Tombstone Tuesday: Lee Soucy, USS Utah Pearl Harbor Survivor

USS Utah Memorial, Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, 6 Dec 2011

Today's Tombstone Tuesday is a bit unusual because the tombstone is the USS Utah, a converted battleship that was sunk in the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 Dec 1941. The USS Arizona and the USS Utah are the only surviving underwater memorials left at Pearl Harbor and only the Arizona is open to the public.

Because my husband is a retired Army officer, we were able to stay right on Ford Island. One of the 70th anniversary events was held at sunset on 6 Dec 2011 at the USS Utah Memorial, honoring those who died there and to inter the ashes of one of the Utah survivors, Lee Soucy. 

An article about the 2011 Pearl Harbor survivor interments notes:

[Soucy] had just finished breakfast that Sunday morning when he saw planes dropping bombs on airplane hangars. He rushed to his battle station after feeling the Utah lurch, but soon heard the call to abandon ship as the vessel began sinking. He swam to shore, where he made a makeshift first aid center to help the wounded and dying. He worked straight through for two days.

The Utah lost nearly 60 men on Dec. 7, and about 50 are still entombed in the battleship. Today, the rusting hull of the Utah sits on its side next to Ford Island, not far from where it sank 70 years ago.

Survivors at the USS Utah Memorial ceremony, 6 Dec 2011

More about the late Lee Soucy's Pearl Harbor experience is available here and here. 

My husband and I feel privileged to have attended the 70th anniversary Pearl Harbor commemorations – and the ceremony for Mr. Soucy in particular – last week.