Pinned post for Q&A :)

EDIT: Apologies for the frame shudder on pauses, this was not evident in the video editing software.

Man, this really puts into perspective just how catastrophic the damage inflicted on the Arizona was when the magazine blew.

My Father had a friend who was on the Arizona and survived, he was on deck at the rear of the ship running to his battle station, when they found him after the explosion he was face down mostly in the water with his face in the sand on the other side of the harbor, he had a burned and severely injure back. He had no recollection of the explosion, He spent the rest of the war in hospitals and rehab, eventually ended up in a wheel chair.

In US Navy colloquialisms, the three basic Material Conditions of Readiness are X-RAY, YOKE, and ZEBRA.  These were originally from the WWII phonetic alphabet, but did not change after the shift to the NATO phonetic alphabet in 1957.

I was about seven years old when my Dad took me to visit the Arizona memorial. This was in the late 1950's, and the beautiful concrete structure people associate with the Arizona memorial just wasn't there.  Instead, I remember riding out in a motor launch and climbing onto a floating wooden platform that was anchored over the sunken hull.  By that time all the superstructure had been cut away below the surface.  There was a wooden railing with some plaques, pictures and a written narrative.  The water was too dark to see any of the hull, but I can remember the oily film floating on the surface that my Dad said was coming from her tanks.  It was not much of a memorial for the one thousand sailors entombed below.

A few years after my visit, a big-time Hollywood star who was filming a movie on the Islands took a break in the shooting schedule to visit the same memorial.  This star, who was also a veteran, thought it was a terrible way to honor the ship and the men who went down with her.  He later gave a concert and donated the proceeds to begin funding to build the beautiful memorial that's there today.  That star's name was Elvis Presley.

I really appreciate that you do real history, looking at contemporaneous reports, photo evidence etc.  Most history buff channels just regurgitate other people's work.  Thanks, Drach.

If nothing else, the loss of these ships in shallow water allowed for a very thorough analysis of their damage that otherwise  wouldn't have been possible if the same damage had happened at sea.   I wonder if the battleships of the Pearl Harbor attack are the most studied combat damaged ships in naval history.

New patreon goal: Drach buys the history channel

Back around 1988, I met a Man with a USS Arizona Service Cap. He was getting his car repaired in our Shop.  I asked him about the hat as I didn't know any Survivors. he told me he wasn't exactly a Survivor. He said he literally was discharged from the Navy around a Month, before the attack. He did rejoin and get back on a Battlewagon, but always wore the Hat to remember the Crew and Ship. God rest him.

The captain of the Vestal was Cassin Young.  He received the Medal of Honor for his actions on Dec. 7.  He was the captain of the San Francisco on Feb. 13, 1942 and was killed in action off Guadalcanal.

There's footage of the explosion taken from the island side of the ship that shows the tsunami thrown up by the blast as well as burning bags raining down all over the place. It really demonstrates the power of the explosion when you can compare it to things on an everyday scale.

I'm currently working at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, and it's crazy to see the same buildings still standing as the ones pictured with Arizona in her 1931 refit.

That fire ball post explosion makes the fact that the wind was blowing forward a bit more important, I imagine had the wind been blowing aft it would have killed many more survivors from the initial explosion. Also that Ensign mentioned who left the bridge after the bomb impact just before the main explosion was the last to see Captain Franklin Van Valkenburgh before he was killed at his post by the main explosion or fire.

I remember seeing a close analysis of the Arizona exploding and when they zoomed in on the forward tripod mast, when they slowed it down and you could see the forward tripod mast is lifted maybe 30 feet (IIRC) by the blast. It then collapsed forward. To be able to to lift the heavy superstructure, conning tower and masts w/rangefinders that much in an instant is insane.

The converted BB gun shells' high dud rate begs question - "Did other Pearl Harbor BBs take magazine hits that morning where the bomb failed to detonate?"

If this  has not been mentioned; the film was taken from USS Solace, a hospital ship, moored to the Northwest of the Arizona.
And the reversed view goes back as far as I can remember seeing it, 1960's if not 50's.
I saw a Nova program on Pearl Harbor that finally showed it correctly.
I doubt the original film survives in a usable state(celuloid), but it would nice to see digital enhancement.

4:02 my uncle, to be, was aboard the Battleship USS California when she was sunk at Pearl Harbor on December 7,1941, he was trapped in  the engineering spaces and was cut out of the hull hours or possibly days later. he lived until 2005.

My great great grandfather was actually a Quartermasters mate on the Arizona when it first commissioned in WWI. While it was used as a gunnery training ship and fitting out. His Navy service ended a few days before the Arizona escorted Woodrow Wilson to the Versailles conference.

Later in WWII, one of his sons, my grandfather’s uncle, was a Machinists mate on the USS Cassin Young (coincidentally named for the captain of USS Vestal who saved crew from Arizona) when it commissioned and headed to the Pacific by way of Pearl Harbor. He never talked about his time in the Navy, but we always suspected he was pulled off the Cassin Young while it was in Pearl to help with salvage efforts.

Herbert A. Boomershine, QM1c (1894-1958)
Clyde H. “Hurbie” Boomershine, MM2c (1923-1987)

You are the only History Channel  I trust anymore.
Well Done Sir.

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