better at it than they are. i wonder if this is something they can use to appeal the people to do their duty, and out.the government >> watch "the communicators" su nday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span2./ u.s. --cember 7, 1941, japanese planes attacked pearl harbor. almost 2400 americans were killed. in almost 1200 wounded. franco d roosevelt appeared before a joint session of war against japan. this year marks the 75th anniversary of the pearl harbor out. attack and the u.s. entry into world war ii. up next, we hear from pearl harbor survivors who were on board the uss arizona during the attack. the national park service conducted these oral histories.

>> took me up and met the admiral and met the captain, and job, thend i had the owners job of inventorying all of the marine stores, rifles, belts, and uniforms, and the whole bit. we were doing that in the double, down in the bottoms, very hot, not air-conditioned in those days or even today. finally after some hours of that, he said, let's go to a club and have a beer. and i said, fine. and we did. and he ran into a bunch of arizona shipmates of his, who he knew, but i didn't know any of them, having been a tennessee marine. but anyway, they said, hey, major, come on and join me, it's my birthday. and he did. and after he got into the spirit of the party, the birthday

party, he told me to go on home to my wife in waikiki and join him in the morning, sunday morning, and we'd finish it then. i said fine. i thought it was a great idea. i caught a cab and went home to my bride in waikiki. the next morning, there was no arizona to join him on. >> living next door to me was a lieutenant commander, who was assigned to the fleet weather central in pearl. and he got a call to get his tail down to his -- you know, his battle station. and he knocked on my door. he said, come on. i came out. i could see the flak over pearl harbor. and so i got in touch with some of my tennessee shipmates and we got a cab and went straight on out to pearl. at the landing, we could see ships burning and there was actually a japanese torpedo that

had made a run and beached itself up on the land. and it was lying there. and boats were coming past the point and the captain would call out, i'll take you to any ship, any ship. i couldn't go to the arizona. i went to ford island. and i ended up in a bomb shelter, up in the north end of ford island, near -- quite near the arizona actually. because the second wave was hitting the place. and there, in the bomb shelter, i met allen chapley, the chap i had relieved. he had swum ashore from the arizona and with him were about 14 other marines. i didn't know any of them, as i say. i remember one was named

corporal nightingale. we hunkered down until all clear was sounded. i was convinced that someone had me up there by the hand, because i had intended to be aboard that ship. i told my wife i was not coming come home, and just because chapley wanted a beer, that did save my life. i think they were just carrying out their orders as well. they, from a military point of view, did a superb job. they were pros. and we were not prepared, unfortunately. they knew exactly what they were doing. the tennessee, i mentioned, it got two hits. centerline hits. one right through the top, one on the center gun of number two.

they were good. >> last week, we were out there, just before the attack, submarines, following us all the time. we knew they were subs. and they'd -- they wouldn't surface during the day, but at night, they'd surface. they'd pick them up and they would immediately submerge. and we'd send messages to them on the radio, on the international frequencies. they would not answer. they'd pick them up and they would immediately submerge. so we knew they were jap subs. usually it worked this way. one battle force would be in, the other would be out. the battle force, division one, was the one force. the other battleship, division two and four, were the other the other would be out. the battle force, division one, ones. and they would go out. we were coming in on friday, december 5. coming out. so we're flying in. we always fly in when they --

we'd fly in. somewhere. anyway, the other force wasn't coming out. and i asked, i said, hey, what's the matter with the other battle force? they're not coming out. he said, well, they've decided to leave them all in the harbor and send out the faster cruiser, scouting for us. i said, well, why? he said, well, if we go to war, which he says things are touch and go, they figure the only thing that will happen here is some hit-and-run raids at night, from submarines. and they can't hurt the wagons inside. but out here, we're not fast enough to outrun them. so that's the thinking, of putting them inside. and they can't hurt the wagons inside. well, that satisfied me. we put our airplanes over on ford island, beached them over there. and then went back aboard the

ship. we would have been coming over to operate at ford island the next week. but there was no next week, as far as the arizona went. we were parked where the memorial is right now. and everything was pretty normal, except the vessel, the repair ship, was along side of us, because we needed work. we were to let our fires die down and take our power from the vessel and start monday morning. we were supposed to be working on the ship. and then we went out on saturday. and, well, the next day... and then we went out on we got hit. it was right after breakfast. just before 8:00. i had bought some christmas cards the day before. we were gonna -- several of us were gonna go down and gonna

