Iron Range's Last Pearl Harbor Survivor, Arleigh Birk, Dies in Minnesota.

Pearl Harbor survivor Arleigh Birk died nine days after celebrating his 100th birthday in Aurora, Minnesota.   He was the Northland's last physical event to that historic day.

At age 21, he was a gun director on the cruiser USS Honolulu.

It is though there are no more Pearl Harbor survivors since his death.  The next to last one was Bruce Atwater of of Bemidji.

They both died in 2020.

--Sorry to See Them Go.  --GreGen

Just Two USS Arizona Survivors Now & Two New U.S. Nuclear Subs Named For Oklahoma and Arizona

With the death of Donald Stratton, that leaves just two USS Arizona survivors.  They are Ken Potts, 98, and Lou Conter, 98.

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The U.S. Navy will name two new nuclear submarines the USS Arizona and USS Oklahoma.

--GreGen

The USS Arizona's Oil Leak-- Part 3: "The Black Tears of the Arizona"

Some historians have called the leaking oil "The Black Tears of the Arizona." and the NPS says that oil has a moving effect on the some 1.7 million visitors each year to the memorial.

When they see the oil float to the top of the water they are smelling  and seeing history.  It is like a time machine taking you back to that date, December 7, 1941.

A lot of oil is trapped  in then hull or fuel tanks that are  lodged deep into the muddy water of the harbor floor, making fuel removal expensive and difficult.  "We don't know if the oil is creating pressure in the tanks that's helping the structural integrity of the ship," said the National Park Service's (NPS) Bojakowski.

Removing the oil could disturb artifacts, the bodies aboard the ship or the urns of survivors now interned aboard her.    Other battleships that were sunk or seriously damaged in the attack have been removed.  The USS Arizona and USS Utah were so badly damaged it was decided to leave them where they were.  Parts of the ships were salvaged (including the guns) and in the 1960s, several tons of the Arizona were cut away.

There is a film segment with the article showing the "Black Tears of the Arizona" as well as a picture of a seahorse on the ship.

--GreGen

The USS Arizona's Oil Leak-- Part 2: More Than 900 Still Aboard the Ship

Oil is also leaking from the sunken battleship USS Utah, but neither the Navy or NPS know how much is leaking each day or how much has leaked since the attack or how much is left in the ship.

"People talk about how beautiful  it is to see the oil glisten on top of the water and how much it reminds them of the lives lost," says Maxx Phillips,  an environmental attorney.  "All it does to me is to think about the lives lost after the fact, everything from bacteria all the way up the food chain to our sharks are endangered animals living in that toxicity."

Regardless, today, there is coral growing on the Arizona as well as sea horses on it and sea turtles swimming around it.  A young hammerhead shark and black-tipped reef shark also make it home.

The oil could have been removed, but the USS Arizona isn't just another ship.  It is an active military grave. More than 900 of the 1,177 servicemen who died aboard the Arizona are still aboard it.  Additionally, 40 crew members who survived the attack now have urns with their ashes buried aboard the ship.

--GreGen

The USS Arizona's Oil Leak: Is It an Environmental Concern?-- Part 1: 14,000 to 64,00 Gallons of Oil

From the February 24, 2020, Honolulu Civil Beat "Oil constantly leaks from the USS Arizona.   Is that an environmental problem? by Claire Caulfield.

An audio tour of Pearl Harbor narrated by actress Jaime Lee Curtis, instructs visitors to the USS Arizona Memorial not to throw coins into the water around the shipwreck because they harm the environment.

But nothing is said about the estimated half gallon of oil that leaks out of the ship every day.

A federal report says this oil is particularly toxic and there is concern for marine life in the harbor.  But, even so, there are no plans to stop the leak.

During the December 7, 1941, attack, all eight battleships in the harbor were hit by torpedoes and bombs, spilling thousands of gallons of oil into the harbor.  The Arizona had just been topped off with bunker oil the day before and burned for two days afterwards.

It is believed that between 14,000 and 64,000 gallons of oil have leaked out of the USS Arizona since the attack and the NPS estimates it could continue to leak for another 500 years.

