From the April 29, 2023, Honolulu Star Advertiser "George Coburn, who served throughout Pacific Campaign, dies at 103" by Kevin Knodell.
USS Oklahoma survivor, George Coburn died April 19 in Oceanside, California, at age 103.
He was born in Mankato, Minnesota, on October 26, 1919, but his family moved to San Diego shortly after he was born and he grew up in Southern California. Enlisting in the Navy in 1939, he was eventually assigned to the USS Oklahoma and was on board completing an inspection of the ship when the attack came
As he and his shipmates began climbing to the ship's main deck, several torpedoes hot the ship. The men became trapped beneath a sealed hatch as the ship quickly listed 45 degrees to its port side. The blast also ruptured onboard oil tanks and they found themselves slipping in oil that had pooled on the floor.
The lights went out and Coburn could hear water pouring into the ship as sailors on the ladder tried frantically to open the hatch to the deck above. They eventually got the hatch opened and he and the others managed to escape through a side porthole that by then was overhead.
--GreGen
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