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We are saddened to report that another of the veterans we met last fall during our Oklahoma World War II Stories series has died. Army Sergeant Alexander Mathews of Cache, Oklahoma, died of pneumonia on March 14, 2008 at the age of 88.
Mr. Mathews was a full-blood Pawnee indian, born in Pawnee, Oklahoma on May 11, 1919. He attended Haskell Institute before joining the Army and serving in the Phillipines. Mathews was one of almost 80,000 American and Filipino soldiers who became prisoners of war when the American General surrendered to the Japanese at Baatan, shortly after the start of World War II. Mathews and his fellow POW’s were forced to walk more than 70 miles to the Japanese prison camp, Camp O’Donnell. More than 10,000 of the prisoners died or were executed on the way, in what became known as the “Baatan Death March.”
Mathews was shuttled from camp to camp throughout the war, performing slave labor, and later being transported to Japan on the so-called “hell ships,” where prisoners endured inhumane treatment and unimaginable living conditions. Mathews spent the entire length of World War II, four and a half years, as a prisoner of war.
After the war, Mathews returned to the United States and began a career with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He also served as Chairman of the Pawnee Tribe of Oklahoma. In his later years, he was a frequent speaker at schools in Oklahoma and the Pacific Northwest, where he discussed World War II and his experiences on the Baatan Death March as part of a Living History Project.
Mathews is survived by his wife, Joyce, and two sons and daughters from a previous marriage. 
(Above: Alexander Mathews looks over a gun at the 45th Infantry Division Museum in Oklahoma City. Mathews served in artillery in the U.S. Army. Below: Mathews during his interview with OETA’s Dick Pryor and Boots Kennedye on August 23, 2007 in Oklahoma City.)
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.
“We had a good hospital”
November 14th
As stories are told about World War II one group is sometimes forgotten, but according to many veterans, they were the real heroes of the war: the medical units. Doctors, surgeons, dentists, nurses, all risked their own lives to save the lives of others. The survival rate during World War I was about 8%; during World War II it dropped to 4%; and one unit did even better – the 21st Evacuation Hospital from the University of Oklahoma.
Dr. Daniel Pearson was one of those doctors, having graduated from the University of Oklahoma Medical School in June, 1941. I met Dr. Pearson on August 24, 2007 at his office in south Dallas. Pearson told me that he had always planned on joining the Army if the U.S. went into war, but his draft board said they were going to take him as soon as he got through his internship (because of his low draft number), so he joined the 21st Evacuation Hospital.
“The Army had asked most medical schools to organize an affiliated hospital that could serve in the war and treat casualties,” said Dr. Pearson, ” so Oklahoma organized their’s as the 21st Evac Hospital. It probably started out with a dozen or more doctors from Oklahoma City, then it gradually grew from there.”
Dr. Pearson trained in the desert of California, expecting to go to North Africa, where General George Patton and his tank corps were operating, but the 21st was sent to the South Pacific, instead. Dr. Pearson set up a medical unit at Guadalcanal, several months after the invasion. “We took care of casualties that came in from the field,” said the soft-spoken Pearson. “About 2,000-3,000 patients. We were there (Guadalcanal) about 40 days. By that time we had finally pretty well filled up our quota and I think we rose to 46 doctors and about 60 administrators.”
Despite their training, the members of the 21st were not totally prepared for what they saw. “Everything we saw was trauma. Gunshots wounds and fragment wounds. In civilian life you don’t see too many casualties like that. When we got to Bougainville, especially, we had more destructive trauma.”
The 21st worked in tents, with 3 general surgical teams of 3 men to a team. In Bougainville, they worked on 12 tables, doing surgery underground to stay out of the line of fire. The operating room wasn’t actually dug into the ground, but was built up with walls, logs laid across and covered up with soil to make an “underground” room.
Dr. Pearson describes the conditions at Bougainville with one word: wet. “At Bougainville, on the side of the island where we were, average rainfall was 274 inches a year, so it rained every day. It would get up to 90, but not bad. We would sweat a lot, humid, and there were mosquitoes, lots of them, so we slept under nets,” Pearson said.
The unit was only 200-400 yards from the front lines at Bougainville, so the 21st got fresh battle casualties. Pearson remembers that the casualties came in so heavy that the surgical teams worked day and night for about three weeks, operating on all 12 tables.
After a little more than a year, the 21st went to Luzon, in the Phillipines. Once in the Phillipines, Pearson was sent to a small town named San Carlos, about 15 miles inland. There, he set up a hospital in a Catholic cathedral that was built in 1585, but not before giving the cathedral a thorough cleaning. “It was in good condition, and it looked like people had been kneeling on a ground floor, but actually it was bat manure (on the floor). There were bats all over the ceiling, live bats, so we drove about 7 vehicles, trucks and other vehicles, in there and left them running until they burned out all of their gas, hoping the fumes would drive the bats out. We scooped up the bat manure, raked it up and put in the trucks. We got seven truck tons of that bat manure out and hauled it off. Under the manure we found a beautiful tile floor,” Pearson said.