--GreGen

Bits of War: Three U.S. Lost Aircraft Found-- Life at Fort Bragg During the War-- Tuskegee Airmen Honor

Bits of War--  Some recent World War II stories.  February 23, 2020.

**  THREE U.S. LOST AIRCRAFT FOUND:  Three U.S. aircraft shot down in Pacific discovered 76 years later.  During Operation Hailstorm in Feb. 1944.     Forty Americans were killed and 20 aircraft lost.  Two of them were SBD-5 Dauntless dive bombers and one TBM/F1 Avenger.  They were located 100 to 215 deep.

Operation Hailstorm was the U.S. Navy attack on Truk Lagoon an anchorage for the Imperial Japanese Fleet.  It resulted in a huge American victory.

**  LIFE AT FORT BRAGG DURING THE WAR:   Newsletters show life at North Carolina's Fort Bragg during WW II.   Now online at N.C. State Archives Military Collection.  For the first Thanksgiving after the U.S. entered  the war,  said that special services would be held and the men were to have turkey, dressing, gravy and cranberries.

**  TUSKEGGEE AIRMEN HONOR:   Tuskegee Airmen fought racism at home while defending America abroad.  Fox News.  This also includes President Trump's salute during the State of the Union speech to Brigadier General Charles McGee, one of the last surviving Tuskegee Airmen.

He also served in the Korean and Vietnam wars.  During those three wears, he flew 409 missions against our enemies.

The article includes Trump's remarks about Mr. McGee and his great grandson who wants to join the new U.S. Space Force.

--GreGen

New USS Arizona Memorial Opens at Salt River Talking Stick

From the February 22, 2020, 12 News NBC  (Arizona)  by Matt Yurus.

A video accompanies the article and it is quite an impressive memorial and features an original piece of the ship.

U.S. Senator Martha McSally attended the dedication event.  The new memorial is at the Talking Stick Entertainment District in the Salt River Indian Community.

From Fox News:

There is an anchor and a mast of thee ship at the Arizona state capitol.  There is a new piece of the famous battleship at Salt River Field and it is the boathouse which sits in the memorial exactly where it was on the ship.  (These were removed from the ship after the attack.)  There are also planks from the ship there.  This was a part of the original USS Arizona Memorial.

They built a too-scale garden around the piece with over 1500 columns representing everyone who was aboard the Arizona in the attack on December 7, 1941.   All of the columns that are lighted represent someone who died aboard the ship that day.  The smaller unlit ones are for the men who survived.

The exterior columns outline the dimensions of the ship.

One of them is for Donald Stratton who died last Saturday.  Another two are for the two crew members who are still alive.

Quite An Impressive Place.  --GreGen

Death of USS Arizona Survivor Donald Stratton-- Part 5: Brought Honor to the Man Who Saved Him, Joseph Leon George

In 2002, Mr. Stratton began fighting the Pentagon bureaucracy and Congress to bring an honor to that sailor on The USS Vestal who saved his and the other lives on December 7, 1941, when he tossed them the line.

That man was Joseph Leon George.

Boatswain's mate 2nd Class Joseph Leon George was that alert sailor and Stratton discovered that George had never been decorated for that action.  A retired chief petty officer, George died in 1996.

In 2017, Mr. Stratton and one of those men Mr. George saved, retired Navy Fire Control Chief Lauren Bruner, traveled to Washington, D.C., to personally petition Congress and President Trump to award Mr. George a posthumous medal.

And, they won their final battle of World War II.

On December 7, 2017, George's family received on his behalf, the Bronze Star with a "V" device for battlefield valor.

Mr. Bruner died September 10, 2019, at age 98. and this past December 7, 2019, he became the last USS Arizona survivor to be interred inside his former ship.

Donald Stratton is the co-author of "All the Gallant Men:  An American Sailor's Firsthand Account of Pearl Harbor."

He is survived by his wife Velma, children Robert, Randy, Gypsy, Roxanne Jp; plus thirteen grand children and great grandchildren.

--GreGen

Death of USS Arizona Survivor Donald Stratton-- Part 4: Despite His Injuries, He Got Back Into the War

During his long recovery, Stratton's military surgeons urged him to let them amputate his burned limbs, but he refused and forced himself  through the pain and agony of learning how to walk again.

