Lou DiGuisto, Scott DiGuisto and a local volunteer.

You have to walk the battlefield to really understand what happened.

I found that to be true when I walked Cemetery Ridge at Gettysburg, when I climbed up the slope to Lee’s earthworks at Cold Harbor, when I walked Bloody Lane at Antietam and when I approached the U.S.S. Arizona at Pearl Harbor by Admiral’s Barge.

Like many interested in history, I had read everything I could get my hands on about the Japanese Navy’s attack on Hawaii on that Day of Infamy, Sunday morning, December 7, 1941. The day that began World War II (WWII) for Americans. I had the opportunity to tour Pearl Harbor aboard the Commander-in-Chief Pacific’s (CINCPAC) barge which is available on a special reservation basis to guests of the Navy and military personnel and their families.

As you circle Ford Island Naval Air Station, you pass the USS Utah capsized still at her mooring where she was torpedoed at the beginning of the attack at approximately 0755hrs. USS Utah was moored on “carrier row.” In 1941, the USS Utah was a target ship, her decks covered in thick wood planking to protect the ship from practice bomb shrapnel.

Japanese Navy Pilots thought the Utah was the USS. Saratoga and attacked USS Utah first. Captured battle maps from a downed Japanese pilot clearly show the Utah labeled as “Saratoga.” There are over 40 Utah crewmembers still aboard. Salvage efforts were unable to right the ship and the Utah became a memorial site.

USS Arizona

You next see the PBY hangars just as they were in 1941. The original control tower and hangars are still there. Japanese attacking aircraft converged on Ford Island and Pearl Harbor from all points on the compass. The original Japanese tactical plan called for the torpedo bombers to go in first so they would not be blinded by smoke caused from the dive bombers.

The Japanese Air Group Commander, Fuchida, if he felt that they had achieved surprise, would shoot off a flare signal. Two flares meant they had not achieved surprise and it was to be a simultaneous attack. As Fuchida approached the harbor, he knew they had surprise on their side. He fired a signal flare. He thought that his following air group did not see the first flare in the broken clouds, so he fired another signal flare. Japanese pilots took the second flare to be a signal that surprise was not achieved and they attacked all at once.

Japanese dive bombers used armor-piercing shells as bombs to penetrate the decks of the battleships. Recovered unexploded bombs from the USS Arizona reveal that these armor-piercing shells were 15mm shell casings from U.S. WWI battleships sold to the Japanese in the 1920’s as scrap metal. The Japanese added tail fins and high explosives to these WWI shells and used them in the attack on Pearl Harbor.

It was one of these bombs that penetrated the forward deck alongside turret two, exploding over one million pounds of high explosives in the USS Arizona’s forward magazine.

Eyewitnesses reported that Arizona’s bow actually came out of the water. Salvage efforts found that the USS Arizona’s back was broken, the hull cracked in two and was unsalvageable. Over 1100 USS Arizona crew members are still aboard, including 24 sets of brothers, a father and a son, and the USS Arizona’s Captain and the Admiral for the battle group.

Battleship Row

The “Tears of the Arizona,” bunker oil from side tanks still bubble to the service. The USS Arizona was fully provisioned and ready for sea on that Sunday in 1941. She was scheduled to deploy the next day.

It was a daunting attack. The harbor was very tight for torpedo runs and the water shallow. The Japanese executed a devastating attack but made three strategic military errors. They did not attack the oil tanks during the second wave, they did not attack the naval shipyards and dry-dock facilities, and they did not have an opportunity to attack the U.S. aircraft carriers, which were scheduled to be in the harbor that morning, but stayed at sea for an extra day.

62 years later, we have experienced another “Pearl Harbor.” This one on 11 September 2001. We find ourselves at war again. 62 years ago, the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary was called upon to volunteer their time, to be trained, and serve our country as ‘citizen sailors.” We have been called upon again to serve, this time as members of Team Coast Guard. SEMPER PARATUS.