INFAMY AND THE STORIES THAT WILL LIVE FOREVER
Project seeks to profile all 1,177 of USS Arizona’s dead
On the campus of the University of Arizona in Tucson, embedded in the curving brick walls of a memorial, are rows of medallions, each bearing the name of a USS Arizona crew member killed when Japanese bombers attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.
After 77 years, the story of the mighty battleship has been told again and again: how it took heavy fire, how a bomb blew it apart, how it sank into the harbor.
Over time, other stories from the Arizona have emerged, about unsung heroes and harrowing escapes. But some stories have never been told, especially stories about the 1,177 crew members who died in the attack.
“People are very happy when I reach them. They see this is a story that’s fading, and they know that generation is essentially gone.” Bobbie Jo Buel Former newspaper who’s compiling biographies of the USS Arizona dead
The UA memorial, dedicated in 2016, was meant to ensure the names of those crewmen weren’t forgotten. As work progressed on campus, Bobbie Jo Buel, a former newspaper editor, offered to go a step further and compile short biographies of the 1,177 sailors and Marines as a way to help visitors go beyond the names.
“I said, ‘I’ll help you track it down. I’ll give you two weeks,’ ” said Buel, whose husband, David Carter, designed the memorial. “I assumed somebody had done this before and that I just needed to find it and get their permission.”
Two and a half years later, she’s still at it. She’s written bios of 394 of the crewmen, making her way through about one-third of the list. No one else, it turned out, had done the work in all these years.
“Everybody is very happy when I approach them,” she said. “And there is something about the Arizona that resonates.”
Observances in Arizona, Hawaii
The UA will mark the 77th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack this morning at the memorial, which sits a few hundred feet from a tower that houses one of the Arizona’s bells.
In the past, USS Arizona survivors have rung the bell as part of Pearl Harbor Day ceremonies, but this year, none of the five remaining survivors will make the trip to Tucson or to Pearl Harbor in Honolulu.
It’s the first time in recent memory that none of the Arizona’s living crew members have returned to the site of the attack.
Two years ago, four of the survivors made the trip to Pearl Harbor as the remains of two of their fallen crewmates were interred in the sunken ship’s wreckage.
In Phoenix, the state Department of Veterans’ Services will host Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day today at Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza, on West Washington Street near the state Capitol.
Musical salutes begin at 10:15 a.m. The Arizona Commemorative Air Force will stage a flyover in a Boeing B-17G and a Douglas C-47A at 10:55 a.m., the local time when the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor began in 1941.
Gov. Doug Ducey will lay a memorial wreath at the USS Arizona anchor, which sits on one end of the plaza. The anchor was salvaged from the battleship and moved to Arizona in 1972.
Inside the Arizona Capitol Museum, a special exhibit will feature items from the collection of Lou Conter, one of the five remaining survivors of the Arizona. The last Arizona survivors are:
❚ Lauren Bruner, 98, of La Mirada, California.
❚ Lou Conter,
California.
❚ Lonnie Cook, 98, of Morris, Oklahoma.
❚ Ken Potts, 97, of Provo, Utah.
❚ Donald Stratton, 96, of Colorado Springs, Colorado. 97, of Grass
Survivors stay in touch
The remembrance ceremonies at Pearl Harbor will be missing more than the Arizona survivors this year. The USS Arizona Memorial remains closed because of structural problems and isn’t expected to reopen to visitors before March.
Nikki Stratton, granddaughter of Donald Stratton, keeps in contact with all five of the survivors and has helped coordinate travel in past years. She said the men are disappointed that the memorial is closed and have talked about trying to help raise money to speed repairs.
Nikki and her father, Randy Stratton, have worked to collect stories and photographs from the survivors to display online. They have also helped collect money for Arizona crewmen who have needed help. Their website is at arizona finalsalute.com, where visitors can donate to help survivors and family members who want to return to Pearl Harbor in the future.
Stratton, Bruner and Potts visited the White House in July 2017 to ask President Donald Trump for help in recognizing Joe George, a sailor who defied orders from the deck of a supply ship and rescued the last six Arizona crewmen as the burning ship sank.
George died without
Last December, the Navy finally recognized George, posthumously, presenting his daughter, Joe Ann Taylor, with a Bronze Star for Valor during a ceremony at Pearl Harbor.
Two of the six men George helped escape the ship were Bruner and Stratton, now among the last of the Arizona survivors. Both have written at length about their experience. official
Too late to turn back now
Valley, commendation. Buel wanted people to hear the stories of the Arizona crewmen who died in the attack. As she began her research, she soon discovered how little information had been compiled about the 1,177 casualties.
She turned first to newspapers. “Digital newspaper archives have been a godsend,” said Buel, who most recently was editor of the
in Tucson. “A great many of the men got front-page obits in their hometown papers.”
Many of those obituaries included interviews with moms, dads, sisters, brothers, “people with firsthand knowledge,” Buel said. “When they say something about the man, I know I can count on that.”
She consulted historical societies, cold-called VFW units, combed through online genealogy sites, chased down relatives and family friends.
This past summer, Buel tracked down a man who had enlisted in Detroit with three of his best friends.
Some of them lied about their age — one was 15 — and all four were headed for the Arizona, but only two were assigned to that ship. They both died in the attack.
The surviving friend was able to fill in blanks in their stories and help Buel check off two more names from the long list.
More recently, she was walking at the UA memorial and encountered a student who discovered a medallion of a crew member from the student’s hometown.
“The minute he had that personal connection, he decided he was going to go to the library back home to find out more about the guy, see if he had been honored back there,” Buel said.
As she completes each profile, Buel posts it to the memorial’s Facebook page. Eventually, all the profiles will be compiled on a specific website and will be fully searchable.
With nearly 800 names still to research, Buel figures she has another five years to go.
She knows she may find little information about some crewmen, but she plans to keep trying.
“I think it’s too late to turn back now,” she said. “People are very happy when I reach them. They see this is a story that’s fading, and they know that generation is essentially gone.”
Buel receives tips sometimes when people hear about her work and has found stories that way. She’s reachable at bjbuelcarter@gmail.com.