He was medically discharged from the Navy in 1941 and that could have been it for his World War II service.  But, a year later, he got back into the Navy through his draft board, which meant that he had to go through boot camp again to prove that eh could still serve.

He graduated, and afterwards was stationed Naval Station Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay where he drew orders to report to the destroyer USS Stack as a gunner's mate 3rd class.

This ship participated in action off New Guinea, the Philippines and did picket duty off Okinawa.

He survived America's first battle of the war and its last.

But, he never forgot the sailor on the USS Vestal, who saved his life on December 7, 1941.  That man's name was Joseph Leon George.  He wanted recognition for him.

Like I've said before, the Greatest Generation.

--GreGen

Death of USS Arizona Survivor Donald Stratton-- Part 3: Crawled to Safety Across 70 Feet of Rope Above a Burning Inferno

And, Donald Stratton's ordeal was not over.  He survived the explosion and fires, though severely burned, but he had to find a way to get off the ship.  He and five other badly burned men staggered  across their splintered warship  that glowed red hot from the fires fueled by oil and munitions.

The six survivors banded together, looking for a way to escape route to the water, but there wasn't one.  The water was on fire.

But then, an alert sailor, Joseph Leon George, on the repair ship USS Vestal, tied up next to the Arizona saw them.  After several tries, he managed  to get a heaving line over to the doomed ship and then a heavy line so that the survivors could crawl along the rope, four stories above the burning inferno that the water had become.

There was seventy feet of rope they had to cover, burned as they were, to get to safety on the Vestal.

They got across, but later two of them died from their burns.  Donald Stratton was one of the four who survived.

--GreGen

Death of USS Arizona Survivor Donald Stratton-- Part 2: "Ball of Flame That Went 500 to 600 Feet Into the Air"

Most  of the men who survived the attack on Peal Harbor from the USS Arizona were on shore that day or they would have been numbered among the dead.

An armor-piercing bomb hit the Arizona near Turret #2 in the front of the ship.  It cut right through and ignited the magazines in the forward section of the ship.  This was the killer blow.

Within seconds, "There was a ball of flame that went about 500 to 600 feet into the air, and it just engulfed the whole foremast up there where we were and the whole bow of the ship," Stratton recalled.

The explosion cleaved the battleship in half, rained metal down upon Ford Island  and unleashed fires which raged for two days aboard what was left of the Arizona.

"As soon as I came to my senses, I tried to hide under some equipment to keep away from the blaze, but I still got burned.  The fire came right into the director," where he was stationed.

Stratton was torched from his thighs to his ankles, across his back, arms and left torso, plus his face.  He was burned bald on his head and the flames had chewed through part of an ear.    More than three of every five inches of his skin had been scorched.

And, his ordeal wasn't over.

Next.  --GreGen

Death of USS Arizona Survivor Donald Stratton, 97-- Part 1: Now Only Two Survivors Remain

From the February 17, 2020, Navy Times "USS Arizona survivor Donald Stratton dies at 97" by Carl Prine.

A photo of Mr. Stratton, along with USS Arizona survivors Louis Conter, John Anderson and Lauren Bruner (4 of the 9 remaining survivors at the time) taken Dec. 7, 2014 at Pearl Harbor.

Donald Stratton survived the attack on Dec. 7, 1941, with serious burns but returned to the war and later devoted his years to the terrible sacrifices of his shipmates, died peacefully in his sleep Saturday, February 15.

A seaman, 1st class at the time of the attack, Stratton had to scale three ladders to reach his battle station  on the Arizona's sky control platform before General Quarters was sounded  amid the bedlam of the Japanese attack.  His duty was to direct four of the 5-inch guns  in his portside section.

"We were firing.  There were only 50 rounds of ammunition in the ready box behind each gun, and I could see that some of the crews had to break the locks off the boxes to load their guns."   

Most of the crew, -- 1,177 officers and men -- died on that terrible day.

Now Another Joins His Comrades.  --GreGen

Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and Submarines

From Wikipedia.

In the last two blog entries I have written about Charles Sanna who was very involved with submarine construction and upkeep during World War II.  He also invented Swiss Miss Cocoa Mix.

