of water and 23 feet of mud. if you come with me, we can actually look at the model and just bring your camera down just slow and you'll get a great view of the arizona as she is today with the arizona memorial stretching across there. so this model that you see allows us to see the support and that it doesn't touch the arizona. this is great for the visitors. mostly the water is very cloudy. you can see very carefully national park service divers working here and the model maker put a shark right towards the bow. not for fear, but rather as a homage to the shark gods. it's also a tomb.

a tomb for over 900 sailors that are still inside the ship. the other part of that story she's a reef. out of this great death came new life. there's two green sea turtles that live on the bow. a multitude of fish and different organisms throughout the ship. so you can look at the uss arizona in three ways. but the memorial designed by alfred price is the first world war ii memorial dedicated in the united states to the memory of all of those in died on december 7th. our last exhibit is this panel. remember when you came in and you saw the pictures of all of the people who were here on december 7th, and i asked you remember them and what happened to them. well that hilt girl that you sue she'll be coming here her name is pat thompson and so will jack evans. they were young people then. he was 17 years old.

he was on the uss tennessee and she was 10 years old they were at the last dance on december 6 lt, called the battle of music and won the jitterbug contest. when you come into the museum you can see the trophy she donated to us. the picture of rudy martinez probably the first mexican american killed in world war ii. he was a young sailor from san diego, california, who is still entombed in the ship. he didn't survive. harry pang was a young firefighter and a hoseman for the honolulu fire department and he was killed by japanese aircraft when he was trying to put out the fires at the hangars. there were three firemen killed during the raid and harry pang was one of those. when we think of the firemen of new york, i often think of the firemen of honolulu. our last exhibit leads us into

the greater pacific war theme. and when you think about this, probably the next thing we need to look at is how do we broaden our story about world war ii in the pacific or valor of the pacific national monument? in doing so, we have these high points and low points of that war and the ventral end of the battleship missouri. here we have a world war ii submarine, the bow fin that is a private nonprofit right next door to us and then along the eastern edge of fort island the uss missouri sits within 1,000 yards of the uss arizona memorial. and that is open to the public. and lastly on fort island the place of the naval air station at pearl harbor, we have the pacific aviation museum that has artifacts from that world war ii period and aircraft that represent not only world war ii but all the way going up to the

gulf war. within the confines of pacific historic sites you can learn a lot about pacific war history. thank you for coming today and seeing our new museums that demonstrates that the national park service and its world war ii veterans have brought this story together to reflect to the public that visits here the sacrifices and also the history of the pearl harbor attack and the war in the pacific. >> american history tv is marking memorial day 2012 with programming featuring the stories, recollections and memories of america's veterans. known as decoration day until 1882, memorial day is observed annually in the united states on the last monday of may to honor all americans who have died in all wars. to find out more about this

weekend's programming or to watch something you may have missed visit our website or at cspan.org/history. you're watching american history tv memorial day weekend and every weekend on c-span3. through the the weekend on american history tv on c-span3 watch personal interviews about historic events on oral histories. our history book shelf features some of the best known history writers. revisit key figures, battles and events during the 150th anniversary of the civil war. visit college classrooms across the country during lectures in history. go behind the scenes at mu sheems and historic sites on american artifacts and the presidency looks at the policies and legacies of past american presidents. view our complete schedule at cspan.org/history and sign up to have it emailed to you by pressing the c-span alert button. this memorial day weekend american history tv is featuring

stories from american veterans. up next we'll hear eye witness accounts from the national park service from veterans and survivors. japanese submarines and carrier base planes attacked the u.s. pacific fleet at pearl harbor. the hawaiian site of one of the principal naval bases of the u.s. >> i took my bugle and ran up to the bridge that's where my battle station was. it couldn't have been a couple minutes before 8:00. i didn't even sound colors. i'm really not sure. then the captain came up and this was a little after a couple minutes after 8:00, and he come up and looked and said my god we're at war. the next thing i remember there was a tremendous explosion on the tennessee your number two

gun turret. there was shrapnel all over the place and i looked around and the captain was laying on the deck. he had most of his -- he was almost tore in half. we made him as comfortable as he could. and this was just a little bit about eight or nine minutes after 8:00 and we stood up and all of a sudden i saw the arizona explode. and i tell you i never was so scared in my whole life. you could feel the tremendous heat and the concussion blew us back to the pilot house. came back out and the cap pain was laying there i think it was a signal men went down and got ahold of our executive officer. he came up and the captain was still alive he looked down and says, captain, what are my orders? the only thing captain said was,

