From the 10 WBNS News by Kevin Landers.
Musician First Class Joseph Hoffman was preparing to play the National Anthem on the deck of the battleship USS Oklahoma when it was slammed by torpedoes.
One of the surviving members of the Oklahoma's band recalls hearing the explosions and hearing over the intercom, "Air raid, man your battle stations." Unfortunately for the band, their battle stations were below decks passing ammunition.
The ship capsized within 12 minutes. Hoffman was among the unaccounted for and buried as an unknown.
He was a graduate of Chillicothe High School in 1936 and enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1937 In 1949, the Joseph W. Hoffman Post #757 was named for him.
A memorial ceremony took place August 20 in his hometown of Chillicothe and he was laid to rest beside his family at Grandview Cemetery.
--GreGen
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