By Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
Judith Campbell kneels in front of the name of her husband,
Frank Campbell, whose ashes will be interred in the sunken ship.
On Saturday afternoon his widow, Judith, will fulfill his wish when Campbell's ashes will join the some 900 sailors still entombed in the battleship USS Arizona at the bottom of Pearl Harbor.
The cremated remains of Campbell and two shipmates - James William Green, of Troy, Mich., and Norman Coplin, of Miami, Fla. will join 10 other Arizona survivors who chose to be interred in gun turret four near the stern of the sunken battleship. Their names will be added to a special bench in the memorial that lies beneath the marble panel that lists the 1,177 Arizona sailors killed on Dec. 7, 1941.
Judith Campbell said her husband in 1991 decided he wanted to be buried with his shipmates on the Arizona after attending the 50th anniversary ceremonies.
"It was his first visit here since the war," she said. "The experience of that day was something in his life that never seemed far from him. The memories were always there. Something would always trigger a memory ... he talked about pulling bodies and men out of the water."
She said her husband's life was probably saved that fateful morning because he had left the Arizona and was in a whaleboat on his way to a Catholic Mass.
Campbell was an ensign on Dec. 7, 1941, having graduated from Loyola College in Los Angeles. After Pearl Harbor, Campbell served on submarines and worked in the Navy's dirigible program.
Before retiring, Campbell owned several companies, including J.P. Duff, a New York building supply company.
Yesterday, Judith Campbell was among the 150 Arizona survivors, spouses, children and friends on a special National Park Service tour of the alabaster memorial, which spans the sunken battleship still moored off Ford Island.
Joe Langdell, 82, has been coordinating the pilgrimages to Hawaii and the Arizona since 1981. Eleven survivors participated in this year's pilgrimage.
"We come here every five years," said Langdell, an ensign during the attack, "to memorialize the 1,177 people who died on this ship, to have a reunion with shipmates who survived and to try to get the word out to remember Pearl Harbor and to remember the Arizona so future generations won't allow to this to happen again."
During the Japanese surprise attack, the Arizona was hit by seven or eight bombs at 7:55 a.m.
It sank in less than nine minutes at its berth after a 1,760-pound armor-piercing bomb slammed through her deck and ignited her forward ammunition magazine.
It was one of 10 Pacific Fleet ships sent to the bottom of Pearl Harbor that morning. Eleven others were heavily damaged. About 150 ships - half the fleet - were here when the attack occurred.
Of the 1,511 sailors assigned to the battleship, 334 survived. It is believed that 900 are still entombed in the sunken hull. Today only an estimated 60 survivors are still alive.
The total American casualty count: 2,395 military personnel and civilians. The Japanese lost 64.
Herb Buehl was 19 and an electrician's mate from Beloit, Wis., who had just finished Sunday breakfast when "the chief came running saying the Japanese have attacked and we should take our battle stations.
"I was near the No. 3 gun turret four decks down when the attack started," Buehl.
The gun turret was on fire by the time Buehl made it to the deck of the battleship and dove into the harbor. Covered with oil, Buehl was picked up by launch which took him to Ford Island.
Glenn Lane, 79, believes he may be one of the few sailors who had two battleships blown out from under him on Dec. 7. Lane also was near Arizona's No. 3 gun turret when he was blown overboard.
He was picked up by the USS Nevada which was the only ship able to get up enough steam to try to run out to sea, but after taking several hits, the Nevada had to be beached at Hospital Point to avoid sinking and blocking the harbor.
Langdell says he will continue to organize these reunions as long as there are survivors.
As for Judith Campbell, making her first Pearl Harbor pilgrimage, she says she now understands why her husband chose the Arizona as his final resting place. "Anyone who has been to Hawaii and Pearl Harbor can understand why my husband's heart never left here."