GREGG K. KAKESAKO / GKAKESAKO@STARBULLETIN.COM
William Personious, executive officer of the USS Peleliu (left), rendered a salute while Jim Taylor watched as Navy Petty Officer Evan Allen, of York, Pa., scattered his grandfather's ashes yesterday. His grandfather, Darrell Allen, survived the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor. His ashes were scattered at the USS Utah Memorial on Ford Island.
Grandson improves
on Pearl Harbor vet’s
burial request
World War II submariner Darrell Allen, a Pearl Harbor survivor, had a simple request -- to be buried at sea when he died.
But with the help of his grandson, Petty Officer Evan Allen, who followed his grandfather into the Navy, and Capt. Pam Markiewicz, skipper of the amphibious assault vessel USS Peleliu, Darrell Allen's ashes yesterday were scattered over the waters of Pearl Harbor.
"I think this is a greater honor," said the younger Allen after the ceremony that included a rifle salute and the playing of "Taps," "than being buried off the coast (of Hawaii). I am very proud. I'm glad I was able to do it ... I just don't know how I could repay everyone who was responsible."
Darrell Allen was a machinist mate on the submarine USS Cachalot, which was tied up at the 1010 pier in the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, on Dec. 7, 1941. The Cachalot was one of four U.S. subs in Pearl Harbor that day.
"When the attack happened," said Evan Allen, 21, "he recalled being scared and wondered if he would ever see his family again."
He credited his boss, Markiewicz, for making yesterday morning's brief ceremony on Ford Island at the USS Utah Memorial possible. It was attended by several members of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association and the Fleet Reserve Association.
GREGG K. KAKESAKO / GKAKESAKO@STARBULLETIN.COM
Navy Petty Officer Evan Allen held the urn containing his grandfather's ashes yesterday.
"Originally, my grandfather's ashes were going to be scattered at sea while we were underway," the younger Allen said. "However, as I worked my request up the chain of command, my CO (commanding officer) thought it would more appropriate to do it in the harbor where he served and survived."
The younger Allen said he was motivated to join the Navy two years ago after graduating from high school in part by his grandfather's naval stories and a desire "to get out and travel." Darrell Allen remained in the submarine service for eight years and became a career Coast Guard officer on the East Coast after leaving the Navy. He died April 12, 2001.
Now his grandson faces a prolonged eight-month deployment as a cryptologist on the USS Peleliu. Evan Allen says everything is "a little overwhelming and yet there is a sense of pride."
He left a wife, Amanda, and a nine-month-old daughter, Brianna, in San Diego on Aug. 22 and "it's going to be hard being away."
Darrell Allen's 271-foot diesel submarine was undergoing an overhaul when Japanese fighters attacked the Pacific Fleet on Dec. 7, 1941.
A Navy report three days after the Japanese attack said that the crew of the Cachalot was able to fire .50-caliber machine guns at the Japanese within an hour after the attack began.
Only one person on the sub was wounded, when a bullet pierced his right lung. The sailor, C.A. Meyers, was treated at the Navy Hospital at Pearl Harbor.
The nearest a Japanese bomb came to hitting the sub was within 20 feet of the starboard quarter, but it did not explode. A Japanese torpedo missed the stern of the vessel by 100 yards. On Jan. 12, 1942, the Cachalot sailed on its first war patrol. After the war, the Cachalot was berthed at Pearl Harbor until June 30, 1945, when it was taken to Philadelphia and decommissioned a few months later.