write christmas cards, send christmas cards. get them ready to send. and now i gotta go get a -- i put a bath towel around my neck, had my toilet gear in my hand. going to get a bath. then i heard these explosions. what's going on? ah, they're blasting on ford island, somebody said. i said, huh-uh. they don't -- they were building what's going on? a lot of construction. they don't work on sundays. i says, somebody -- there was a lot of bombs laying around, because they were putting charges on the pby's, a possible chance to go out and attack those subs. and i said -- and they had these charges that looked like the old ash cans off the destroyer, but ash cans off the destroyer, but they had them hooked up. i said, some idiot probably kicked one of them fuses over there and blew the hangar up, so

they didn't get our airplanes. let's take a look. we went up, top side, one deck up. over ford island, big fires. and lots of smoke. and we see an airplane or two flying around up there. still didn't ring a bell, because airplanes -- we see let's take a look. we went up, top side, one deck up. airplanes all the time. but then we turned around, looked up the harbor. and here comes -- we saw a couple airplanes. and one of them, i said, oh, the army is out today, on sunday. then i saw that it was a torpedo plane, carrying a torpedo. i said -- two guys with me. i said, hey! the army ain't got no torpedo planes. that plane's got a fish under it. and just then they dropped the torpedo and i think it hit the oklahoma. torpedo and i think it hit the oklahoma. two ships ahead of us. but then they swung over, they come back over the arizona.

west virginia. you could see the old guns winking at you. get down! so we got down. missed us about three feet, four or five shots. then they sounded the air raid. then they sounded the air raid. they said all engaged personnel, go to the third deck. well, theoretically, i'm unengaged. i didn't have an actual air raid station. so i've got to go down to the third deck and wait for assignment, where to go? we headed for the third deck. we headed for the third deck. just as we got -- we started to go down the ladder to the third deck.

i turn around, come back up. a marine lieutenant says, get back down there! i'm going to my battle station. he said, get back down there! there won't be any panic on this ship. i said, i'm not panicking, i'm going to my battle station. i just went to my battle station. and, well, i guess i moved him out of the way. but the other two guys were in front of me, going down the ladder. they didn't get back up. they're still out there. the bomb had hit it, glanced off, went down through the quarterdeck. the fire was down the deck blow but it looked like a blowtorch, coming out of the hole that the bomb went in. we were out there, trying to get that fire apparatus going. yelling at the guy, get us some pressure! he said i'm on the phone, trying to get it. nobody answers. we had just a few drops coming out the stupid hose. then we got hit four, five times. every time we got hit, seemed like it would knock us down. then we'd get back up again. he said i'm on the phone, trying

then we'd get hit again. we got that big bomb down. and when the forward magazines blew, you could feel the ship just raise out of the water, like that, see, just like a bucking bronco. and then that big fireball come rolling back. and i dropped my nozzle. and i remember this. i still have my towel up around my neck, because i didn't want to lose my towel. i had a knot in it. and i didn't have a hat on. i decked my head. i turned my back, as quick as i could, and that fireball hit, just like swoosh! i didn't feel anything until i was in the water. and i mean, i was down in the water, deep. and i fought to get to the surface. and i saw that i could still see

and i looked back at the ship. i'm in the water, maybe 20, 30 feet off the ship. and i looked back up. couldn't see a living person on the ship. not one. of course, the ship is up here, and you're down here. i couldn't see anybody. i says, i'm not going back aboard, because there's no use. we had oil on the water. and they had fire on the water, up forward. and you are looking forward. you could see fire, like this. the wind was blowing the fire forward, which is good. but i didn't realize the idea of... it was fairly close. so i struck out for the nevada. and there were several guys swimming toward the nevada, toward where she was tied up. and, well, two or three of them just gave up. nobody's in a position really to help anybody, because you're out there in the water and you've got your shoes on, and you're

