>> ladies and gentlemen, please remain seated for the unveiling of the gold medal by members of the united states congress and representatives from each unit. [ applause ] >> this is "the arizona" as she is today. this model depicts her resting on the harbor bottom. in 40 feet of water and 23 feet of mud. if you come with me, we can cut the glare here and 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 her. this model that you see allows us to see the piers that support her, and it doesn't touch "the arizona." and this is great for the visitors because mostly the water is very cloudy, and you can see very carefully, you can see national park service drivers working here and the model maker put a shark right towards the bow, not for fear but rather as a homage to the shark god that the hawaiians believes occupies these waters and protect the hawaiian people. we were sensitive to the story sensitive to the culture, and also sensitive that this ship, which looks like a shipwreck here, is truly that. but it's also a tomb, a tomb for over 900 sailors that are still inside the ship. and the other part of that story, she's a reef. and out of all of this great death came new life. there's two green sea turtles

that live on the bow, a multitude of fish and multiple organisms throughout the ship. you can look at "the uss arizona" in three ways. 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 who 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 that were here on december 7th, and i asked you to remember them and what happened to them. well, that little girl that you saw, 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, and they were at the last dance on december 6th called the battle of music and won the jitterbug contest. when you come into the museum, you can actually 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 at hickam field. 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 and the pacific or valor in the pacific national monument.

in doing so we have these high points and low points of that war and it's eventual end on the battleship "missouri." here at historic sites we have a world war ii submarine "the bowfin" that's a private nonprofit right next door to us, and then along the eastern edge of ford island, the "uss missouri" sits within 1,000 yards of the "uss arizona" memorial. that is open to the public. and lastly, on ford 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. so 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 museum 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. throughout the weekend here on american history tv on c-span3, watch personal interviews about historic events on oral history. our history bookshelf 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 museums and historic sites on american artifacts, and the presidency looks at the policies and legacies of past american presidents. view our complete schedule at

c-span.org/history and sign up to have it e-mailed 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 eyewitness accounts from american parks with pearl harbor veterans and survivors describing what they saw that day. early on the morning of december 7th, 1941, japanese submarines and carrier-based planes attacked the u.s. pacific fleet at pearl harbor, the hawaiian site of one of the principle naval bases of the u.s. this past december marked the 70th anniversary of those attacks. >> 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, so i'm really not sure. and then captain binion came up. and this was a couple minutes after 8:00.

and he came up there and he looked and he said "my god, we're at war". and the next thing i remember, there was a tremendous explosion on "the tennessee" near the number two gun turret. and there was shrapnel all over the place. and then looked around and captain binion was laying on the deck. he had most of his -- he was almost tore in half. and we made him as comfortable as we could. and this is just a little bit about eight or nine minutes after 8:00. and we stood up, and all of the 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 into the pilot house. came back out and captain binion was laying there. i think it was a signalman went down and got ahold of our executive officer, commander

hellenkotter. captain binion was still alive and he looked down and said captain, what are my orders? and the only thing captain binion said, he says the ship is yours. i'm not going make it. and that's all. and then we stayed up on the bridge through all of the tomorrowpede dose and strafing. and then the commander said what the hell are we doing up here? let's get down below where we can help out. we stayed aboard and fought fires and rescued some people down below at the officer's country. i was with a group, there were three of us. we went down and busted one of the doors open. everything was strung shut. well got two officers out. well got them topside. and then water was about up to our naval. so we climbed back up on the quarterdeck. and the fire was just -- i mean we did everything we could. people -- some of the guys coming up through by frame 87,

their clothes were burning. and we through them down on the deck and rolled on top and tried to pat the fire out. and finally "the tennessee" fired up her engines to push the fire from the water, push it away from the ship that helped a lot. and then a tugboat came up and started to squirt us with water. and then commander hellenkotter said abandon ship. so we passed the word abandon ship. that was around 9:30. then we fought our way back because it was not as much fire forward as there was after by "the arizona," because she was just one big ball of fire. one guy in particular, orrville, he said my gosh, i left my money in my wallet. my wallet is in my locker. he fights his way back through all of the fire. now in the case mates, we had

these five-inch shelves sitting along the bulkhead to use. and if those got hot, they were going to blow up. so he fought his way back through the case mates, gets his locker, opens it up, gets his wallet out, puts it in his pocket, and fights his way back out. this takes about three or four minutes. he was making knots. so he took off all of his clothes and folded them nice and neatly because he didn't want to get them wet and he laid them and dove off with his skivvies and swam to ford island, and all of his money stayed right there. i'll never forget that. it's strange. i remember diving into the water, and i remember climbing on ford 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. and they were off of the enterprise. and i wasn't the first one to open up, now, because they were firing before i started to shoot. but as they were coming in, boy, it looked like the fourth of july. and we shot down the six. we killed three of the pilots. and one of the guys that was coming in as he was landing, i was with my machine gun, you know, and i filled his airplane full of holes. and i didn't realize that it was one of ours. and the guy's name, i don't know if you have ever met him or not, jim daniels. he is 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 think it was around wednesday or thursday that i finally got some sleep. you just couldn't sleep. you were on watch all the time, you know.

