Brothers to be reunited
on USS Arizona

Noel Chapman's remains
will be placed on the ship,
63 years after it was sunk

Thirty-seven sets of brothers were part of the crew on the battleship USS Arizona on Dec. 7, 1941.

Noel Chapman: He was one of the 334 survivors of the sinking of the USS Arizona

On Tuesday afternoon, on the 63rd anniversary of the Japanese attack that touched off the Pacific war, one of the last remaining set of brothers will be reunited.

Naaman Chapman, of Mitchell, Neb., was believed to have been killed instantly when a Japanese bomb struck the battleship just before 8 a.m. that Sunday morning. His body was never recovered.

Noel Chapman was 83 when he died Feb. 29. He was born in Branson, Colo. -- the third of four children -- and raised in Mitchell. He enlisted in the Navy in March 20, 1941, to join his brother -- Naaman -- who already was part of the ship's company on the Arizona.

Following the Dec. 7, 1941, attack, the bodies of 945 sailors were never recovered and remain entombed in the battleship. On Tuesday, Noel Chapman will become the 24th sailor to join his shipmates. Navy divers will place an 8-inch urn donated by Borthwick Mortuary containing Chapman's ashes in Gun Turret 4, located underwater near the stern of the sunken battleship.

Noel Chapman was one the 334 sailors who survived the sinking of the Arizona. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Chapman served on the lighter cruiser USS Chester, the hospital ship USS Tranquility and finally the USS Cascade, where the destroyer tender participated in the invasion of Okinawa and the occupation of Japan. Chapman was discharged from the Navy on Aug. 15, 1946.

Noel Chapman

Chapman's name also will be added to a special bench that lies beneath the marble panel in the memorial's shrine room that lists the 1,777 officers, sailors and Marines who were killed on the Arizona.

TOMORROW, DURING a sunset service, the ashes of Petty Officer Thomas Molay will be spread near the sunken remains of the battleship USS Utah. He will be the fifth Utah survivor to join his shipmates who were killed Dec. 7.

The rusting warship rests near Ford Island's Fox 11, which was aircraft carrier row when the Japanese attacked. 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.

Molay, of Borrego Springs, Calif., died Feb. 8. He served as a photographer's mate second class during the 1941 attack. Capt. Ronald Cox, commanding officer of Naval Station Pearl Harbor, will be the guest speaker.

On the eve of the 63rd anniversary of the attack, a permanent display will be unveiled at the National Park Service to honor the battleship USS Oklahoma, which sustained the second largest loss of life, with 429 men killed.

The display will include two panels, including one depicting the USS Oklahoma from the time of its christening in 1917 through World War I and the years leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor. The second panel will depict what happened to the ship on Dec. 7, 1941.

IN A SURPRISE RAID that lasted one hour and 59 minutes, the Japanese sank or damaged 21 American warships, killed 2,405 military personnel and civilians, and destroyed or damaged 323 planes. It crippled the Pacific Fleet anchored at Pearl Harbor.

Ten Navy warships were sunk and 11 others badly damaged. Only the battleships Arizona, Utah and Oklahoma were never returned to action.

Simultaneous anniversary ceremonies will take place at various military installations that were attacked by the Japanese just before 8 a.m. on Dec. 7. These include a wreath laying ceremony at Marine Corps Base Hawaii at Kaneohe Bay and a flag-raising event at Hickam Air Force Base.

At the National Park Service's USS Arizona Memorial visitor center, the guest speakers will be author and historian Paul Stillwell; U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye; and Ronald Sugar, chairman and president of Northrop Grumman Corp. and national chairman of the Pearl Harbor Memorial Fund.

At 7:55 a.m., the exact minute the Japanese attack began 63 years ago, a moment of silence will be observed throughout Pearl Harbor. The USS Chung-Hoon, Pearl Harbor's newest guided-missile destroyer, will render honors to the sunken battleship under its an alabaster memorial.