the ship is yours. i'm not going to make it and that's all. we stayed up on the bridge all the torpedos and then the commander said what the hell are we going up here. we stayed aboard and fought fires and we rescued some people from down below and i was with a group, there were three of us, we went down there and busted one of the doors open. everything was sprung shut. we got two officers out. we got them topside and the water was about up to our navel. we climbed up on the quarter deck. the fire was just -- i mean, we did everything we could. some of the guys coming up, their clothes were burning. we threw them down on the deck and rolled on top and tried to

pat the fire out. we fought our way back because there was not as much fire forward as there was by the arizona. she was just one big ball of fire. one guy in particular orville, he said i left my money in my wallet. my wallet's in my locker. he fights his way back through all of the fire. we had these five inch shells sitting along the bunk head to use. if those got hot they were going to blow up. so he fought his way back through the case mates.

gets his locker. gets his wallet and fights his way back out. this takes about three or four minutes. he was going. he took off all of his clothes and folded them nice and neatly and laid down and dove off and swam to fort island. all of his money stayed right there. it's strange. i remember the ship. i remember diving into the water and i remember climbing on fort island. but that 50 or 60 yards is gone. i don't know. and i can't tell you. i don't know. that night about 7:00, we heard these airplanes coming in and we thought they were japanese. they were off of the enterprise. and i wasn't the first one to

open up because they were firing before i started to shoot. but as they were coming in, boy, it looked like the fourth of july. we killed three of the pilots. one of the guys that was coming in as he was landing i was with my machine gun and i filled his airplane full of holes i didn't realize that it was one of ours. the guy's name is i don't know if you've ever met him or not, jim daniels. he's a good friend of mine. but he said if he could have caught me that night, he would have killed me. i believe he would have too. i believe it was around wednesday or thursday that i finally got some sleep. you just couldn't sleep. you were on watch all the time. if you weren't on watch or eating sandwiches going back out and you're supposed to, the eight hours that you're off you're supposed to sleep, but

you can't do it. your nerves are just right on the edge. i think it was about -- i think wednesday or thursday i fell asleep. and of course it was a while before i could hear from all those torpedos. we took nine torpedos and the arizona blowing up and then the tennessee was completely firing their five inch guns. and i said, well i'm going to be deaf. of course, i wear hearing aids today. but there was -- it was about a week before i could really hear. then if somebody come up behind you and clapped, you'd jump 15 feet. we had 106 dead. about 300, a little over 300 wounded. and of course our captain received the congressional medal of honor. i played taps for him the next night there in the warehouse where we stayed for his death.

it was the most beautiful taps i ever played in my whole life. >> p pennsylvania was flagship of the pacific fleet. we were also i believe flagship of the navy. it was the admiral's ship, he just didn't happen to be on it that day. when we used to go out on patrol and they would have general quarters, the saying was the japs are attacking as we'd run to our battle station. most of us knew eventually we would have to fight the japanese. where that trickled down from i have no idea. we expected to fight them eventually. we just didn't know when. there was no need for radio communication. it was obvious to all the ships in the harbor that we were under

attack. so they had us carrying ammunition out to the three inch 50 on the fantail. i had just been issued a three inch shell. i was getting ready to run it out. the next thing i knew i was flat on my face. something went through my right thigh and out my rear end and i had a six by eight inch piece blown out of the right thigh. i had five pieces of shrapnel in the left leg. my right hand was shot opened. i lost part of the left elbow. i lost part of the muscle out of a bicep. they finally put me into a bunk. and i was lying there i saw one of the third class radiomen go by, i said, hey, he looked at me and he says, who are you? then i realized either something's wrong with me or something's wrong with him.