In San Carlos, there were about 400 cots in the cathedral and another 400-500 beds outside in tents. The 21st stayed in San Carlos for about 40 days before heading to the New Bilibid Prison, where they cared for survivors of Bataan. Pearson figures if he hadn’t joined the 21st he would have been among the Army soldiers sent to Bataan. He says many in his advanced officer training class at OU wound up there. “Close call. Yeah, close call,” Pearson told me.
Pearson stayed in touch with his family through mail and pictures. He left one daughter (Maureen) and his wife behind when he left for the South Pacific. Another daughter (Diana) was born while he was gone. He didn’t see her until she was nearly 3 years old.
Pearson says those sacrifices were just part of the job. “You have to accept it – just like life. You may not like it, but there is nothing you can do about it, so you just have to accept it. It’s an adjustment you make in your life.”
After the war, Pearson went into general practice in Perryton, Texas and later began practicing psychiatry, with an office in Dallas. Now, at the age of 93, Dr. Pearson still practices psychiatry 3 days a week. He says the worst part of war was being away from home for three years. The best part was taking care of people. “The best part,” Pearson recalled, “was that we could be a doctor.”
(above) Dr. Daniel B. Pearson with three of his children in his Dallas, Texas office. (l-r) Maureen, Daniel, Diana.
Thanks to Judy Kelley of the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and Editor of OU Medicine for her invaluable assistance in the preparation of the story of Dr. Pearson and the “Fighting 21st.”
Until next time, Dick Pryor
(Dr. Daniel B. Pearson was profiled on the Oklahoma News Report on November 14, 2007. To see the story, click on “Videos” on this website and go to “OETA’s Dick Pryor interviews Oklahoma WWII veterans.)
“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.)
Tulsa WWII Veteran Dale Luton Dies
October 23rd
When we began our Oklahoma World War II Stories project last summer we were prompted to act by Ken Burns’ documentary, The War, and the realization that veterans of the war years are dying at an alarming rate. So, our ambitious and worthwhile project began. We were ready to interview Oklahoma veterans and produce stories about their experiences. What we weren’t ready for was losing one of the veterans we profiled quite so soon.
Sad to say, Dale Luton, USMC, died early Monday morning in his hometown of Tulsa after a short illness. He was 83. We learned about Mr. Luton in July when his daughter, Linda Luton Jackson, contacted us about a photograph that Ken Burns was using in the promotion of his documentary. Linda saw the picture of a solitary soldier in the promotional materials and realized she had seen it before. More accurately, she had seen the bigger picture that showed five Americans: one dead on a stretcher and four carrying his body. The person in the front of picture was her father. The photograph was in her father’s scrapbook and also in a frame at her parents’ home. 
(above) Dale Luton, left-foreground, carrying a stretcher with a dead American at Saipan in 1944. Luton died on October 22, 2007.
We arranged to meet Linda’s father, and interviewed him on August 10, 2007 at his home in south Tulsa. Photojournalist Boots Kennedye and I spent most of the day with Mr. Luton and his wife, Betty. He told us about his experiences at Tarawa, Guadalcanal, and Saipan, where the now-famous picture was taken. We visited over lunch and found out that Dale Luton was quite the star in the retirement village where he lived; even more so after word got out about his new fame.
(above) OETA photojournalist Boots Kennedye photographs Dale Luton looking through his scrapbook on August 10, 2007.
Mr. Luton explained that he was likely the only ambulance driver depicted in the picture who survived the war. The others, he believed, were killed in a Japanese attack soon after the picture was taken in Saipan in 1944. Mr. Luton returned to Tulsa by the fall of 1944, got married and launched his career with the Tulsa Fire Department early in 1946. He spent 32 years at the TFD before retiring in 1978.
We let Ken Burns know about discovering Mr. Luton and word got back to us that Burns wanted to talk to Mr. Luton sometime. Last week that happened. With Mr. Luton’s health failing, time was of the essence and we let Ken Burns know. Just a few days ago, Ken Burns reached Dale Luton, by telephone, and they visited for a few minutes. Linda tells us they visited about Mr. Luton’s service and sacrifice, and Ken expressed his appreciation. We were honored to get to know Mr. Luton, as well, and grateful for the opportunity to tell his story. We will miss him.
Mr. Luton’s death is another reminder that the men and women of the “greatest generation” will not be with us much longer. We invite persons with a World War II story to tell to share it through this website, by phone, by mail or by e-mail. 
Dale Luton (June 13, 1924-October 22, 2007)
A memorial service for Dale Luton will be held on Thursday, October 25, at 1:00 p.m. at the 10th and Rockford Church of Christ in Tulsa.
