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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
Aloha!
In the shadow of the battleship USS Missouri, moored at Pearl Harbor, more than 8,000 Oklahoma school students were part of an interactive web cast featuring two survivors of the USS Oklahoma on Thursday, December 6. Located less than 100 yards from the site of the new USS Oklahoma Memorial on Ford Island, survivors Paul Goodyear and George Brown answered questions from students at several Oklahoma schools.
A total of 124 schools signed up to watch the exclusive web cast. In addition to Goodyear and Brown, students heard from Dr. Bob Blackburn, the Executive Director of the Oklahoma Historical Society; Tucker McHugh, co-chair of the USS Oklahoma Memorial Executive Committee; Don Beck, the architect who designed the memorial; and Oklahoma State Senator Jim Reynolds, who was one of the leaders of the effort to place a memorial to the USS Oklahoma at Pearl Harbor.
(above: USS Oklahoma survivor Paul Goodyear answers questions from Oklahoma students during the interactive web cast, live, from Ford Island, Pearl Harbor. The USS Missouri is in the background. It is now moored where the USS Oklahoma was located during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Paul Goodyear swam to safety just a few yards from the site of the web cast.)
Goodyear and Brown told students that the memorial is important to them because of the tribute it will pay to the 429 sailors and Marines who perished in the Japanese attack. The Oklahoma was one of nine battleships that suffered damage or were sunk. The USS Oklahoma, the USS Arizona, and the USS Utah were the only ships that were never returned to service.
The Oklahoma has been the only battleship without a memorial at Pearl Harbor, but that will change at 4:00 p.m. (Oklahoma time) on Friday, when the USS Oklahoma Memorial is officially dedicated. About 15 survivors and 200 family members of USS Oklahoma crew are expected for the ceremony. Governor Brad Henry, U.S. Representatives Mary Fallin and Tom Cole and U.S. Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii will be among the honored speakers. The Navy Junior ROTC from Claremore High School and Marine Junior ROTC Cadets from U.S. Grant High School in Oklahoma City will present the colors.
Join us for the web cast of the USS Oklahoma Memorial dedication from Ford Island at 4:00 p.m. (Oklahoma time) on Friday. The ceremony will be archived on the Oklahoma World War II Stories web site on Friday night, December 7.
Ah hui ho! (until next time)
Dick Pryor
Aloha!
World War II veterans, including more than a dozen survivors of the Japanese assault on the USS Oklahoma, have arrived in Honolulu for the 66th anniversary remembrance of the Pearl Harbor sneak attack and the dedication of the new USS Oklahoma Memorial.
The survivors and the first members of the Oklahoma contingent to arrive in Honolulu have been getting acquainted at the downtown Honolulu headquarters hotel and visiting some of the sites around Pearl Harbor. On Tuesday, a few of the Oklahoma survivors went to the Punchbowl, the national cemetery which is the site where the remains of 381 victims of the Japanese attack are buried in 46 graves.
(above: USS Oklahoma survivor George Smith, the youngest crew member aboard the battleship, talks about his experiences during World War II.)
Wednesday, the survivors, their family members, State Representative Gary Banz and his wife Linda, and members of the Claremore and Oklahoma City U.S. Grant Junior ROTC program took a late afternoon cruise around Ford Island, located in the center of Pearl Harbor. Captain Taylor Skardon, Commander of the Naval Station Pearl Harbor served as tour guide, providing a vivid commentary on the history of Pearl Harbor.
(above: Captain Taylor Skarden, Commander of Pearl Harbor Naval Station, hosted a tour of Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial.)
(below: Members of the Navy Junior ROTC from Claremore, Oklahoma enjoy the Pearl Harbor cruise. )
On Thursday at 2:00 p.m. (Oklahoma time) we will present a 45-minute video conference live on the Oklahoma World War II Stories website. The video conference will be available worldwide, and more than 8,000 Oklahoma school students from 77 schools have signed up to participate. They will have the opportunity to hear from Director of the Oklahoma History Center Bob Blackburn, State Senator Jim Reynolds, co-chairman of the USS Oklahoma Memorial Committee Tucker McHugh and memorial Beck, in addition to being able to ask questions of two USS Oklahoma survivors. Due to the tremendous interest, the video conference has been extended to allow additional questions for the veterans from students. Thursday night at 8:00 (Oklahoma time) OETA will present its Oklahoma World War II Stories documentary, produced by Boots Kennedye and me. The hour-long documentary will also be available worldwide on the OETA website, www.oeta.tv.
We will bring the dedication ceremony of the USS Oklahoma Memorial home to Oklahoma on Friday, starting at 4:00 p.m. (Oklahoma time) on the Oklahoma World War II Stories website. We invite you to watch as the Okie and its crew receive their long-awaited recognition with a permanent memorial on Ford Island, only a couple hundred yards from the location of the USS Oklahoma when it was hit by Japanese torpedoes.
