DIED ON THE
OKLAHOMA DURING PEARL HARBOR. I VISITED THE MEMORIAL IN JUNE, 2000. WOULD LIKE TO KNOW IF ANY
SURVIVORS REMEMBER MY GREAT UNCLE “BILLY MAC”?
I HAVE NO PHOTOS OF HIM. IF ANYONE DOES, I WOULD
BE GLAD TO PAY FOR A COPY. I SUBMITTED HIS NAME TO
THE WW11 MEMORIAL, BUT IT WAS ALREADY THERE IN HIS
HONOR
ANNE iPPOLITO
December 7th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
6 DECEMBER 1941 PEARL HARBOR
There was a saying in Monaville, West Virginia in the 1930’s, “coal mine, moonshine or move it on down the line.” If you could not work in the coal mines and accept dying at a young age, then you brewed illegal liquor up in the mountains. Otherwise you got out of Logan county, to find work. For the brothers John and Joseph Triolo it was the US Navy in 1937. The depression was still on and a military job was something to be coveted. When the Triolo brothers came home on leave after Navy basic training there was a buzz in the air about them. The brothers were headed to Long Beach, California to go to sea on their first ship, the USS Oklahoma. While on leave at home they made such an impression on their best friend from high school Donald McCloud, that he also joined the Navy. In fact Joe Triolo while working temporarily at the local Navy recruiter’s office was the one who graded Donald’s Navy entrance exam and sort of helped Donald out on his test score. After basic training Seaman McCloud was shipped out to the west coast and was able to request an assignment on the USS Oklahoma. The three new sailors and lifelong friends were headed to the Pacific on patrol, aboard the WW I era battleship. Because of his good test scores, when Seaman McCloud reported to the USS Oklahoma he was put into the fire control division, working down below decks. Normally in those days a new sailor worked as deck crew, top side. Only after you proved yourself did you get to move into a specific career field such as fire control, these were the men who worked the large guns. Joseph Triolo was the first to leave the USS Oklahoma. In 1938 he moved to another ship in the Pacific fleet. His brother John Triolo stayed on the USS Oklahoma until November of 1941, when he got orders to return to the mainland to attend aviation maintenance school in Norfolk, Virginia. By 1941 Donald McCloud was Petty Officer Second Class McCloud. He had done well in firing those big 14 inch guns on the USS Oklahoma and progressed in rate/rank. He was offered the chance to leave the Okie but declined. In December of 1941 Joe Triolo was stationed on board the USS Tangier, a seaplane tender (repair ship) that was sailing in and out of Pearl Harbor that fall. When the USS Oklahoma pulled into Pearl, Joe made arrangements to meet his old high school friend Don McCloud. The USS Oklahoma had a baseball team and the team was playing a game, the afternoon of 6 December 1941 on Ford Island, which is in the middle of Pearl Harbor. Joe Triolo met his hometown friend at the game. They spent most of the afternoon talking about home. When the game was over Donald suggested they get a couple of beers, but Joe was broke. Donald McCloud lent his friend $2 and they headed to the Enlisted Men’s club on Ford Island. At the end of the evening the two friends returned to their ships, never to see each other again. The next morning the Japanese Navy sent in their carrier-based aircraft and tragic history was made. Joe Triolo had spent the last three years in the Pacific and knew what a Jap plane looked like, so when the enemy’s aircraft flew over his ship, there was no question in his mind, who was attacking them. Joe Triolo manned his 50 caliber machine-gun on the starboard side of the bridge and the USS Tangier was credited with three aircraft kills that day. He personally fired on the aircraft that crashed into and sadly caused the sinking of the USS Utah. The USS Oklahoma had all its water tight doors open for an upcoming inspection, causing it to roll over and sink after multiple torpedo hits. 429 Sailors and Marines died on the USS Oklahoma to include FC2c Donald R. McCloud. When the Okie was raised and the bodies of her dead crew members were removed, only a few were identifiable and could be sent home for a military funeral, Donald McCloud was never sent home. The remains of the unidentified were buried in unmarked mass graves at the Punch Bowl National Cemetery, in Hawaii. Finally on 7 December 2002 a marker was placed over the mass graves (www.ussoklahoma.com). “We buried an old Naval veteran today,” unlike in the poem The USS Oklahoma Veteran, not all combat-killed Americans are buried where family can go to visit and remember. No-one can visit Donald Robert McCloud, but he is not forgotten. If money spends in Heaven, someday Chief Petty Officer Joseph Triolo, US Navy Retired will repay his friend, the $2.
Major Van Harl USAF Ret.
vanharl@aol.com
December 7th, 2008 at 11:02 pm
THE USS OKLAHOMA VETERAN
We buried an old Naval veteran today.
His passing was quiet, far from that terrible affray.
He had survived and done well in his final years.
Unlike his shipmates, who perished in unfathomable fears.
They were not supposed to be in port, they should have been out on patrol.
Coming to ”Pearl” for an Admiral’s inspection would bring a deadly toll.
Sailors were sleeping-in, not worried about the inspection order.
“Now hear this, this is not a drill, sound general quarters.”
Chaplain Schmitt was headed for church-call when the attack started.
Within eleven minutes, to his heavenly father he had departed.
He was below decks helping injured sailors make it safely out.
A place was waiting in heaven for the Padre, there is no doubt.
Father Al would be the first Chaplain to die in that world war.
Pushing injured sailors thru a hatch, “move topside” he did implore.
He could have made it out alive, if not for Navy protocol.