just swimming for yourself. three of us actually got over to a whale boat, with the ores. and i was too weak to get in. so i hung on the side of it for, oh, maybe a half minute or more. get a little strength back and threw a leg over. pulled myself into the whale boat. nevada is down, almost a floating dry dock down there. and the second weave of japs hit. and i mean, they hit hard. they concentrate on her pretty much, because she was -- she was heading out. so they hit her bad. i remember, we got a bomb hit up forward. and it knocked us all askew inside there. and i thought i was looking -- i thought i was in the air, looking down at the ship, because i could see these big old cap nets and stuff. looking right up at me. then when i realized i'm on the deck, the deck just peeled up like this, when that bomb hit up

there. and what was normally down here was up here like this, and i was looking at it like that, because she was on fire, in a lot of places. well, they had a lot of wounded. i couldn't do any good where i was, so i went out, started helping getting the wounded guys onto life rafts to get them headed over to the hospital over there, toward the navy hospital, the navy yard. and i got down there. then they passed the word for they need some men back to fight fires. went back there. we fought fires. threw a mattress in the water, soak it, put it on your back, go up there on the boat deck where the fires were, throw that mattress down, stomp on it, then run back down, get another mattress. well, about two trips, two ladders, i'm worn out, because i've had it, see. carrying stupid, heavy mattresses. i stepped over guys that were laying there. arms blown off, heads blown off, everything else.

but i was in such a state that it didn't seem to bother me. and then i was so tired that i just -- i had to get out of the way, because i was too weak to carry a mattress up top side anymore. and i tell you, i was a pretty sturdy young man. but it had been quite a day. i went in the blacksmith shop. and i went over in the corner and laid down. but it had been quite a day. i went in the blacksmith shop. all i wanted to do was sleep. i was just worn out, completely. if you ever really had fatigue, you know what i'm talking about. but -- and i went to sleep. and then a couple guys are shaking me. i see they're -- they said, are you all right? i said i'm okay. leave me alone. let me sleep. i'm okay. one guy says, he's hurt, he's bleeding! a man said, how come you're all oil-soaked? i said i'm off the arizona. he said we better get you to sick barracks.

he started moving me. i hurt bad when they started moving me. do you have morphine? they gave me a shot of morphine. like putting a nice warm blast over you. i didn't hurt anymore. then they said, well, we've got no place in sick bay. so they put me on a motor launch and i headed for -- they hauled me to the hospital ship. and i went back down. they were over there. i was going down the battleships. here's the california sinking. and here's the oklahoma. capsized. here's the west virginia, burnt, sinking, sunk. behind her, the arizona is in a shambles. god, there's our battle fleet. i do remember this much, on the hospital ship, though. it must have been hours later, because i was laying there, half asleep, asleep probably. somebody woke me up. and, here, drink this.

he shoved a tube thing in my mouth, soup, see. and i looked at the guy. he's oriental. and i thought, oh, god, they've captured us, see? and i said, get the hell away from me! i knocked the things out of his hands. get away from me, you so-and-so jap! someone said, hey, hey, he's one of ours, he's okay, he's okay, see. so they brought me another. and i was awful hungry. and i sucked that soup completely down, through busted lips, blistered lips. but i drank all the soup they had anyway. it had been quite a number of days on the hospital ship. of course, i didn't feel too bad, because i see guys in the bunks next to me that were dying, and i wasn't dying. >> i was asked if i wanted on a battleship. i thought that would be an ideal

place, a nice, big ship in the pacific. and so i took that assignment. and i joined the marine detachment, in long beach, california, on 7 december '41. i was the last watch before breakfast. i was with the admiral. and then i got off and had breakfast. i'm getting cleaned up. i was going to have liberty. the first thing that i felt, a couple thumps on the -- it felt like it was on the ship. not real sharp but evidently, those were bombs or something going off on ford island, being transferred by water probably. but my thought was, it was a water barge bumping. those were bombs or something going off on ford island, being transferred by water probably. they used to come every day and give us fresh water. i heard a message. like, men, take cover or

something like that. and then three or four seconds later, i picked my speed up faster to get back there, because we mustered just for a second or so before we go to general quarters. i'm standing forward. not -- just looking, more or less, with these headphones and talking to the guns, when the ship blew. and when the ship blew, the force of that ship, it just rared like that. it was so great that your knees buckled. and forced you right to the floor. and all of us was forced to the floor with that. you couldn't possibly stand up. it was that great. and then it started doing this. the vibration from up there, and