The weather has been rainy here and temperatures cooler than expected. Storms raced across Oahu last night, knocking out power to many residents and businesses and closing the USS Arizona Memorial until afternoon. Weather should improve tomorrow for the video conference, to be held near the USS Oklahoma Memorial site, a short distance from the permanent mooring of the USS Missouri, the battleship on which the Japanese officially surrendered to end World War II. Join us for the video conference on Thursday, and check back for more updates from Pearl Harbor.
Ah hui ho (until next time), Dick Pryor
(The “Okie” survivors who have made the journey include Paul Goodyear, Casa Grande, Arizona; George Smith, Olympia, Washington; Don Lester, San Diego, California; Harold Johnson; Michael Stecz, Castro Valley, California; Garland Eslick, Amarillo, Texas; James Bounds, San Diego, California; Norm Roberts, Morro Bay, California; Ed Vezey, Center, Colorado; Dick Artley, Lewiston, Idaho; Ray Richmond, San Diego, California; Bill Hendley, Wilmington, North Carolina; and Louis Egnatovich, Lake City, Florida. George Brown of Honolulu had a much shorter trip. Willie Roesler of Canyon Lake, Texas is also in Hawaii to share the activities with his surviving shipmates. Roesler was a crew member of the Oklahoma before the December 7, 1941 attack and had shipped out to Midway Island aboard the USS Medusa in February, 1941.)
USS Oklahoma Memorial Dedication Coverage Begins
December 2ndOETA and NewsOK.com will bring coverage of the dedication of the new USS Oklahoma Memorial at Pearl Harbor home to Oklahoma this week. Check this website often for updates on the Oklahoma World War II Stories blog, and be sure to watch for a live video conference from Pearl Harbor at 2:00 p.m. (CST) on Thursday, December 6, followed by the debut of the hour-long, HD documentary, Oklahoma World War II Stories on Thursday, December 6 at 8:00 p.m. (CST). You can watch the documentary on OETA statewide, or worldwide on the OETA website, www.oeta.tv. On Friday, December 7, we will have coverage of the USS Oklahoma Memorial dedication ceremonies, beginning at 8:00 p.m. (CST) on the Oklahoma World War II Stories website. 
(above) Dick Pryor with USS Oklahoma survivor Paul Goodyear, and an artist’s rendition of the new USS Oklahoma Memorial, to be dedicated on December 7, 2007 at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
“They were beginning to fear they might not win”
October 24th
Jim Norick remembers that everybody was surprised when they learned of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He figured sooner or later the United States was going to be involved in World War II, but it still came as a shock. Norick says he and his wife, Madalynne, were watching a movie at the Criterion Theater in downtown Oklahoma City when they stopped the movie, and announced the Japanese attack. “I figured, well, I’m going to have to be going, I guess,” Norick said. “Next day, at the office, everybody was talking about it. We didn’t know what was going to happen next.”
(above) Jim Norick’s family business in downtown Oklahoma City.
Norick was working at the family’s business, Norick Brothers Printing, in Oklahoma City. He and Madalynne had a son, Ron, who was less than a year old. But, by the summer of 1942, Norick figured he was going into the military soon. So, with two Naval Bases in Norman, he entered the Navy on September 1, 1942 as a storekeeper, working in the pay office. The work was similar to what he had been doing at Norick Brothers.
“When the base first opened on the first of September,” Norick told me recently, “they didn’t have uniforms for us for a month - we just wore civilian clothes. They didn’t have a place for us to sleep, so I rode the Interurban back and forth from Oklahoma City to Norman. When they finally got housing down there, then of course I had to stay on-base.”
The Naval Air Technical Training Center was built in record time - four and a half months. It was a city of more than 19,000 with enlisted men, marines, WAVES with a ship’s company of about 2,000, and was divided into two bases, North and South. Three separate schools fell under one command, providing training for Aviation Machinists, Metalsmiths, and Ordnancemen. Pilots received training at the North Base.
In addition to his work in the payroll office, Jim Norick played alto saxophone and clarinet in one of the two base bands. He recalls that it was a special thrill to play under the base’s famous band director, Tex Beneke, saxophonist and conductor in the Glenn Miller Band. Norick says Beneke had a hearing problem, so he stayed stateside during the war, providing entertainment for those on-base and their dates from surrrounding communities.
(above) Jim Norick is second from left in front row in this picture of one of the bands at the Norman Naval Air Training Technical Center.
Norick says the bands played at the Naval hospital and, every Sunday afternoon, in Building 92, the base’s large auditorium. “It was a morale builder,” Norick said, “yes, very much.”
