PHOTOS BY CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Bill Johnson, above, comforted his daughter, Trisha, yesterday after a memorial ceremony for his father, Robert Johnson. Johnson's ashes were laid to rest on the submerged wreck of the USS Utah, where he was stationed when it was attacked on Dec. 7, 1941.
Bad memories of the Japanese attack on his
A Pearl Harbor veteran joins
his Dec. 7 shipmates in a hallowed place
of rest aboard the USS Utah
By Gregg K. Kakesako
gkakesako@starbulletin.combattleship prevented Seaman 1st Class Robert Veldon "Bob" Johnson from returning to the islands after World War II.
"It was my mother who thought he should finally come here in 1970," said son R. William "Bill" Johnson yesterday. "She thought it would be good for him. It would bring closure to everything."
During that trip 32 years ago, Johnson and his wife, Annette, fell in love with Hawaii and came back almost annually. They had been married for 54 years when she died in 1998. Yesterday, Johnson, who died this spring at 80, made his final Hawaii voyage when his ashes were laid in the bow of the USS Utah, which sits in 38 feet of water off the western end of Ford Island.
The rusting warship rests near Fox 11, which was aircraft carrier row when the Japanese attacked just before 8 a.m. Dec. 7, 1941. Japanese dive bombers and torpedo planes mistook the Utah for a carrier, killing six officers and 52 sailors. Only four bodies were recovered. Thirty officers and 431 sailors survived.
Divers Jennifer Butticci, left top, and Marshall Owens were escorted by Mike Freeman, bottom, as they dove into the Utah yesterday.
The last time Johnson visited the Utah was in December for the 60th anniversary of the Japanese attack. He told the Star-Bulletin then that every trip "is always a moving experience."
"I lost two of my best buddies who didn't make it off the ship," said the Breckenridge, Mo., resident, in December as he participated in a sunset memorial service with 10 other Utah survivors.
Daniel Martinez, National Park Service historian, said during yesterday's 25-minute interment service that the USS Utah and the USS Arizona are two special vessels since they are the only reminders at Pearl Harbor of the Japanese attack.
The USS Arizona Memorial, which straddles the sunken battleship, draws thousands of visitors each year, but few people know the USS Utah Memorial exists on the opposite end of Ford Island. Access is restricted, and visitors need military escorts.
The Utah was first commissioned in 1911 as a battleship with a crew of 900.
It was recommissioned in 1932 as a target ship, and its decks were reinforced with timber.
Bob Johnson said after yesterday's service that "it was just overwhelming. It's all I could hope for and more."
Johnson described his father as a "scared 20-year-old kid" when the war broke out. He had joined the Navy in February 1940 after briefly attending Marshall College.
"It was the Depression," said Johnson. "There were no jobs in Kansas City, and he was encouraged by a Marine recruiter to join the Navy. I think the Marine recruiter told him to go Navy since he had already made his quota of recruits."
Johnson was below deck of the Utah when the attack began.
"He still had a picture of the ship when it was sinking," recalled Trisha Johnson, Robert Johnson's 21-year-old granddaughter.
"He told me that he and another sailor had jumped off the ship together and were swimming to Ford Island," she added, "when a plane started firing."
Johnson said that his father ducked under water. "When he came up, the sailor had been split in two by the machine gun fire."
Three years ago, Johnson said he heard Arizona and Utah survivors could be interred in their warships. "When I mentioned it to my dad," Johnson added, "he said that's what he wanted to do ... to be with his shipmates."
Bob Johnson is the second Utah and Pearl Harbor survivor whose ashes have been placed in the warship, although several Utah survivors have had theirs scattered on the waters surrounding the battleship. He died April 19 in Breckenridge, Mo.
Anthony Cox prepared to play taps in front of the sunken warship.
"My mother loved the islands. They would keep coming back. She loved Diamond Head so much that some of her ashes were spread over it. She even thought that she may have been a Hawaiian in an earlier life," Johnson said.
Johnson and his daughter held hands as Martinez began the ceremony at the steps of the concrete pier and memorial stone dedicated on Memorial Day in 1972.
As the American flag was lowered to half-mast by two sailors from Navy Region Hawaii's ceremonial guard unit, Johnson carried the urn holding his father's ashes to end of the pier. There he and Martinez gave the urn to a team of three National Park Service divers.
Following a 21-rifle salute, divers Marshall Owens, Jennifer Butticci and retired Cmdr. Michael Freeman slipped below the surface with the urn.
A Navy bugler played taps.
Johnson was home with his shipmates - forever.
