Elementary Student to Speak at Donald Stratton's Funeral-- Part 1

From Feb. 27, 2020, WIS News 10 NBC "8-year-old Union Co. boy to speak at funeral for 97-year-old World War II veteran."   Union County, North Carolina.

Elementary school student Landon Knestrick is about to get on a plane to fly to Colorado to speak at the funeral  of USS Arizona survivor Donald Stratton.  A friendship between the two began back in 2016.

Landon watched a documentary on the USS Arizona and became mesmerized with Donald.  It was Landon's Christmas wish to meet Mr. Stratton.  His family found Donald through social media and  and FaceTimed with each other while Mr. Stratton was in Hawaii for the 75th anniversary of the battle.

From then on, their friendship continued.

The following summer, the Stratton family was traveling to Washington, D.C.,  to meet Congress to try to get them to honor the man who saved Stratton and five others from the burning Arizona that day.  That man was Joseph Leon George.

The Strattons invited Landon and his family to Washington  so they could have a face-to-face.

Quite a Story.  --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