07 December 2011

Pearl Harbor Day

70 years ago today.

Eight battleships, three cruisers, three destroyers, a training ship, a minelayer, 188 aircraft and 2402 Americans died in fire and smoke. All but two of those battleships, USS Arizona and USS Oklahoma, were repaired and returned to service; Arizona still lays where she died and Oklahoma was lost on her way to the mainland under tow for repairs.

All of the other ships save one were also repaired and returned to service.  On the other side of Ford Island from Missouri the former battleship USS Utah, by then a training ship, still holds the last 54 members of her crew.

The Iowa class battleships were built afterwards, and joined their older sisters in avenging the lost. The war began on Arizona's decks and ended on Missouri's.

Today the Mighty Mo watches over the USS Arizona from the spot where USS Oklahoma died.

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