then the extra whip, because of the steel, and then it would go faster, faster, faster. and we ended up in a human ball, about eight or ten of us, just hanging on to each other, on the deck, when it quit doing that. we got up, checked each other out. nobody was hurt. there wasn't any of the glass broke, up there in that -- i don't know how thick that glass was. it wasn't broke. we look down and it's just a white furnace in front of us. just complete destruction. it was -- you just couldn't imagine that heat and the stuff that i seen before my knees buckled. just go up in the sky. i don't know how high it went. and it seemed like, in just a few minutes, we just observed more. i watched the oklahoma. i watched the oklahoma go over

like a wounded whale, went over the side. and the men was coming off -- over the lifeline and then walking on the side of the ship and walking near the bottom. then evidently they massed bottom in the channel. and it didn't roll any farther. and there was men just all on the side of that oklahoma. i seen these other men, from the fore part of the ship, i could see them through the edge of the the side of that oklahoma. down that line that had been thrown to them by the vessel. fire and the smoke, trying to go and i seen them go down like circus people, down that line. i seen people trying to jump from up in there, either from the yard or someplace. and it seemed like they would swing and they would go out, and then like they're gonna try to land in the water and then they

got about this angle, out to the outer edge of the curb of jumping. the fire and the heat seemed to suck them right in. got about this angle, out to the and they never did hit the water. they went right into the fire. then we come to the galley deck. here's some of the cooks down in there that i recognized. do you recognize the men by his then we come to the galley deck. here's some of the cooks down in charred, burnt black, standing there. they wouldn't live long. they were in shock. one big cook, that used to cook our early breakfast for us, i was on the marine well boat team for the ship. he used to cook breakfast for us. physique or his voice? no clothes on. when we'd go up to exercise, and when we'd go up to exercise, and

there he stood, with one leg on, one leg off. bleeding. and he didn't live. none of those burned people on that deck lived. i go over the quarterdeck, or on the quarterdeck. the quarterdeck. i go over to the edge and sat down. i was attempting to take my shoes off. and the next thing i remember, i'm in the water swimming. we had high top shoes in the marine corps. i swam ashore with those shoes on. my trousers and my t-shirt. and then less and less, because instead of swimming, you didn't dare go that way because this was all fire over here. and increasing. fire was spreading. swam this way, out and then in. we would swirl and then go down and make more swam this way, oud then in. while. and pop

for years it was a guilt feeling. and that come up a lot. i was afraid to talk about it for a long time. for the last 25-30 years i have volunteered to give speeches at a lot of different places, clubs, and whenever i could. i just keep abreast at what happened here at pearl harbor. i tell them, this is going to be a hard story, for someone to tell you about defeat.

i still think to me in my mind there was a water tower on the island that they bombed and i saw it. donald: i knew it was no drill. when the planes came in and dropped torpedoes on the battleship. and they had the dive bombers. and they had horizontal bombers up there with the aircraft. you could see the gun bursts. i had seen the nevada get hit, the oklahoma capsized. all from up there. we had a big explosion and a fireball and everything it engulfed us up there. we were trying to get behind someplace, do something, we were burning alive. after the initial explosion, came down, but the decks were so hot you could not touch of them.

you cannot lean up against the boat. you do not say anything when you are burned as bad as we were. you are trying to get place -- to a comfortable place. somehow we survived. trying to keep still surviving. herbert: my battle station was changed from the distribution room to the after repair party, which is what saved my life, because if i had to be on the distribution gang, i would still be there. the chief petty officer came running down and said, the japanese are attacking, close your battle ports and man your battle stations. for a minute, we froze. but the electricians were there and said, we might as well do it. we ran to our battle stations

and mine was about four decks down, by the number three gun. and the radio shack. and the first man was supposed to get a headset on and make contact with the engine room. that was our control center. i did that, but i could not get anybody. i stood there with a headset on for a few minutes and whether it was a bomb or a torpedo, i do not know, but it knocked the lights out. it was like a tornado had gone through the ship and it pushed me from the top of the latter to -- ladder to the bottom, and i have no idea how i got down there. all i know is i was standing on the bottom of the ladder and so i took my hands and i rubbed my body all over and checked my arms and legs to see if i had broken bones or bleeding and i wasn't, so i went through the doorway into the passage and as

