Photo By Petty Officer 2nd Class Johans Chavarro | 170130-N-IU636-056 PEARL HARBOR (Jan. 29, 2017) Buddy Scribner runs his hands across...... read more read more
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PEARL HARBOR - From the deck of the battleship USS Utah (BB 31), the three planes passing over the harbor entrance shortly before 8:00 a.m. on Dec. 7, 1941, sparked no concerns for Sailors topside. They attributed their presence to what they believed was a standard maneuvering drill.
Hovering low, the planes each dropped bombs as they flew over Ford Island, over the aviation hangars situated there. Soon thereafter the sky above became filled with yellow planes donning the brilliant “Rising Sun.” Joining their compatriots, they released aerial torpedoes and bombs on the U.S. Pacific Fleet below.
At 8:01 a.m., one of those bombs found its way to USS Utah, striking her port side. USS Utah immediately began to list to port and at 8:12 a.m., her mooring lines snapped and Utah rolled over, her keel plainly showing above the water’s surface.
Fifty-eight died aboard the ship that day.
Seventy-six years later, Buddy Scribner stands on the USS Utah memorial overlooking the sunken hull of USS Utah. His fingers run over the “Honor Roll” plaque, over the names of those who lost their lives that day aboard the ship. Over names of men he never knew, including his cousin, Seaman Apprentice Leroy Dennis.
“He was killed before I was born,” said Scribner. “I hunt with his rifle. It’s a little Remington Model 6, and that was my rifle when I was a little boy. It’s one of my most prized possessions.”
Growing up, Scribner came to know his cousin solely by the possessions he left behind, the stories he’d heard and the telegrams sent by the U.S. Navy, notifying Dennis’ family of his passing at Pearl Harbor.
“My grandmother raised me from the time I was a child to when I was a teenager, and I had the original telegrams they sent her, ‘missing in action,’ ‘killed in action,’ ‘confirmed killed,’” said Scribner. “She was such a big part of my life, and it really hurt my grandmother. I had to come here.”
Growing up in a civilian conservation corps, a public work relief program that operated from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men from relief families, Dennis joined the Navy at 17-years-old with the signature of his grandmother, according to Scribner. After attending bootcamp in San Diego, Dennis went on to report aboard USS Utah at Pearl Harbor.
“I have a couple letters that he sent,” said Scribner. “One he sent when he came out of bootcamp, and another when he got to Pearl Harbor. And that was the last we heard of him.”
Unknown of the next time he will make the journey back to Pearl Harbor, Scribner commented on his motivation to not only honor his cousin during the visit, but also to offer one last gesture of appreciation to his grandmother, a woman he felt he owed so much to.
“I’m not here for me,” said Scribner. “I’m here for my grandmother. She saved my life.”
Sometimes referred to as the “Forgotten Ship,” the USS Utah Memorial serves as a key landmark in ensuring the events that transpired that day and those lost aboard USS Utah Dec. 7, 1941, do not go unnoticed. Lost, but not forgotten, by those like Buddy Scribner.
| Date Taken: | 01.30.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 02.01.2017 15:18 |
| Story ID: | 222180 |
| Location: | PEARL HARBOR, HAWAII, US |
| Web Views: | 96 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Lost, But Not Forgotten, by PO2 Johans Chavarro, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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