A Harrowing Tale of Survival 75 Years On

All the Gallant Men: An American Sailor’s Firsthand Account of Pearl Harbor is a brilliant account by one of the last survivors of the USS Arizona, blown up without warning on the morning of the Pearl Harbor attack and is one of the WW2 Reads “2016 Top Picks”.

A Japanese plane dropped armor piercing bombs that penetrated multiple levels of the ship, before exploding, igniting the ship’s ammunition and causing a massive inferno. The iconic image of the Arizona engulfed in billowing plumes is paralleled in US history only by the images of another surprise attack on American soil, the Twin Towers aflame on September 11th, 2001.

While a number of retrospectives came out in late 2016 to mark the 75th Anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack, Stratton’s tale stands out as a salt-of-the-earth journey of a humble boy from Nebraska, his sense of awe at Hawaii and serving on a massive ship and the shocking devastation of those in the middle of the Pearl Harbor attack. He reminds us specifically of the lost innocence and potential of the brilliant band of the USS Arizona, some of the most talented musicians of their time. The entire group was killed that day as they ran to their emergency posts as ammunition handlers, putting them squarely in the epicenter of the explosions.

Stratton also pays tribute to a group of relatively unknown heroines in the days after Pearl Harbor – the prostitutes who came to the aid of the wounded and the dying, filling in as temporary nurses and caretakers. He laments that they have been largely forgotten but his appreciation as a survivor of their call to serve resurrects their memory.

In the most harrowing moments of the book a brave man on the support ship Vestal directly contravenes orders to save the young men stranded on the USS Arizona who were being cooked to death by the metal below their feet. With skin burned and peeling they make their escape by pulling themselves hand over hand on a rope above a large drop into water burning with oil and Japanese fighters strafing them from above. Miraculously he and the others made it across but that was only the beginning for Stratton.

Stratton is defined not so much by the shocking event of Pearl Harbor but his struggle to recover from serious burn wounds and injuries. He wants desperately to return to service in the Pacific out of a sense of a patriotic duty to the young men filled with life and potential who perished on the USS Arizona. As with many a survivor stories, this one grapples with the unanswerable and heartbreaking question: “Why them and not me?”

More than anything Stratton’s story underscores that remembrance is a duty, not just for survivors but for all of us. As he talks about visiting the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor and what it means to him, we are reminded of the sacrifice of all who perished on that day. As he and other survivors continue to pass away, the necessity of remembrance and of heeding the warnings and learning lessons of that tragic event is even more important than ever.