i did that, there was several other men down there with me. by now, the explosion had consumed all the oxygen in the air and we were not able to breathe. i got down on my hands and knees and i opened up on on the bottom. that was what made it watertight. thank goodness somebody opened the four of them on the top. we are doing this without being able to breathe. we knew we had to do it. by that time, the water had come into the base of the number three gun. so we all knew that we had to leave. we crawled up through the number three gun, through this hatch and there is a handle that you can take a hold of. and that is one time i thought i would be on the deck and here i

was maybe 10 feet in the air. so i swung over to the ladder on the side of the terror it -- turret and crawled down and went on the other side. thinking, you know, that way if they were shooting at us but hopefully they would not be about to hit us. herbert: oil was covering our bodies, so we were getting tired. it is not possible to swim, because your skin breathes and we were getting tired. and i swam over to the key, this large cement object out there that you can see today. and i climbed, put my hands on it and fortunately they were two men standing on the bumper and pulled me to my waist and they

said, you need to finish getting up yourself. we need to help other men in the water. i was so tired, i felt like going back in the water. but i knew i would drown, so you get an extra energy and i forced myself up on the bumper. as i did that, one of the other fellows had gone to the other end and we had 30 launches tied up and he got one of them and started it up and brought it around by us and told us to get in, he said, i am not stopping because japanese fighters are all over the place. i jumped in and i hit one of the benches and since i was so oily, i almost went out the other side. >> this is the third time i've been back. the first time was the hardest because it is like facing all of

your friends you do not have any more. if anybody talked to me about the arizona, it was not that i did not try, i just had a hard time trying to talk. this time that was not the case. i have been able to go for that. and i've prayed for all the men on the ship. there was not a man i know of that would not have fought to the death to preserve our nation. because freedom is a gift that has to be fought for sometimes and it has to be appreciated and understood. when we went up the punch bowl and had that service, just before the service was over, it rained. just a little bit. it was mist, but it was like tears from heaven.

that these men remembered us too. clinton: got transferred to texas and volunteered for the arizona. you, you, you type. i joined the arizona at long beach in late september 1940. sunday was liberty day, supposedly. and i would do the solo, i was taking flight lessons. when the first planes went over, they went this way. and i said, it looks like the fly boys are out early. they used to pull surprise raids on us. and over comes another one and it banks. and i hollered, they are not ours, get the hell out of here. and i do not think we had time to think right away.

you kind of, the adrenaline came out of no place and you instinctively reacted, because i know when i reached up and caught the scuttle edge, and actually flipped onto the deck. and i do not think i could have done it if i wanted to, thinking about it. we brought the boat back to the arizona when she blew up. and we started casualty work and they sent us to the island by the channel entrance, bringing the casualties over to the hospital wing. and we got trapped six times there and finally sank the 50 footer. that is where i got wounded. we tied up to a barge and we let her hang there and fill up with water. we went ashore and we found a

truck. so we drove the truck and we found a building. we went inside and it was full of armament and we put a machine gun in the back of the truck and we have rifles and 45s. and we went looking for japs, but we never found one. we blew a tire so we got out and left the truck. and then i saw more gold i have ever seen in my life. the admirals walking toward us and the first question, what is your ship? i pointed to this column of smoke and said, that is it. and they said, you are just what we need. you will be a bodyguard. you stay with this officer until you get believed.

-- relieved. i think it was 10:00 in the morning before i stopped and said hey, we were at war. then i got scared. at that point, i was running on adrenaline i guess. >> i waited the chiefs quarters. they had the privilege of having breakfast when they wanted. and they were sorting the laundry. one of the chiefs came down and said, there is a fire. i go up the ladder and the rising sun is up. i said uh oh. i go to the chiefs quarters of by the anchor. 145 yards to go. i took off. i had no problem getting there. there was nobody there.