Until next time, Dick Pryor
“The Japanese had no mercy on us”
October 10th
Just meeting Alexander Mathews, you might not guess his “story.” Slight of build, soft-spoken, and unpretentious, it is only after listening to him talk for a few minutes that you begin to understand what makes his story so compelling. Listen carefully, and look into his eyes, as the words and emotions spill out, and you will begin to touch the horror, heartbreak and heroism of war.
Alexander Mathews was born in Pawnee, Oklahoma on May 11, 1919. A full-blood Pawnee, he graduated from high school in Glencoe, Oklahoma. After high school, Mathews attended the Haskell Institute in Kansas, and spent a year in the First Cavalry. In March of 1941 he entered the Army in Santa Fe, New Mexico. From there he went to Fort Bliss, Texas for basic and individual training in artillery. His unit left the United States on September 12, 1941 and arrived in the Phillipines nine days later.
Just a few hours after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Imperial war planes were heading toward Clark Field in the Phillipines. American planes were scrambled, then returned to refuel. While they were on the ground, the Japanese attacked, destroying more than 100 American planes and launching the Japanese offensive in the Phillipines.
Mathews had heard about the attack at Pearl Harbor, and remembers seeing the high-flying bombers coming toward Clark Field, but he says American officers thought the planes were American. It wasn’t until after they released their bombs and the strafers followed behind them that the reality was known: the United States was at war.
Soon, Mathews and other Americans were moved to Nichols Field to await the Japanese advance. Within three weeks, the Japanese invasion forces were nearing Manila. General Douglas MacArthur declared it an open city and pulled the American and Filipino troops back to Bataan, where, with dwindling supplies and aging guns and equipment, they would fight the Japanese as best they could. By March, MacArthur had gathered up his family and left for Australia. That left the Americans under the command of General Jonathan Wainwright, with Edward P. King serving as the Commanding General of the American and Phillipine forces in Bataan.
Mathews says the fighting became increasingly hopeless as medical and food supplies “became nonexistent” and it became obvious the remaining American and Filipino forces might have to surrender. “We didn’t know what we were going to do,” Mathews recalls, “until a little jeep came by with General King, with a white flag on it.” General King agreed to surrender on April 9, 1942, after receiving assurances from the Japanese command that the nearly 80,000 American and Filipino troops would be treated well. “I just said, well, I guess that’s it,” Mathews told me, “because we realized we didn’t have enough food supply, we didn’t have enough ammunition.”
Mathews says the soldiers were instructed to destroy their guns so the Japanese could not use them. “We began dismantling what we could of our rifles,” he said, “took the firing pins out and the bolt and buried them, until the Japanese came. They told us to form a column of fours. We didn’t know what it was, but it was the death march.”
And so began Sgt. Alexander Mathews’ journey into hell and history. During the Bataan Death March, American and Filipino prisoners were marched almost 80 miles to Camp O’Donnell. Starving soldiers were forced to march through the searing heat with little food, water or medical treatment. “Those that were too weak, if they fell by the wayside,” Mathews remembered, “were either bayonetted, clubbed to death or even shot.” Thousands died on the Bataan Death March, and many thousands more died at Camp O’Donnell. The Japanese viewed the prisoners as cowards, and showed them no mercy.
The Americans were used as slave labor, in violation of the rules of war. Mathews was placed on burial detail, digging graves for his fellow prisoners at Camp O’Donnell. He remembers going to the infamous prison camp at Cabanatuan, where he cut down tall grass so the Japanese guards could better watch their prisoners. It was there that Mathews received an indication of the treatment to follow. “We heard yelling in the back, behind the fence, and some shooting,” he said. “We heard singing as the Japanese came marching in with the head of this Filipino on a bamboo pole, marching down the middle where everyone could see it. As we began to get in formation they put us in groups of ten and said ‘if one escapes, the rest of you die.’ That was their way of telling us we were going to be there for a while.”
Mathews, and other American prisoners, were shuttled from camp to camp. They walked, or were herded onto railroad boxcars, or were stacked into the cargo hold on “Hell Ships” to reach their next destination. Life on those ships, he says, was the worst part. “That was the most gruesome experience,” he said. “You had to stay in that one position and wonder whether you were going to get any water.”
The dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended the war, and Mathews was finally released in August, 1945. He had spent 42 months as a prisoner of war.
After the war, Sgt. Alexander Mathews completed college and worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs for 33 years. He later served as President of the Pawnee Tribe of Oklahoma. Today, he is 88 and lives in Cache, Oklahoma with his wife, Joyce.
(above) Alexander Mathews, former President of the Pawnee Tribe of Oklahoma.
(below) Alexander Mathews with OETA photojournalist Boots Kennedye.
One of the promises made by the men of Bataan and Corregidor to their families, communties and each other is “Always Remember Us, Never Forget Us.” Mr. Mathews is thankful to have survived, and he is now sharing his memories of World War II with school children in Oregon, Washington, and Oklahoma.
Until next time, Dick Pryor
(Alexander Mathews was profiled on the Oklahoma News Report on October 10, 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.)