so i said it's hyland. all he did was go, oh. and walk away from me. i found out that the navy had these listed as superficial wounds. it seems that their big problem was trying to keep me alive because of the burns. when the bomb went off. the blast just took all the skin off our legs, arms, face, because we had shorts and t-shirts on. those were our combat uniform. my brother was a sergeant with the marine detachment in indianapolis and they were out on patrol. he saw me about a year later. he said that when he came in i guess it was wednesday after the attack, he came over looking for me and they had me on the missing list. so at that time we had this large naval hospital in the navy yard. he went over there looking for me. and he said, he finally found a

group of us all lined up. they had tagged my toe already. that's how he identified me. he said even he didn't know me. he said we looked like roast turkeys lined up. the pearl harbor story is important to me because people should be made aware of these things that they really did happen. hopefully, they won't happen again, of course, that's dreaming. because it happens in the world every day. >> we came in port on friday afternoon on december the 5th. and we waited in mid channel for the lexington which was the world's largest aircraft carrier. as soon as the lexington got underway we took her place. monday the ship was scheduled to come back to the states. i would have gotten out and i saved $400 and i was going to go to medical school.

the day before was noneventful except i didn't go ashore because honolulu in these days was not a favorite port because there were no women. there were 2,000 men we liked it state side better. somebody said what are all those planes in the air? what are all those planes doing out on a sunday morning? i could hear vaguely a droning, which was not unusual because fort island was a naval air base. so about the time i looked up i saw this group i was almost positive there were six of them coming in a v formation. i stood there and saw the bombs drop and then i saw this huge red flame and black smoke and i thought oh my god somebody really goofed because those are real bombs. we're used to become bombed with

duds. i thought my god somebody really made a mistake those are real bombs. just about that time i felt the ship lurch. so we were being het by torpedos on the opposite side. i couldn't see that side. when the torpedo hit i actually felt the ship lurch. see even when we were hit by the bombs, the ship was somewhere around 22,000 tuns. we'd go below the decks during bombing runs. we weren't walking around. when the bomb would hit you could feel the ship but it was a downward feeling. but this was kind of a outward feeling. and i'm sure it was a torpedo. there's some question about whether the bombers got there first for the torpedos. i'm sure the lurch was a torpedo. there was a matter of seconds before the bugler sounded general quarters that's when you go to your battle station. i grabbed by first aid kit. i was a pharmacist.

my battle station was in mid ship. as i was running down, running down the passage way, the ship lurched again. this time i don't know whether it was a bomb or a torpedo. but it knocked me through a log room door where they kept records. i went this way and my first aid kit went that way. i got up a little dazed. you don't have time to think. but anyway i dived down the ladder below to see our battle stations were below the deck. no sooner we got down there we could tell the ship was listing. this was a matter of one, two, three minutes. everybody's looking around. what is going on? what's happening? we were there i'm sure not over a minute or two and then the bugler sounded abandon ship. and the boat singer was chapting abandon ship. and now we're like this.

we had taken on ammunition in san francisco for the fleet. and the naval ammunition depot was loaded. so we were going over the ocean with all of this ammunition. i could think my word, when this ship sinks it's going to blow up. i wanted to get away from there fast. you know, these things occur to you in seconds. by then the ship is like this so i was going to run and dive way out and about then the ship really jerked. well, i thought at the time and for some time after that it was another bomb, a torpedo, but actually what it was, was the mooring lines. there's 22,000 tons, these great big lines holding the ship tied to the quay. when the ship, as the ship was sinking the lines snapped. when they snapped that threw me off balance and i landed on my fanny and scraped across those barnacles on the side and the bottom. when i got in the water, when i bobbed up and tried to get my

bearings, which way is up, and i saw this launch, it was a coxin in a bow, a boat hook, and he was pulling these guys out of the water. so i started swimming toward that motor launch and about then a scraper came by and i could see you know, the ping, ping, ping in the water, the bullets hitting the water ahead of me but in line with that motor launch. so it didn't you know, you make decisions in seconds. i figured now that's going to be a target. but they aren't going to pick little old me by myself so i changed course i headed straight for fort island. if anybody tells you it was first on the beach, he's a liar because i was first on the beach. when the ship was sunk i was transferred to the hospital and we would get these aviators, japanese aviators for days, weeks even, and they would be brought to the morgue and when

they were stripped, we found these maps and where the utah was they had in big letters, a lot of japanese writing in the margins, but the names of all of the ships, every ship, was in english, and in larger bolder print was lexington. that's where we were. you know, it was such an unbelievable thing that you couldn't stand there and analyze it. i can't believe it. even when you would like when i saw the arizona burning, you couldn't believe the scene. and even what happened to me, you know, what happened to our ship, it was just too incredible for words. >> ever since i was in about the fourth or fifth grade i had the idea about going to sea. and see the world. about two weeks after graduation from high school, i enlisted in the coast guard and went to port townsend, washington for a basic training. then decided that aloha land