or down below. and my battle station was in the upper part. why i went below, i do not know. almost made a mistake. we were knee-deep in water immediately. you cannot fire it with wet powder. and you are firing at planes with guns. so we waited. we were unconscious anyhow. we didn't know what to do. our explosion was not the big one. it was one that hit one of the turrets. we think the fourth deck was armored and exploded. and when the explosion came to the six deck i was there.

we do not know until we get out of it. when the explosion came, no lights. guys went out for the big one. they couldn't see. you could smell a lot of stuff. you couldn't breathe. in other words, everything was unconscious. nobody was hurt. it was just the explosion part that we got hit at that point. we knew that we were sinking and we knew we were listing to the left port. other than that, we didn't know. the next question is, what did you do? what do you do? it was obvious we had to go and get out of the water running us out of there. we couldn't do anything with the battle over.

still, we had no communication either. nobody was telling us what to do. we were stuck. so, finally we went up after some discussion. i think somebody said we shouldn't and somebody said we should. i did not make the big decisions. i had no input. we finally went up into what they call the gun room. and stayed there a while, took clothes off. our uniform had cut off whites, black shoes and black socks. we thought that possibly there might be some japs involved in this. see?

that is where we took all of the clothes off and stuck the ports around -- the shorts around the gun barrels. we came out probably not saying much. we came out from under the overhang. we could see it was gone and the deck was riddled with bullet holes. and of course, it didn't sink. we were in the water. so the forward part of the middle of the ship, forward was nothing. the next question is, what do you do? there was nobody to help at the time. i'm not sure the word got around.

as a group, you needed to make your own decision on this. there was nobody on deck to tell you what to do. and so we jumped into the water. we took our shoes off and jumped into the water. it was about 10-15 feet down. you could go over on the key and go down, but i think we jumped in. that was a mistake too. burning oil. so we went back to the key. and we went back aboard. the three or four of us. and i see a guy walked out of our compartment looked like crisp bacon. he walked up and said, help me. i helped him to the boat and he

died on the way to the island. and i found out later he was, he was my best friend. we abandoned ship, a lot of them went over on the line. they went over to our ship. over to the vessel, that might have been a mistake too. they got hit bad. they were alone on the stern. the 300 foot ship long, and a 900 foot ship. and that kind of protected us. if it had come up you would have been in bad shape. there were two safe places i think you could be. that is where we were. two or three seconds later and i would have been on the fourth deck blast, all the way down to the seventh deck. there may be an explanation of why i was still here.

if you want to dig that deep. we always do. you get out and after the battle hadn't slowed down to 20 knots, we would have gotten it in the middle instead of the bow. in the navy, the ship is your home. the beach did not amount to that much for me. so, the way i describe it is, i lost my buddy. i lost my home. it is like having a fire -- and, there is really no way to describe it. but, it released me and the respect that i am going to join

him. i had no idea i have this guilt complex. in other words, how did you survive? why? if you ask yourself why? or people ask me how? do you have that complex, you know? usually it is the guys doing all the work in the battle. he is the guy that didn't make it. you are standing around doing nothing and you survive. you know? the ship, they were working before the explosion. john: i spent time as a cook because it paid extra money. and i think two weeks before the seventh i was transferred back to my division.

and i had a duty station. and we were all up early that morning. we were setting up the benches and everything for the church service. and we had already had breakfast and completed that and had just come back into the department when it started. i went down to the lower passageways into the lower part, because that is where my battle station was. the big explosion, i suppose, the ship lifted and then sink really fast. i do not think we realized what had happened. but i knew enough about -- the magazines and what they had stored down there. it worked out everything. those bags of powder, i think they weigh about 105 pounds. and they use four for each project.

so they had a lot of it. we had a lot of big heavy batteries in the lower part of the gun mount to keep the elevated in case we lost current. when the saltwater hit them, the chlorine gas started coming up. we had to raise the turn. and get on the quarter deck. and you saw chunks coming out. i think a bomb hit on the sloping side of the armor and went down the side. and we had come out and john anderson and i went out together. he had a twin brother who was up on the five inch gun and we tried to get him. we couldn't do it. they brought the barge to the stern of the ship and the

lieutenant commander was doing damage control. he told us we might leave the ship. and on top of the dead and wounded, we went over to the island a short distance and there was a runway out there and there was an underground place and we took the wounded and the dead and i think they were picked up and taken to the hospital. i am not sure. and we were messed up. and then we started picking up people with a boat. slept on the beach at night and the next day i got on the uss mcdonald and i stayed on that until 1943. most of the boys i went in with were school dropouts. i was a school dropout. i didn't finish high school until i was 25.