And, Portsmouth Naval  Shipyard played a huge role in the U.S. submarine service in World War I and after the war right up through nuclear submarines in 1969.  One of the submarines launched there was the Thresher which was lost with all 129 aboard in 1963.

From 1942 until he left in February 1944, probably 35 submarines were built and launched at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.

Other ships of note launched at Portsmouth:  USS Congress (sunk by the CSS Virginia) and USS Kearsarge (sank the CSS Alabama).

--GreGen

Charles Sanna: Submarines and Swiss Miss

From Find A Grave.

Born:  9 Nov. 1917, Philadelphia, Pa.

Died:  13 March 2019  Fitchburg, Wis.

Buried:  Resurrection Cemetery  Madison, Wis.  (Where comedian Chris Farley is buried.)

In July 1941, with war raging in Europe, he applied for and received a commission in the U.S. Navy and was sent to diesel school at Penn State.  After Pearl Harbor, he was assigned to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, where he oversaw construction of submarines.  Sitting across from his desk was his boss' secretary Margaret (Peggy) McGee, who became the love of his life.

In February 1944, he was ordered to duty in the Pacific Theater where he spent the remainder of the war at Pearl Harbor as Officer-In-Charge of Submarine Repair and Alterations.  In November 1945, Lieutenant Commander Sanna returned to Portsmouth, Maine, and in January 1946 married Peggy.

For more information on his non-military life, see my Cooter's History Thing blog for this month.

--GreGen

Deaths: Charles Sanna Built Submarines and Invented Swiss Miss Cocoa Mix

CHARLES SANNA  (1917-2019)

Best known for inventing Swiss Miss Cocoa Mix.  You can read about him in several posts I made in my Cooter's History Thing blog which you can get to in the My Blog List section to the right of this.

Graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1939 with a degree in mechanical engineering.  During World War II he joined the Navy and rose to become superintendent of submarine construction at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Maine.

But his thoughts after the war always returned to the submarines he built and the men who served and died on them.

"These men had to be utterly perfect, particularly mentally," he wrote near the end of his life.  "I would ask that anything said on my behalf would include a statement of tribute to the 3,505 valiant, unheralded submariners of the United States Navy who lost their lives in World War II."

--GreGen

Remembering D-Day-- Part 5: Pointe du Hoc, Through Minefields and Up Steep Bluffs

His outfit earned fame by fighting through minefields and the steep bluffs.  For his actions, John C. Raaen Jr. was awarded the Silver Star, the third-highest honor for heroism in combat in the United States.

A Georgia native, he rose to the rank of two-star general before retiring from the Army in 1979.

Raaen feels extraordinarily lucky to have lived a long and full life. D-Day, he stresses, was not the highlight; the day he married was.  But keeping young Americans alive through the longest of days comes very close.

--GreGen

Remembering D-Day-- Part 4: Pointe du Hoc "Machine Gun Fire Was Absolutely Continuous"

As his battalion approached the breach it suddenly changed direction.  "Lt. Col. Schneider, our battalion commander, was in the second wave.  he saw what was happening and said, 'I'm not going to lose my battalion on that beach.'  We moved approximately a thousand yards.  It made all  the difference."

Even so, Raaen came under fire a "tremendous amount" of small arms fire.  There was "constant noise," a ceaseless "roar."  Bullets cracked in the air, "pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, above you.  The machine gun fire was absolutely continuous."

A Rough Assignement.  --GreGen

Remembering D-Day-- Part 3: Pointe du Hoc

From the June 2019 AARP Bulletin."A Ranger Captain Recalls D-Day Carnage" by Alex Kershaw.

Retired Major General John C. Raaen  Jr. can still hear the sound of bullets cracking over his head, the wall of noise that greeted him as he landed in France on June 6, 1944.

At 97, he is one of the few alive who experienced the full horrors of Bloody Omaha, where more than 1,200 Americans died.  A 1943 West Point graduate in 1943, Raaen was a 22-year-old captain in the 5th Ranger Infantry Battalion.

His unit's target was a battery of guns at Pointe du Hoc, at the top of 100-foot sheer cliffs and heavily defended.

As his battalion closed on the beach, it suddenly changed direction as a result of a call by the battalion's commander.

