Laying USS Arizona Survivors to Rest on the Ship

From the Jan. 8, 2014, Yahoo! News Politics Confidential "Laying veterans to rest in the watery graves of Pearl Harbor."

Daniel Martinez, chief historian at Pearl Harbor has been spending the last 30 years interring survivors of the attack into the waters of Pearl Harbor. He says there are still 3-4 Japanese pilots alive from the attack and just 9 from the USS Arizona, all of whom want to buried on their old ship.

He helps fulfill dying veterans' last wishes to be buried with their shipmates. When the end came for the Arizona, 1,178 officers and men were killed and 900 are stll on it "serving the ship" as Martinez says.

The most recent USS Arizona interrment was Chief Warrant Officer Edward Wentzlaff in December.

Mr. Martinez has been very involved in collecting oral histories of Pearl Harbor survivors. While in college, he interviewed his grandfather who was there and less than a quarter mile from the Arizona when it blew up. He said he felt the concussion. However, his grandfather had to leave the table four times during the interview.

--GreGen