OKLAHOMA CITY — It was supposed to be a lazy Sunday aboard the USS Oklahoma as it sat in the waters of Pearl Harbor off Honolulu’s coast.

Paul Goodyear, a Navy signalman 3rd class, arrived about 15 minutes early for his 8 a.m. to noon shift standing watch. He expected a slow day.

Ed Vezey, an ensign, was inside the ship when he heard a loud speaker announcement to man his battle station.

The announcement stemmed from what Goodyear and others on the ship's deck had just seen. A group of planes in single file approached to Goodyear’s right. The first and second planes each dropped a bomb but he didn’t think anything of it . He was used to seeing training missions where sand bombs were dropped over desolate areas. But then a third plane dropped a bomb, he said, creating what looked like a “miniature atomic explosion. ” Goodyear looked through his binoculars and saw a Japanese insignia on the planes.

Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor. The day was Dec. 7, 1941.

The attack drew the United States into World War II, which had begun a few years before.

Nearly 66 years later, Goodyear and Vezey remember the day clearly. They remember escaping the ship that had been hit by torpedoes and overturned. They remember their 429 comrades who did not escape.

On Dec. 7, USS Oklahoma survivors and the families of its victims will see the names of those who died aboard that ship, etched in marble pillars at the dedication of the USS Oklahoma Memorial in Hawaii.

“It’s a great relief to us,” said Vezey, 87, of Center, Colo. “My roommate was killed.”

He said he plans to have his photo taken next to former roommate Frank Flaherty’s pillar.

“It will be a lot of closure for a lot of people,” he said. “It’s amazing how far that grief has carried.”



‘A Date Which Will Live in Infamy’

Vezey said he wasn’t scared when he discovered the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor, but he was angry.

“I never thought of being killed. I guess I was stupid not to think so,” he said. “I mostly was angry because I couldn’t get communication and ammunition.”

Goodyear was scared.

After he saw the “mini atomic explosion” that created a little ball of red and yellow flames, he looked left and saw a plane approaching the ship and a torpedo leaving the plane and on its way to the water.

“We got a lot of fish pretty fast,” Goodyear recalled.

He saw water rush into the ship, he said, as though a glass of water were poured over it. He handed a friend the U.S. flag to go raise, which was customary. He never saw him again.

“I wasn’t, as a 23-year-old at peacetime, prepared to send a kid to his death,” said Goodyear, 89, of Casa Grande, Ariz.

From another vantage point, Zee Howell, 85, of Norman, Okla., entered Pearl Harbor aboard the USS Neches the day after the attack. His ship was about 115 nautical miles away when Japanese pilots attacked. They were “one day late. First stroke of luck you might say,” Howell said.

He remembers walking onboard the USS Oklahoma to help rescuers and hearing trapped men tapping on metal inside. The harbor was too shallow for sinking ships to submerge. Howell saw people trying to blow air into a hole in the ship, in an effort to save those who were trapped. But the process was unsuccessful. After two or three days the tapping stopped.

“It was a nightmare,” Howell said.

Many survivors did not go home after the attack. They headed to the South Pacific for four years of war. Goodyear said he and a friend found a small piece of paper and a stamp after the attack and sent a letter to his friend’s mother to notify families of several survivors that the men were OK. Goodyear’s grandmother received a letter from his friend’s mother on Dec. 31, 1941.



Memorialized in Marble

Visiting Hawaii in 2000, Kevin King, 51, of Oklahoma City, noticed there was no USS Oklahoma memorial, only unmarked graves.

He decided a memorial was needed to honor those who died aboard the ship that carried the namesake of his home state. King contacted an old friend, Sen. Jim Reynolds, R-Oklahoma City, to see if he could help. The two worked with Goodyear and other survivors and in 2005, with the help of U.S. Rep. Tom Cole, R-Oklahoma, President George W. Bush signed legislation securing a site.

About $1 million was raised in Oklahoma, including $400,000 through the Oklahoma Centennial Commission as a project to commemorate the state’s 100th birthday this year.

About 15 to 17 USS Oklahoma survivors are expected to attend the dedication in Pearl Harbor at noon on Dec. 7.

“It’s as much about the ones who lived through it,” said Reynolds, who plans to attend.

Vezey also sees universality in the memorial.

“It’s honoring every man who ever stood his ground in the face of an enemy,” said Vezey, who plans to be on hand for the anniversary dedication.

The memorial will feature 429, 7-foot marble pillars with the names of each sailor or Marine who died on the USS Oklahoma.

Howell , who also plans to attend, was on the first tanker struck by a torpedo after the Pearl Harbor attack - on Jan. 23, 1942 - and was the only man in the crew quarters of the ship to survive. He said he went through an experience similar to that of the men attacked at Pearl Harbor.

“I kind of felt a kindred to all those men who died,” Howell said.

Goodyear will also head to Hawaii and said the experience will be emotional. Many of the family members of victims have never seen their father or grandfather’s names on anything, he said.

“It’s about time those kids were memorialized,” Goodyear said.



Jaclyn Houghton is CNHI News Service Oklahoma reporter.