--GreGen

Remembering D-Day-- Part 2: What They Said

"The first 24 hours of the invasion will be decisive....  For the Allies as well as Germany, it will be the longest day."

--Ervin Rommell, German field marshal

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"Only two kinds of people are going to be on this beach, the dead and those who are going to die."

--Col. George A. Taylor, commanding the 16th Infantry Regiment on Omaha Beach.


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"These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc.  These are the men who took the cliffs.  These are the champions who helped free a continent.  These are the heroes who helped end the war."

--President Ronald Reagan, 40th anniversary of D-Day.

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"They were the fathers we never knew, the uncles we never met, the friends who never returned, the heroes we can never repay.  They gave us our world.  And those simple sounds of freedom we hear today are their voices speaking to us across the years."

--President Bill Clinton, 50th anniversary of D-Day

*************************************

--GreGen

Remembering D-Day: What They Said-- Part 1

From the June 2019 AARP Bulletin:  "Remembering D-Day."

WHAT THEY SAID ABOUT D-DAY

**   "Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force!  You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade....  The eyes of the world are upon you."

Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, letter to the troops.

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**  They fight not for the lust of conquest.  They fight to end conquest.  They fight to liberate."

President Franklin D. Roosevelt

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**  "You get your ass on the beach.  I'll be there waiting for you and I'll tell you what to do.  There ain't anything in this plan that is going to go right."

Col. Paul R. Goode to his troops before D-Day

**********************************

--GreGen

Death of John "Jack" Lyle, Tuskegee Airman-- Part 2: "You're One of Those People That Protected Our Guys"

Recounting his war experiences, Mr. Lyle said:  "We flew 500 feet above the bombers to keep enemy fighters from hitting our guys.  I loved flying, being up in the clouds, the scenery.  I flew 26 combat missions from southern Italy to Austria and southern Germany over the Austrian Alps."

"I was shot at several times as part of the formation.  I watched bombers being torn apart, but they were performing the mission they signed up to do.  And when I had to shoot the guy who was shooting at the planes, I was protecting, I did not feel bad because that was my assignment."

Mr. Lyle told Jet Magazine:  "The airmen made a contribution to our country.  And even though there was a lot of racism then, a lot of other people think so, too.  Once, I went to a bar in full uniform and some white guys started approaching me.  I was watching them.  Then they broke into smiles and started thanking me, saying, 'You're one of those people that protected our guys.' "

His wife said, "He had no fear.  None at all."

--GreGen

Death of John "Jack" Lyle in 2019, One of the Legendary Tuskegee Airmen-- Part 1

1920-2019

From the January 8, 2019, Chicago Sun Times by Maureen O'Donnell.

He died January 8, 2019, just three days before he planned to visit Jackson harbor one final time (for his love of boating on Lake Michigan).  He loved sailing as much as he loved flying.  This was his last wish.

In 2007, President George W. Bush and Congress awarded the Congressional Gold Medal on him and other Tuskegee Airmen.  They were members of the nation's first black fighter squadron who won acclaim for their aerial prowess and bravery despite a military that segregated them and southern  "Whites Only" entrances that permitted German prisoners of war -- but blocked Blacks.

Mr. Lyle named his plane "Natalie" for his first wife, once shot down a German Messerschmitt.

--GreGen

100 Year-Old Pearl Harbor Survivor Joe Walsh Dies

From the Dec. 30, 2019, Los Angeles Times by Pam Kragen.

Back in 1987, Joe Walsh co-founded the north San Diego chapter of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association and was the last surviving active member  of the Chapter 31, which at its peak in the 1990s had 130 members.  As the long-serving president of the organization,  he organized Pearl Harbor Memorial services each December 7 at Oceanside Harbor.

He died Dec. 21, 2019, after a brief illness.

Mr. Walsh was a Marine  in the 3rd Defense Battalion and at a color guard ceremony at the Navy Yard when the planes attacked.  He and fellow Marines manned three anti-aircraft guns and battled the Japanese.

A few weeks later, he was transferred to the desolate Johnston Atoll in the South Pacific to build air defenses.  Then there was brief stint at the U.S. Navy flight school and the rest of the war with the Marine Corps VMO-8 observation squadron.