Senior man stays until the end, directing escape for all.
Private Joseph Lawter was on the fantail with his bugle ready to blow.
After first call, he saw something flying in, straight and low.
“Corporal of the guard, those are Jap planes flying just above the drink.”
“Lawter you get paid to blow that bugle, not think.”
It was too late, the first torpedo slammed into the port side.
Within minutes more would strike the Okie’s tough old hide.
Too many hatches were left open in anticipation of the Admiral’s inspection.
It is easy in hindsight to see the error of this fatal leadership misdirection.
The Oklahoma was senior and she should have been moored inboard.
Putting her to the outside left the Okie open to the Japanese horde.
This may have saved the Maryland from destruction on that December day.
But it left one grand old dreadnought, lying on the bottom of the bay.
The USS Oklahoma was an older battleship, from an earlier generation.
With her 14 inch guns she stood ready to defend the nation.
She had never fired a shot in anger, not even in the First World War.
Now she is on the bottom of the ocean, her big guns never again to roar.
Off Spain the Oklahoma was there to protect Americans in harm’s way
In this new war she was lost to the Navy and the Nation in the opening day.
She rolled over in minutes with her keel raised to the Hawaiian sky.
429 men were trapped below, and were destined to die.
The Japanese sank the Oklahoma, a long list of crewmen they did cull.
As small boats were passing, banging was heard on her turned up hull.
Seaman Garlen Eslick and 31 others were trapped in an artificial night.
It would be 28 hours before they again saw the glow of daylight.
With hammers and chisels rescuers worked to pierce that dying ship.
No cutting torches because life from seamen’s lungs it would strip.
The crewmen were dying as the water continued to rise on the Okie’s inside.
Work harder, work faster they must peel away, the old girl’s armored hide.
Airman “Spider” Webb had been on board the Oklahoma for just a day.
He did not know where to go, as he sprang from his rack were he lay.
He would push himself through a port hole, that’s all he could do.
But the Jap’s would see “Spider” again over Pacific skies of blue.
“Spider” Webb would go on to win his pilot wings of gold.
Taking on the enemy in the air, he proved to be a man of bold.
Dogfighting, he surrounded 40 Jap planes creating a moment’s thrill.
But that day he upped the score for the Oklahoma, with eight aircraft kills.
The Barber brothers all joined the Navy to serve their Nation with pride.
The three shipped out on the Oklahoma standing side by side.
In the end they all would be lost, with no remains to be returned.
Leroy, Malcolm and Randolph, respect from a grateful nation you earned.
There were other brothers to serve and die on the Oklahoma that day
They all had a sad history in this new war to play.
Lost forever were the brothers; Woods, Trapp, Palmer, Blitz, and Casto.
Into heaven they ascended, as the crew of a small boat they did row.
“This is a real air raid, this is no sh__”
Not a standard shipboard broadcast, but it got the message out there quick.
Ensign Herbert Rommel returned to his guns as Zeros skimmed the bay.
But Captain Rommel would survive, to fight and win another day.
Over 1300 crewmen were assigned to the Oklahoma on that sunny morn.
Eventually taps would be sounded for 429 on a bugler’s sorrowful horn.
The wounded would be pulled from the water and tended as heroes all.
The rest of the crew would be reassigned, to meet a suffering nation’s call.
The Oklahoma never returned to challenge her enemy to a fair fight.
It took years at “Pearl” to right her and bring her deck into the light.
She was sold off as scrap after they pulled from her, those big guns.
The USS Oklahoma was finally lost, sunken under tow in the Pacific sun.
We must remember the Oklahoma, for the crew their time is running out.
It must be marked in stone, to be preserved in a military redoubt.
Ford Island will be the home to a memorial that will stand the test of time.
For the Naval veteran he can visit and say “I was there, she was mine.”
We buried an old Naval veteran today.
This one, a shipmate who had seen that tragic December day.
But he survived to meet his nation’s demand, to seek justice for all.
He fought hard for his nation, and now takes his final military call.
WE BURIED AN OLD NAVAL VETERAN TODAY.
4 July 2006
Major Van Harl USAF Ret.
vanharl@aol.com
December 13th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
I was so happy to see that the Oklahoma has gotten it’s own memorial. My grandfather died on the ship during Pearl Harbor. Do any survivors have information on Daniel Fletcher Harris? I don’t know much about him, but I do have photos. I would love to hear anything about who he was as a person and his role on the Oklahoma.
December 19th, 2008 at 2:33 am
My dads friend was on the Oklahoma. His name was Russel O. Ufford, from Kansas City Mo. He is one of the unknown. Can you give us any info about him. My dad is a WW2 Vet and was on the DE-130 Jacob Jones. Thank you John Weiss a Navy Vet of Nam.
May 6th, 2009 at 6:39 pm
Both the Pearl Harbor tour and the USS Missouri tours start in the same general area (it’s also the start area for the USS Bowfin Museum tour). You should be able to park your car in the lot, store your valuables in the lockers once (as you can’t carry anything but basically your camera on the Arizona), and do both tours relatively quickly.
May 6th, 2009 at 9:28 pm
Just sit right back & you’ll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip. That started from this tropic port aboard this tiny ship. The mate was a mighty sailing man, The skipper brave & sure. Five passengers set sail that day for a three hour tour, A three hour tour.
June 26th, 2009 at 2:16 am
Dedication…
Survivors Help Dedicate USS Oklahoma Memorial at Pearl Harbor [...]…