Dec. 7, 1941: USS Arizona crew displayed valor amid carnage

PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii — Just after 8 a.m. on Dec. 7, 1941, the battleship USS Arizona, at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, was attacked by Japanese bombers multiple times.

At 8:06 a.m. a bomb detonated the ship’s magazines, causing catastrophic damage and fires, sinking the ship and killing 1,177 of the 1,512-person crew — about half of all lives lost during the attack on all of the ships and airfields.

Three Medals of Honor were awarded to crew members.

• Navy Lt. Cmdr. Samuel G. Fuqua saw a Japanese airplane fly by, so he ran to the ship’s quarterdeck. Immediately, he was knocked unconscious by a massive explosion.
  When Fuqua came to, he quickly started directing sailors to fight the fire and rescue the wounded. According to a National WWII Museum’s account of the attack, the Arizona’s sailors used hand-held, carbon dioxide extinguishers because there was no pressure in the fire hoses. The extinguishers were no match for the growing inferno on the ship, but they knocked down the flames enough to allow some to escape.
  As the enemy continued bombing and strafing the Arizona and other nearby ships, Fuqua directed other sailors to fight the flames so they could get as many wounded men off the ship as possible. According to his Medal of Honor citation, Fuqua “supervised the rescue of these men in such an amazingly calm and cool manner and with such excellent judgment that it inspired everyone who saw him” to carry on despite the pandemonium.
  Fuqua stayed on the quarterdeck and directed the exodus until he was satisfied that all the men who could be saved were off the ship. Only then did he leave the Arizona on the last boatload of survivors.
  Fuqua retired from the Navy in 1953 as a rear admiral. He died in 1987.
• Navy Capt. Franklin Van Valkenburgh’s Medal of Honor citation reads in part: “He gallantly fought his ship until the USS Arizona blew up from magazine explosions and a direct bomb hit on the bridge, which resulted in the loss of his life.”
  The destroyer USS Van Valkenburgh, named in his honor, was commissioned in 1944.
• Navy Rear Adm. Isaac C. Kidd, the highest-ranking officer on battleship row, immediately went to the bridge of the Arizona to direct recovery efforts during the attack, instead of abandoning ship. He was killed when the ship’s magazine exploded after the bridge took a direct hit from a bomb.

Unlike most of the other vessels at Pearl Harbor, damage to the Arizona was so extensive that it could not be salvaged.

While the Arizona suffered the most severe damage of the eight battleships at Pearl Harbor, it’s the only one to survive as a monument — albeit on the Pearl Harbor seabed — where it’s known as the USS Arizona Memorial. All of the other battleships were scrapped or scuttled after the war.

The Arizona has been designated a National Historic Landmark administered by the National Park Service. Thousands of people visit the site daily, with about 2 million people annually honoring those lost that day.