Serving nine years in the Corps, he retired with the rank of gunnery sergeant and was called back to service in the Korean War.

He married LaVonne "Bea" Phaneuf in 1946.  She had been in the Aviation Women's Reserve Squadron 21 at Brown Field in Quantico, Virginia, but they didn't meet until after the war.

--GreGen

Death of WW II U.S. Navy Veteran Oliver Hacker, 94: Also Drove the Stars and Was Security Guard to Howard Hughes

From the Dec. 31, 2019, Waco Tribune-Herald.

Died December 28, 2019, in Waco, Texas.    Was buried Jan. 2 at White Rock Cemetery in Ross, Texas.

Born Nov. 24, 1925, in Tewksbury, Massachusetts, and enlisted in the U.S. Navy and became Seaman First Class serving on the destroyers USS McKee and USS McCaffery and the battleship USS Pennsylvania.

After his honorable discharge in 1947, he moved to California where he owned and operated Limousine Service to the Stars with clients like Bob Hope, Jimmy Stewart, Red Skelton, Frank Sinatra,  and Debbie Reynolds among others.

He also worked as a security guard for Howard Hughes.

Now There Was Someone With Quite An Interesting Life.  --GreGen

The Last Hudson County (N.J.) Pearl Harbor Survivor, Frank Wasniewski, Dies at Age 100

From the January 28, 2020, NJ.com "Hudson County's last Pearl Harbor survivor dies at age 100" by Ron Zeitlinger.

Passed away January 21, 2020.  Was stationed at Schofield Barracks with the 98th Coast Artillery, 35 minutes north of Pearl Harbor.  That fateful day, he had traveled to the Navy base to pick up ammunition

He was drafted March 26, 1941,  and had planned to serve a year, but ended up serving 4 and a half years.

Every Hudson County Pearl Harbor observance had him until he was too ill to attend anymore.  Internment at Holy Name Cemetery in Jersey City, New Jersey.

--GreGen

99-Year-Old Pearl Harbor Survivor Honored in Elizabeth City, N.C.

From the Jan. 29, 2020, WAVY (Norfolk, Va.) "99-year-old Pearl Harbor survivor from Hampton Roads honored for service" by Geena Arevalo.

It is always so nice to be able to write about a living Pearl Harbor survivor instead of one who has died.

Cecil Thomas Taylor, 99, was honored Jan. 27, 2020, in Elizabeth City, North Carolina.  The Norfolk resident was 21-years old that Dec. 7, 1941, and a member of the newly-formed  27th Infantry Regiment stationed at the U.S. Army Schofield Barracks in Hawaii.

He had just returned from a night out with friends  when he saw bombs falling on a nearby  airfield and a plane flying overhead.  "Here come two streaks of machine gun fire and the bullets came right between us," Taylor said.  "Them bullets was hitting them stone walls and they were richocheting, and they were coming right by us."

He barely escaped injury and later served at Guadalcanal.

--GreGen

Pearl Harbor Survivor James Blakely Turns 100

January 11, 2020, New York Daily News "Celebrating Brooklyn WW II veteran's 100 years of courage, honor and determination" by Denis Hamel.

James Blakely survived the Japanese bombs and torpedoes at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, on  the USS St. Louis and has recently turned 100.   "I remember them poor nurses at Pearl, oh, boy, running to get back into the hospital and those Japanese planes  swooping down and firing  the machine guns at them...."

 His relatives threw him a party in honor of it in Brooklyn.

After Pearl Harbor, he was at the battles in Guam, Guadalcanal and at New Zealand.

He pulled on his USS St. Louis hat and said his secret to long life was the good Lord.  "I also never touched alcohol or tobacco," he said.  "I can't say I never touched a pretty girl.  That was my vice.  In fact,  I was raised in Little Rock, Arkansas, which was not a good place for a person of color.  One day a white guy went out of his way to step on my shoe.  So I stepped back on his.

"That didn't go over big in Arkansas so my grandfather, who had served in WW I told me to join the Navy before they strung me up."

So, James Blakely joined the segregated U.S. Navy and was assigned to the mess aboard the USS St. Louis where where he was when the attack came.

It Is Always Great to Write About a Living Pearl Harbor Survivor.   --GreGen