and if you went on watch or were eating sandwiches and 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. and 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 of those torpedos. we took nine torpedos. and "the arizona" blowing up. and "the tennessee" was completely firing their five-inch guns. and i said oh, boy, i'm going to be deaf. of course i wear hearing aids today. but it was about a week before i could really hear, you know. and then if somebody come up behind you and clapped, why you would jump 15 feet, you know. we had 106 dead, about 3 -- a little over 300 wounded. and of course our captain received the congressional medal

of honor, captain binion. i played taps for him the next night there in the warehouse where we stayed, you know, for his death. and it was the most beautiful taps i ever played in my whole life. >> pennsylvania was flagship of the pacific fleet. and we were also i believe at that time flagship of the navy. it was admiral kimball's chip. she 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 used to be the japanese are attacking, the japs are attacking us, we would run to our battle stations. most of us knew eventually we would have to fight the japanese. where that trickled down from, i have no idea i suppose from the politicians to the officers, the officers to us. but 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 handed a three-inch shell, and i was getting ready to run it out to the gun again, and 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 6 x 8 piece blown out of the left side. my right hand was shot open. i lost part of the left elbow. i lost part of a muscle out of the bicep. they finally put me into a bunk, and i was there lying there, and i saw one of telephone third class radio men go by. and i said hey osmond, and he

looked at me and he said "who are you?" then i realized that either something is wrong with me or something is wrong with him. so i said it's hyland. and all he did was go oh, 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 on "the indianapolis," and they were out on patrol. he saw me about a year later. and he said that when he came in i guess it was wednesday after the attack, he came overlooking 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. but 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. and hopefully they won't happen again. but of course that's dreaming. because it happens in the world every day. somewhere. >> we came in port on friday afternoon on december 5th. and we waited in mid channel for "the lexington," which at the time was the world's largest aircraft carrier. as soon as "the lexington" got under way, we took her place.

monday the ship was scheduled to come back to the states, and then i would have gotten out and i had saved like $400, and i was going to go to medical school. the day before is noneventful, except that i didn't go anywhere. i didn't go ashore because honolulu in those days was not -- waikiki was not a favorite port because there were no women. there were a thousand or 2,000 for every woman. so we liked it stateside better. somebody said what are all those planes in the air, you know. what are all those planes doing out on a sunday morning? and i could hear vaguely a droning, you know, which was not unusual because ford island was a naval air station. and so about the time i looked up skyward, i saw this group. i was almost positive there were six of them coming in a deep formation. i stood there and saw the bombs drop, and i saw this huge red

flame and black smoke, and i thought oh my god, somebody really goofed because those are real bombs. see, we were used to being bombed with duds. and i thought my god, somebody really made a mistake. those are real bombs. and just about that time, i felt the ship lurch. so we were being hit by torpedos on the opposite side, which of course i couldn't see that side. when the torpedo hit, i actually felt the ship lurch. see, even when we were hit by dud bombs, the ship was somewhere around 22,000 tons. and when we got -- we would go below the armor decks of course during bombing runs. we weren't walking around. and when the bomb would hit, you could feel the ship. but it was a downward feeling. but this was, you know, kind of outward feeling. and i'm sure there was a torpedo. there was some question about whether the bombers got there first or the torpedos. but i'm sure that lurch was a torpedo.

it was a matter of seconds before the bugler sounded general quarters, you know. that's where you go to your battle station. and so i grabbed my first aid kit. i was a pharmacist mate. and my battle station was amid ship. and as i was running down, running down the passageway, the ship lurched again. now this time i don't know whether it's a bomb or a torpedo. but it knocked me through a log room door, you know, where they kept the record. so i went this way, and my first aid kit went that way. and i got up a little dazed, you know, and you don't have time to think. but anyway, i dived down the ladder. see our battle stations were below the armor deck. but we no sooner got down there and we could tell the ship was already listing. this is a matter of one, two, three minutes. and everybody is looking around, what in the world is going on? what is going on? what is happening? and we were there i'm sure not over a minute or two.

and then the bugler sounded abandon ship. and the bosun was chanting and chanting "abandon ship, abandon ship." 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 all 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. because, you know, these things occur to you in a matter of 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. see, there's 22,000 tons, these great, big lines holding the ship tied to the quay. you know? when the ship, as the ship was sinking the lines snapped. and 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 motor launch, and there was a coxin in a bow, a boat hook, and he was pulling these guys out of the water. so i started swimming towards 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 -- instead of going that way i headed straight for fort island.

if anybody else tells you he was first on the beach, he's a liar because i was first on the beach. [ laughter ] 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 whiskey. 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 is 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, 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.

what -- 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. faux pass. 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 started 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