When a Japanese aerial bomb pierced the battleship USS Arizona on Dec. 7, 1941, igniting powder and fuel and blowing off the ship’s bow, the blast and fireball killed 1,177 of its men in the greatest loss of life on any U.S. warship in history.
Some survivors likely died later during World War II. Old age and infirmities have taken most of the rest.
Of 335 surviving Arizona crew members, only about 11 are still alive.
A new documentary film in production brought former Petty Officer 3rd Class Lauren Bruner, a fire controlman, back to Pearl Harbor last week to retell, in person, some of the moments of happiness in Hawaii, and then the shock, terror and heroism of the day of infamy before he, too, fades beneath the waves like his old ship.
Author and filmmaker Ed McGrath, a former Hawaii resident, is making "Second to the Last to Leave," a documentary about Bruner and his harrowing escape from the Arizona as it was engulfed in flames.
On Thursday, Bruner, 92, revisited the memorial above the sunken battleship, passing in a wheelchair through an honor detail of saluting white-uniformed sailors and rising a bit unsteadily with a cane to gaze upon the names of the men he had known engraved in marble.
"Emotional," said the La Mirada, Calif., man of the return. "Very emotional."
It’s one he’s made before, for Dec. 7 commemorations, but usually without the rawness of recounting how he received burns over 70 percent of his body in the huge fireball that engulfed the fire control crow’s-nest where he and five other men were trapped; how he and the others found the strength to climb a rope 100 feet hand over hand to another ship; and how he endured the pain of scabbing skin being peeled away repeatedly as part of his treatment.
Bruner spoke fleetingly of his ordeal as he rode out to the battleship’s final resting place, accompanied by Arizona Memorial chief historian Daniel Martinez; Capt. Jeff James, commander of Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam; and McGrath’s film crew.
McGrath, who spent more than 100 hours interviewing Bruner for the film, helped fill in the details.
Bruner, who was 21 when Japanese planes dived out of the skies, recalled a happier time before the attack.
"Girls," he said with a broad smile of his favorite shore-leave pastime.
He had shore patrol duty in Honolulu where the Black Cat Cafe and other bars were located.
"That was a good time. A good time," he said.
The Arizona was scheduled to leave for the West Coast on Dec. 8, 1941, Bruner recalled.
"It had a full load of fuel and everything," he said.
The battleship held approximately 1.5 million gallons of "Bunker-C" oil, and it burned for 21⁄2 days, leaving an estimated 500,000 gallons within its hull that continues to seep out in droplets like blood from a wound.
During the attack, Bruner directed fire from the port anti-aircraft gun enclosure, about 60 feet off the deck.
"We could look out and actually see the pilots grinning," he recalled.
As the Arizona began to sink, launches from other ships rescued what men they could, but six men, Bruner included, remained in the gun director’s crow’s-nest as fire raged on the ship below them and in the surrounding oil-topped water, McGrath said.
Aboard the repair ship Vestal, tied up next to the Arizona, crewman Joseph George cut the lines to the Arizona with a fire ax as the stricken battleship threatened to pull it down, McGrath said.
George, a farm boy from the Midwest and a boxer, saw Bruner and the others surrounded by smoke and fire and yelling for help, and threw them a line.
From that line the trapped men pulled in a heavier line, tied it off and climbed hand over hand to safety, McGrath said.
Bruner was the second to last to leave the Arizona, according to McGrath. The very last was Alvin Dvorak, burned over 80 percent of his body, who got the attention of George, caught the line and tied it up so the men could escape, he said.
"In Lauren’s heart Alvin is the true hero," McGrath said.
Dvorak died 17 days later, on Christmas Eve.
Asked how he was able to hang on and climb 100 feet across a rope when he had burns over 70 percent of his body, Bruner said simply, "When you gotta, you gotta."
When Bruner arrived on the hospital ship Solace, his hands were charcoaled, and a doctor wanted to amputate three fingers on each hand, but Bruner was able to successfully veto that, McGrath said.
McGrath said that although fire poured through hatches and ports on the enclosed gun director, the steel beneath the sailors’ feet saved them.
Bruner said the most painful part was the treatment afterward.
Every two to three weeks, the skin would scab, "and they’d peel that off" and wash him down afterward with pure alcohol, the survivor said. He managed to keep all his fingers.
Seven months later Bruner was sent back to war on the destroyer escort Conglin and participated in eight major battles.
"To me Lauren is a rock star," McGrath said. "When I’m in his presence, I feel honored. I love history so much, I’m thinking, ‘God, this is the cornerstone of American history, just like July Fourth and 9/11.’ I mean, everybody knows about Pearl Harbor, and everybody in the world knows about the USS Arizona."
McGrath, who spent part of his past living on the Waianae Coast and now is in Los Angeles, has published seven books and made a previous documentary film, "My Hawaiian Uncle."
He’s trying to raise $25,000 to complete the 15- to 30-minute documentary, and has received help from Hawaiian Airlines, the Halekulani hotel and Nikon. He hopes to release the film by this Dec. 7, and plans to give a copy to the Navy and to the National Park Service, which runs the Arizona Memorial.
He’s seeking funds through online fundraiser Kickstarter and a website, www.secondtothelasttoleave.com.