and they were hungry. most of their families were hungry. it was tough times after going through the great depression. no jobs, no place to go, no homes. we found a home in the navy. i think it is important that we do not forget those boys. none of those boys ever bothered a child, had a family, had a home. that is what i had. that is really sad. most of them have been forgotten and that is sad, because if we forget what has happened in the past, we are in danger of losing the future also, i think. i brought the last three of my grandchildren out here this time. i have a grandson named for me and two granddaughters and i wanted them to know that the

freedom they have is not free. somebody paid a hell of a price for it. john: i thought, let me close out my career on a battleship. which one you want? i said, one of the big five. they said, how about the arizona? a battleship, that was it. it is just as tough to go out to the arizona memorial as it was then when i saw it burning. when i read this things, i am done. i am thatched. -- i am finished. the national park service and u.s. navy will host a ceremony wednesday in hawaii. -- worldrld war ii in

war ii memorial and washington, d.c. c-span cameras will be there and even watch the ceremonies here on american history tv on saturday, december 10, beginning at 9:30 a.m. eastern. american history tv, only on c-span3. lake.are in tempe town up next, american history tv takes a closer look at the early growth of the tempe area. here we are at the arizona heritage center. this takes us from world war ii at the end of world war ii and then the population explosion about somebody folks you to the valley which encompasses many different cities, including tempe. after world war ii, you have a lot of folks who had traveled through here, trained here, or

were stationed here that were now looking for a new way of life. what really was a game changer in terms of a population was that postwar boom. part of that postwar boom was people taking advantage of cheap housing. you dow said they had planned communities where you have multiple houses being held on but was farmland, and then converted to a planned community. they can buy a house much cheaper than they could elsewhere. it had that benefit of being a brand-new house that you had custom-built for you with all of the tweaks and up charges that you wanted in your house, and really put you in a position to control your life in a much different way, and a much more suburban way. you had the downtown, but then everything around that was suburbs. one of the other factors in that

postwar boom was the economic growth that was happening. basically early on, they were the five c's of arizona, which citrus,per, cattle, cotton, and climate. you had these going toward manufacturing, tourism, other services as well as construction was a huge economic boom. as you go from agricultural to suburbia, one of the big factors of that are these machines right here. you have evaporated cooling, which this would have filled up with water and air would have been blown through it because it was so dry that the conditions of humidity would have cooled the air down, but it did not do as good a job. then you have this, which was brought to arizona via motorola, but it made its way not just from that industrial use but then every home started having

its own air-conditioning as well , its own air-conditioning as -- and that really caused -- was one of the major factors. before that, it was really the weather that preventive folks from being here year round, but with the addition of air-conditioning, you now have the ability to control your own climate in the house. arizona is a state that is still very much finding itself. it is a new state. in 1912, we just celebrated 100 years of statehood, and with that, we are still trying to grow. you have the postwar boom that happened. you have the population here .efore we are going through a renaissance right now of another explosion of population going right now. >> this weekend, we are featuring the history of tempe,. we are going through a renaissance right now arizona, together with our cox communication cable partners. learn more about tempe and other spots on our cities tour at www.c-span.org/citiestour.

you are watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. so i decided to spend much more time at west point trying to understand how this man could finish 21st out of 39 at west point, and therefore sometimes viewed by these biographers as historical lightweight. and yet he said of himself i must apologize, i spent all of my time reading novels. day, aght on cue and historian talks but the life and career of the 18th u.s. president in his latest book american ulysses, a life of ulysses s. grant. presidency, he convened african-american leaders and the white house and said i look over to the day when you can write on a railroad car, when you can

even a restaurant, where you can do so along with every other person regardless of their race. that they must come. it took 90 years for that day to come. grant was less american president to hold as kind of use. c-span, where history unfolds daily. in 1979, c-span was created as a public service by america's cable television companies, and is brought to you today by your cable or satellite providers. yesterday, december 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy. wased states of america suddenly and deliberately