(above) Dancing was a popular pasttime at the Norman Naval Air Training Technical Center’s Building 92.
Jim Norick was at the South Base for 16 months, but left his wife and son on December 1, 1944, to go to Charleston, South Carolina for the pre-commissioning of a sea-going tug. By April, he was aboard the tug, with floating drydock attached, heading to the South Pacific.
It took 18 days to go from the Panama Canal to Hawaii, then it was on to Enewitok, where they dropped off the floating drydock. Norick and his shipmates thought they were going back to Hawaii, but instead they were sent to join the invasion forces at Guam and Saipan. He remembers that the fighting was intense. “They (the Japanese) were beginning to fear that they might not win,” Norick told me, “the guys having to go on the beach, you’d just pray for them, because so many of them did not come back.”
Norick went on to serve in the invasions of the Leyte Gulf and the Lingayen Gulf. During invasions, he says everyone played a part. It was during the fighting in the Leyte Gulf that he had a chance to turn hero, by shooting down a Japanese Betty bomber. ”First, I was the loader, putting the bullets on that needed to be fired,” he said. “But, the guy that was on the gun was a little trigger-happy, so they shifted me and put me on a gun and put him on the loader. So, that’s how I became a shooter.” Norick was on a 20-millimeter gun when he spotted the Japanese bomber, traced it down and blasted it from the sky. He had never been trained on the 20-millimeter, but he knew how to shoot. “Prior to that I had done a little shooting, hunting quail with my dad,” he said, “but that was a little different.”
(above) Madalynne Norick with son, Ron.
While Jim was away, Madalynne kept in touch through “V-Mails” and did her part by working in the Executive Lobby at the Douglas Aircraft Plant in Oklahoma City. “You couldn’t survive without mail,” she said. “You needed to know that your husband was still over there, and he was working for our country and you were trying to help the little way that you could. It was a serious time.” 
Norick was part of the invasion force waiting about a hundred miles away from the Japanese mainland when the war ended. He thinks the invasion would have started within a week, had the United States not dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Norick returned to his family in Oklahoma in early December, 1945. He went back to the printing business and became involved in community and public service. He served on the City Council and was elected Oklahoma City Mayor in 1959. He served two terms as mayor, winning a second term in 1967. Son Ron followed him as mayor in 1987 and held the position for 11 years.
(above) Madalynne and Jim Norick today.
Jim Norick remains involved in family business and still plays the clarinet. He plays each week in the Nichols Hills Concert Band and has a 6-piece combo that plays at nursing homes in the Oklahoma City area.
He also tries to remain in touch with his friends who proudly stepped up and served in what he calls, WW-Deuce. “I think the biggest majority of the American people were mad,” Norick said, “and (said) let’s get this over with, and they did what they had to do…willingly.”
Until next time, Dick Pryor
(Jim Norick was profiled on the Oklahoma News Report on October 24, 2007. To see the story, click on “Videos” on this website and go to “OETA’s Dick Pryor interviews Oklahoma WWII veterans.)
“I knew it was war”
October 3rd
The day started like any other Sunday morning in Hawaii - sunny and beautiful. All of the battleships in the U.S. Pacific fleet were moored on Battleship Row, near Ford Island. Sailors who had come in from liberty the night before were finishing their breakfasts, cleaning up the mess hall and getting their ship ready for inspection the next day. Much of the work had already been done - sailors were expecting a relaxed day in paradise.
(above) The USS Oklahoma.
But, December 7, 1941 was not like any other day at Pearl Harbor. Signalman 1st Class Paul Goodyear was preparing for the 8:00-12:00 watch, locating the ships in the harbor so he would know which way to use the signal lights or semaphores to address them. That is when Goodyear and some of his strikers looked up and saw a line of planes, a half-dozen or more, flying from the starboard to the port side of the USS Oklahoma. Goodyear remembers the first plane dropped a bomb and the second plane dropped a bomb, but that really wasn’t unusual.
“At that time, Ford Island was a naval base, a naval air station where the planes from the carriers would land while getting in some flying time with their ship in port,” Goodyear told me when we met in August. “If for some reason they had gone out for bombing practice and hadn’t expended the bombs they carried, rather than landing with weight under the wings or fuselage, they would just drop it on that little spit of land that stuck out there between west block and Pearl Harbor,” Goodyear said.
Goodyear’s interest intensified when a third plane dropped a bomb. “We knew something was going on,” Goodyear said. “I had a pair of 750 binoculars, and I put them to my eyes and that (Japanese) meatball hit me right in the eye. Right then we all knew it was the Japanese.”
Thus, began Paul Goodyear’s story of tragedy and survival. Goodyear jumped ship, swam to the USS Maryland and later made it to the safety of Ford Island, but 429 of his crew mates were not so fortunate. The “Okie” had the second-highest number of casualties of any battleship at Pearl Harbor, behind the USS Arizona.
