Arizona to commemorate 79th anniversary of Pearl Harbor with lowered flags, flyover

The wreckage of the USS Arizona lies beneath a white memorial in Pearl Harbor. Raymond Haerry, a Navy sailor who was aboard the Arizona when it was attacked on Dec. 7, 1941, was interred in the battleship’s sunken wreckage April 15, 2017.

 (Photo: Elaine Simon/Pacific Historic Parks)

Public events commemorating the attack on Pearl Harbor have been limited by the pandemic, but Arizonans will be able to see observances around the state and from home. 

The Airbase Arizona Flying Museum in Mesa will launch a commemorative flyover of the greater Phoenix area Monday, the 79th anniversary of the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor that drew the United States into W.W.II. 

Around the state, government buildings will fly flags at half-staff from sunrise to sunset. 

And online, anyone can join the official ceremony from Pearl Harbor National Memorial, which will live stream an event attended by a small number of veterans and speakers.

The USS Arizona had been named in honor of the young state and christened by representatives from Arizona when it was launched in New York in 1915.

It was later dispatched to Hawaii, where it was bombed and sunk in the Dec. 7 attack, becoming a symbol of the Pearl Harbor and remaining a touchstone for its landlocked state: Its ship’s bell rings in the University of Arizona’s student union building and one of its anchors and gun barrels now rests outside the state capitol. 

While few of those who survived the attack remain alive today, the state has honored them and the 1,177 who were killed in 1941 through memorials, education and remembrance. 

SPECIAL REPORT: The men who survived

A flyover in Phoenix

A restored Douglas C-47 that “flew numerous combat missions during World War II” will launch from Falcon Field in Mesa around 10:45 a.m. and the progress of the flight will be reported by ground watchers on the airbase’s Facebook and Twitter, according to a news release from the museum’s director Bobbie Carleton.

The aircraft will head to the State Capitol in Phoenix before going to the National Cemetery in Cave Creek and then the newly opened USS Arizona Memorial Gardens at Salt River.

“Each of the sites strongly symbolize the service and sacrifice of Arizonans,” Carleton said in the release.

The warplane performing Monday’s flyover is known as “Old Number 30.” The crews flying the aircraft in 1945 received the Presidential Unit Citation, the release said. 

Ceremony streamed online

In typical years, a live ceremony is held at Pearl Harbor, where the USS Arizona still rests as a submerged memorial. Those who served aboard the ship are eligible to have their remains interred there, and in years past divers have taken ashes down to the ship as sailors return to it for a final resting place.

This year, there will be no interment, and the National Park Service said events would be closed to the public in observance of public health restrictions.

However, a closed ceremony involving a small number of veterans will be held, with a moment of silence observed at 7:55 a.m. Hawaii time, the moment the attack began. The event will be live-streamed on the Pearl Harbor National Memorial’s Facebook page and at www.pearlharborevents.com.

New memorial at Salt River

The USS Arizona Memorial Gardens at Salt River are seen in Scottsdale, Arizona on Nov. 9, 2020.

 (Photo: Thomas Hawthorne/The Republic)

Built by the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, the USS Arizona Memorial Gardens at Salt River opened in February 2020 as a tribute to those aboard the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor. 

The USS Arizona Memorial Gardens honors each of the 1,177 victims on metal monuments of stacked blocks with names and ranks engraved on them.

There are quotes from survivors on benches along pathways that end with flagpoles that mark each branch of the military. The layout of the site is inspired by the shape of the battleship, with more than 1,500 commemorative columns forming the outline of the perimeter of the USS Arizona.

“Their light will continue to go on and stand through the test of time,” a press release explains.

Few survivors remain 

USS Arizona survivors in 2014 (from top left) Raymond Haerry, Lou Conter, Donald Stratton, Clare Hetrick, Ken Potts, Lauren Bruner, Joe Langdell, Lonnie Cook and John Anderson.

 (Photo: Patrick Shannahan/The Republic)

After a long life of service, Donald Stratton died Feb. 15 at his home in Colorado Springs, Colorado. His wife, Velma, and his son, Randy, were with him. He was 97. He was buried in a family plot in his hometown of Red Cloud, Nebraska.

With his death, only two survivors remain from the last crew of the USS Arizona: Lou Conter, 98, of Grass Valley, California, and Ken Potts, 98, of Provo, Utah. 

Stratton joined the Navy after he graduated from high school in 1940.

After boot camp, he was sent to the Navy shipyards in Bremerton, Washington, where he got his first look at the USS Arizona, in dry dock undergoing maintenance and, most people assumed, being fitted for war.

In the Dec. 7 attack, Stratton was burned badly over much of his body. He was taken to a hospital in San Francisco, where he convalesced for the better part of 1942. Finally, he was given a medical discharge and returned to Nebraska.

A year later, he reenlisted. 

MORE: He saved 6 men at Pearl Harbor. Finally, 76 years later, he was honored for it

Granddaughter honors Stratton through Gilbert sponsorship 

Donald Stratton’s granddaughter, Nikki, feared the history of Pearl Harbor was slipping from Americans’ memory. In an effort to keep it alive, the Town of Gilbert will sponsor a new submarine named after the battleship USS Arizona.

The fast-attack submarine is being constructed in Groton, Connecticut. Gilbert’s Veterans and Military Advisory Committee hope it will be stationed in Pearl Harbor to continue the legacy.

The committee proposed the city sponsor the U.S. Navy’s new USS Arizona submarine in June. The town council voted 7-0 to become a sponsor on Oct. 13.

“For him, his dying wish was that nobody would forget the (USS) Arizona and this is a way for me to connect with older and newer generations to fulfill that wish,” Nikki told The Arizona Republic. “I see this new Arizona as a bridge and this bridge will carry his story to the other side.”  

Reach the reporter Jamie Landers at jamie.landers@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter @jamielanderstv

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