Paying tribute to ‘forgotten’ Utah | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

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DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARADVERTISER.COM

Gil Meyer, left, one of the few Pearl Harbor survivors who was aboard the USS Utah, and Delton “Wally” Walling, another Pearl Harbor survivor, saluted Tuesday during the playing of the national anthem at the USS Utah Memorial Sunset Ceremony held at the memorial on Ford Island.

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DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARADVERTISER.COM

Ashlie Osborn, left; Jessica Osborn; their hanai mother, Mary Purifoy, right; and Nina Kreigh looked at the waters Tuesday evening where the wreck of the USS Utah can be seen. Purifoy’s father, Leonard, was aboard the ship and survived the attack. The remains of Kreigh’s aunt, Nancy Wagner, who died at birth, are entombed in the Utah. Kreigh’s grandfather and Nancy’s father, Albert Wagner, was attached to the Utah at the time of the attack. Wagner had brought his baby girl’s ashes onto the ship and had planned to scatter them at sea, but he never got the chance before the Utah was sunk on Dec. 7, with Nancy’s urn still in her father’s locker aboard the vessel.

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The USS Utah is often called the “forgotten ship” of Pearl Harbor because it was well past its battleship days when it became the first ship downed by the Japanese attack.

Aerial torpedoes sunk the target and training vessel, killing 58 men, whose remains are immortalized underwater. Hundreds gathered to honor their sacrifices Tuesday during a poignant sunset memorial on Ford Island at the site of the partially submerged vessel.

The ceremony honored deceased heroes like Chief Watertender Peter Tomich, a 48-year-old who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for ensuring at his own peril that the ship’s boilers were secured. It also honored the 461 members of the 519 crew members who survived. About 90 percent of them were saved by the quick thinking of Lt. Cmdr. Solomon S. Isquith, the ranking officer on board during the attack, who was awarded a Navy Cross for efficiently directing the crew to abandon the ship.

Their harrowing stories of swimming to safety after the ship rolled reinforce the moniker “The Greatest Generation.” Many have been entombed at the site, which in 2006 became part of the World War II Valor in the Pacific Monument.

Pamela Becerra said her father Cecil Calavan, a USS Utah survivor and former president of the USS Utah Survivors Association, was entombed there two years ago.

“This is my father’s grave. We brought three generations here today to support him,” Becerra said. “We want people to know the Utah is here. We want people to be able to visit the memorial.”

Retired Master Chief Jim Taylor, Pearl Harbor survivor liaison, said he will continue his nearly decade-long effort to broaden public access for the memorial, which is open only to visitors with a federal government ID card.

“That’s one of the reasons that all of the attention has been given to the USS Arizona,” Taylor said. “I’m not knocking the Arizona, which lost a lot of sailors. But there also are sailors inside this ship.”

Today only five crew members are left to tell the USS Utah’s story, said 95-year-old Bill Hughes, who was just 20 when he survived the attack.

“When the first torpedo hit, we thought we had been rammed by another ship. Then the second hit happened and we knew it was something more because no fool is going to ram you twice,” Hughes said as the setting sun sent hot pink and orange rays over the tomb of his fallen crewmates. “I jumped about 15 to 20 feet. It was scary, but when you are 20 you’ve got a lot of adrenaline. It wasn’t enough that the Japanese had sunk our ship, they were strafing. They wanted to hit us all. I waited for a lull, then swam 100 yards to the beach and hid in a trench. If they had seen us, it would have been the end.”

Instead, Hughes said, he went on to live a good life incorporating the radio and electronics training that he learned during his time on the USS Utah.

“I’m so proud of him,” said Hughes’ great-grandson, 8-year-old Hudson Hughes. “I wouldn’t be here today if he had not survived.”

Robert Jared Dickson, 95, a Pearl Harbor survivor who served on the USS Curtiss, said survival was no small feat.

“I was moored within 200 yards of here,” said Dickson, who was 19 when the attack occurred. “I was on small-boat duty that day and saw firsthand what happened to the USS Utah. We rescued a man who was clinging to one of her timbers. He was in really bad shape. We saw so much that day. The aftermath was worse than all the explosions. There was plenty of carnage and gore.”

USS Utah survivor Gil Meyer, 93, said he knew many of the crew members who died during the attack. He has returned to the memorial at this time every year since the mid-2000s to honor his friend John Reeves Crain, who was only 21 years old when he was killed in the attack. Meyer recalls he was just 18 when an explosion roused him from bed. He said he was still in his “skivvies” when he climbed up the ship’s starboard side as it rolled and then slid into the water, then swam to safety.

The moments that followed were intense, but Meyer said they are overshadowed by his memories aboard the USS Detroit, which was anchored in Tokyo Bay for the Sept. 2, 1945, signing of Japanese surrender that ended the war.

“The surrender is my best memory,” Meyer said.