Goodyear says the Oklahoma was being cleaned up for Admiral’s inspection on Monday morning, so it was not compartmentalized, and counter-flooding was not possible, like it was on the USS California and USS West Virginia. “By counter-flooding,” Goodyear said, “they were able to sink the ship straight down and that saved hundreds of lives on those ships. Our kids were trapped on that revolving ship (the USS Oklahoma) and they didn’t even know where they were.”
It took 11 and a half minutes for the Oklahoma to roll over into the water. It took a week for the survivors to get out of their wet, oily clothes; two weeks for the survivors to be allowed back in the mess hall. Goodyear says he and the other survivors had to make do the best they could until just before Christmas.
Paul Goodyear continued to serve in the Navy in the South Pacific until the war was over. He was preparing to be part of the U.S. force that would invade Japan when the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. “I was happy when they dropped the atomic bomb,” he said, “because then I knew we could begin to live our lives as a normal human being again.”
The operation to right the USS Oklahoma began on March 8, 1943. It was completed more than three months later. Divers had to wear gas masks while removing the remains of those who died and other decomposed materials from the Oklahoma’s compartments. The ship came afloat in November and by late December it was in drydock. It was stripped of guns and sold for scrap (for $46,000) two years later. On May 10, 1947 two tug boats departed Pearl Harbor to take the Oklahoma to San Francisco. About 540 miles out, during a storm at sea, the Oklahoma started to list and broke the tow line, sinking to the bottom of the Pacific for the final time.
Paul Goodyear is one of the leading proponents of building a USS Oklahoma Memorial at Pearl Harbor. He is looking forward to attending the ceremonies dedicating Pearl Harbor’s newest memorial on December 7, 2007. More information about the USS Oklahoma Memorial can be found at www.ussoklahoma.com.
Until next time, Dick Pryor
(Paul Goodyear was profiled on the Oklahoma News Report on October 3, 2007. To see the story, click on “Videos” on this website and go to “OETA’s Dick Pryor interviews Oklahoma WWII veterans.)
“It was a long war”
September 21st
Growing up in Idabel, Zee Howell thought it would be fun to be in the Navy. It might have been the book, Treasure Island, or the fact he had an uncle who was a Navy guy that inspired him, but mostly he wanted to help his mother and four sisters. Jobs for high schoolers were nil, so he decided to enlist in the Navy in 1940 and get positioned, rather than wait to be drafted. He also wanted to see the world.
That, he did. Howell went through training in San Diego, then was off aboard the tanker ship USS Neches to haul oil to places like Panama, Alaska and Hawaii. Howell figured the U.S. would get drawn into war, but he really wasn’t expecting the kind of sneak attack the Japanese launched at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
Howell admitted the United States had to go to war after that attack - there wasn’t any time to think about it. He viewed the Japanese as the enemy, obviously, but didn’t have ill feelings toward the Japanese people, they were just “the enemy.” He saw the war from beginning to end, and later served in Korea. As a sailor, he went all over the South Pacific, and was comforted by the knowledge that land was always just 2 miles away. “Unfortunately,” he said, “that land was two miles straight down.”
“I was at Pearl Harbor when it started and I was in the Phillipines when it ended, so it was very educational,” Howell said. “I learned a lot.”
Howell now lives southwest of Norman. He’s retired, but at the age of 85 is quite active. He’s a big Sooner sports fan, and a frequent participant in the public discourse of his hometown. He hopes future generations and leaders will learn from the experiences of his generation.
“Our generation was pretty tough,” Howell said. “Whatever happened, you just took it, did the best you could, and survived…and went on. That generation that grew up then, they just learned to do and make do and do without. We worked hard. We learned to do a lot of things, of necessity, we had to. Tom Brokaw may have left that out. We didn’t do it particularly by choice, but because we had to do it, and we’re better for it, too. We can withstand hardships better than anybody else. We know about it, we understand it, we’ve seen it, we’ve had it, and we just need to pass some of that along to our kids.”
(above) Zee Howell points out his position in a picture of the survivors of the USS Neches, taken the morning the ship was sunk by Japanese torpedoes. Howell and his shipmates waited in their life rafts for several hours before they were rescued by the USS Jarvis.
(below) Howell and other survivors of the USS Neches at a reunion in San Diego in 1996.
Zee Howell’s story is the first of our Oklahoma World War II Stories, airing on OETA’s Oklahoma News Report preceding each episode of “The War.”
Until next time, Dick Pryor
(Zee Howell was profiled on the Oklahoma News Report on September 21, 2007. To see the story, click on “Videos” on this website and go to “OETA’s Dick Pryor interviews Oklahoma WWII veterans.)