I B NEASE, USNR RETIRED - USS ARIZONA REUNION ASSOCIATION

Recent reports, using todays technology along with interviews with Japanese officials and pilots, 57 years after the fact, positively states that no torpedo struck the ARIZONA. Eyewitness accounts from the ARIZONA and VESTAL, have been ignored. After accepting Japanese accounts of 7 December 1941 as accurate, attempts have been made to discredit United States Navy officers and crew statements as inaccurate due to "faulty memories". That assumption is unacceptable.

This Historian Report will present copies of original documents, survivor letters and deck logs, that when compiled and collated, will provide a totally different perspective.

After you read this report, decide for yourself what the true facts are.

The underwater explorations of ARIZONA'S hull could find no damage caused by torpedo. The murky, muddy waters of Pearl Harbor, made the examination of the hull difficult. Photographs show measurements had to be attached to the hull because of poor visability along the entire lenght of the Port side.

Research in the National Archives revealed official communiques that confirm damage to the ship was so extensive that using the ARIZONA'S hull for the
"Testing of a Shaped Charge Torpedo Warhead", as was requested, would be inconclusive. This would lead the reader to agree that a torpedo did not strike the ARIZONA. Not so. Documents disclose the torpedo struck the ARIZONA milliseconds before the devastating blast that sank the USS ARIZONA BB-39. According to the underwater survey, the Port side, at frame 35, was expanded by two feet. Therefore, I contend that all evidence of the torpedo hit would have been destroyed.

Data was located in the October 16 and 18, 1941 statistics sheets of the Log of the United States Ship ARIZONA. Comparing the drafts of the ARIZONA and the repair ship proves a torpedo could pass under the stern of the VESTAL and strike the ARIZONA. (see deck logs)

Commander Geiselman was now the new Commanding Officer of the USS ARIZONA'S remaining crew. His report to Commander Battleships, BATTLESHIP FORCE, included ARIZONA'S approximate draft on 7 December 1941. Since ships deck logs for November and the first week of December 1941 were destroyed, the commanders figures are the only ones available.

The USS ARIZONA BB-39's drafe was deeper than the VESTAL by 15 feet forward and 11 feet 6 inches aft, enough for a torpedo to pass under the VESTAL and strike the ARIZONA at frame 35 right in the forward magazine, as reported by Commander Fuqua during the Congressional hearings. In his statement to the Roberts Commission, CDR Fuqua added, "I might add that in order for the torpedo to strike the forward magazine, it has to pierce two voids and two oil tanks."

The VESTAL deck log confirms the torpedo passed under the stern of the VESTAL and struck the ARIZONA moments before an explosion on the starboard side of the Forecastle Deck.

According to CDR Geiselman, CO article (C) of his letter states, "From the report of the Commanding Officer of the USS VESTAL, which was moored alongside of the ARIZONA, to Port, bow to stern, the ARIZONA apparently sustained a torpedo hit about frame 35, port side. Damage caused by this torpedo hit cannot be determined as the ship in this area has been completely destroyed. The outboard fuel oil tanks were filled to ninety-five percent capacity in the area of the possible torpedo hit. (see letters)

ARIZONA'S port oil tanks, already penetrated by the torpedo, spewed oil into the water between the ARIZONA and the repair ship, VESTAL, seconds before the explosion. Ignited by fires aboard the ARIZONA, the oil burned fiercely as crewmen aboard the sunken ARIZONA, and trapped in the toppled Port Director, were saved from certain death by a line thrown from VESTAL crewman Joe George. Hand over hand they scrambled to safety over the flames, sustaining life threatening burns and other injuries. Don Stratton, Port Director survivor told me, "By the time we escaped from the inferno, ARIZONA had already sunk to the bottom of Pearl Harbor, lowering the Port Director on the foremast below the deck of the VESTAL." The ARIZONA crew had to climb up to safety, the line tearing the burned flesh from their palms and fingers.

May 14, 1998, I wrote to Don Stratton, Russell Lott and Lauren Bruner and asked what they saw from their vantage point in the Port AA Director. (see letters)

No oil slick could have possibly been photographed by Japanese pilots during this time frame.

Statements by Don Stratton, Lauren Bruner and Commander Fuqua's report to the Robert's Commision at the Congressional Hearings, confirm torpedo planes were flying low over the area seconds before the ARIZONA was destroyed, dispelling all rumors that no low flying torpedo planes were in the area and that no torpedoes hit the ARIZONA.

I know the crewmen involved. They were "eyewitnesses". 7 December 1941 will be forever and indelibly engraved on their minds.

Collated and signed by Lorraine E. Marks-Haislip, Historian

USS ARIZONA Reunion Association, Inc.

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