would just be wonderful, with hula girls and that kind of thing. on december 6, 1941, there were 13 of us that were still together who had enlisted in omaha and come to port townsend and came here and we were talking 17, 18-year-old kids. we decided we were going to the bar and going to celebrate. it was at the black cat. the black cat had a huge menu above the bar. a is for ale, b is for something, c is for something, g is for gin, w is for which is key. we said we're going to make a night of this so we started with the a's and we'll all have a round of a's, then a b, and then a c, and then a d, i don't know how far we got. we're talking 17, 18-year-old kids. they didn't care if you had the money to buy it.

that's the way it was. december 7th of 1941, at 7:55 a.m., i was in sick bay and i was talking to a friend of mine who was a pharmacist mate. what do you have that's going to take care of this. and then the bombs started coming. i really did not know whether this was something that i was imagining, the thumping, pounding, and all of the rest of these things are going on in my mind. the signal is clang, clang, clang. now, this is a way the landing party, fire aboard ship, this is general quarters, this is everything. and nobody knows what it is. bang, bang, bang. and we got 300 guys running around and say what are we doing? well, this is fire and rescue.

okay, well, i'll go to that station. get there, i say where are you going? well, this is general quarters. i'll go there. somebody else say well, this was something else. we were all running around wondering what the devil to do. each one of us. we're so confused we had no more idea of what was going on than anything. all we ever worked with was a dummy, wooden ammunition, loading and going through all of this was all. down below about five, six stories way down in the magazine, is where the magazine is and it's locked. and it is a summary court-martial to open that, a summary court-martial to open that unless you have an officer. we are up on top saying my god, they're here, they are flying around, they're coming. send up wide ammunition. the guys down there saying what are you all drunk. we're not going to open this. i'm not going to get any summary

court-martial. some of the officers are ashore. ain't nobody going to open this up. by the time we're screaming back and forth and back and forth then the live ammunition startings coming up and -- and we start firing. at that time there were not world tensions. you didn't expect to get into problems, you didn't think about really having a war. for instance, when the japanese attacked, we said it probably would take two weeks and maybe we'd blow them out of the water and we'd all go home. some said they wouldn't shave until we won the war, and others said they wouldn't let their hair grow until we won the war. it's a different -- a whole different kind of thing. a different idea, concept, feeling. one of our men was taking -- was there for some official reason or another and came back and told us of the sinking of the battleships and of course we thought he was -- he was out of

his gourd, out of his mind, it couldn't be. and arguments no, they couldn't do that. as i said, we never expected it. never thought it would happen. and the push over japanese, you know, the paper tiger kind of thing. we'll get 'em. >> i had a chance to go home for a weekend pass, and it was on that sunday morning, we heard all of this explosion going on. and wondered what was happening. i looked up in the sky and toward the direction of pearl harbor. all the black -- it was a bright morning, a nice morning and i could see all of the bright puffs. then we heard over the radio that all military calling all military personnel to report to their stations immediately.

that the japanese have attacked pearl harbor. and this is war. and naturally everybody was shocked and at that time we had our bus station at the army and navy ymca which is located right in honolulu. and from there as we were traveling over to schofield barracks where i was stationed at that time i passed on and looked down into pearl harbor and i saw, i had a panoramic view of the destruction. the "arizona" was in flames, all of the other ships were afire. and what stood up in my mind was the "oklahoma" capsized. it was on its side. and i saw sailors aboard the hull of the ship just scrambling on it. and that was for them to keep

out of the fire because all of the water was on fire, and i was shocked needless to say. we were expecting the japanese navy to come down and invade us by sea, but they turn out they did invade us but it was by air. it was a total surprise. just couldn't get over it. the 298 infantry we had a group of japanese boys as well as filipinos, they were worried they were going to take the japanese, any one with a japanese name or if they were japanese, you didn't have to be japanese, if you had a japanese name, if you were adopted by someone with a japanese name, you were automatically taken along with them. when i got wind that they were going to do that, take the japanese boys out, i figured