GREGG K. KAKESAKO / GKAKESAKO@STARBULLETIN.COM Clayton Erickson, a World War II veteran from Minneapolis, was greeted by Lt. Cmdr. Neil Funtanilla, left, yesterday as he and 33 other veterans visited the Aegis cruiser USS Lake Erie at Pearl Harbor.

V-J Day and vows
draw vet to isle

A WWII sailor beset by painful memories
makes his first trip back to Pearl Harbor

Minneapolis resident Clayton Erickson never wanted to return to Pearl Harbor because it conjured up too many bad memories of World War II.

However, after more than six decades, Erickson, 87, made the pilgrimage to Pearl Harbor. He is also expected to visit the USS Arizona Memorial this week.

"There were just so many bad memories from the war," Erickson said yesterday as he and 33 other World War II veterans toured one of the Navy's newest cruisers: USS Lake Erie.

But this time, his trip to the islands should be filled with more pleasant memories. He and his fiancee of two years, Nancy Haeg, will be married this weekend "near Diamond Head."

Erickson served as a radioman on one of four planes assigned to the 610-foot cruiser USS Indianapolis from 1938 to 1944.

About eight months ago, Erickson and Haeg decided to come to Pearl Harbor to participate in the 60th-anniversary ceremony of the end of the war with Japan, which will be held tomorrow morning on the decks of the battleship USS Missouri -- now a floating museum berthed at Ford Island.

Plans for a Hawaiian wedding just seemed logical at that point.

"It's a very romantic place," Haeg said.

But as Erickson stood on the deck of the 470-foot guided-missile cruiser and surveyed Pearl Harbor, nothing seemed familiar.

"I can only recognize Ford Island. Everything has changed so much. I can't tell one place from another. But I'm not sure."

The Indianapolis missed being part of Japan's devastating attack on Pearl Harbor, having left Oahu two days before Dec. 7, 1941, on maneuvers.

Erickson, who served in the Minneapolis Police Department for 20 years after the war, also left the Indianapolis as part of a routine crew rotation.

That was before July 30, 1945, when the Indianapolis, the flagship of the Navy's 5th Fleet, was sunk in the worst naval disaster in U.S. history. The cruiser was returning from one of World War II's top secret missions: delivering uranium and components to Tinian to complete the atomic bomb that would be dropped on Hiroshima. About 600 miles west of Guam, the ship was hit by three of six Japanese torpedoes and sank in 12 minutes.

Of the 1,916 sailors who served on the Indianapolis, only 316 men survived the sinking. Only the battleship USS Arizona had more casualties. As many as 500 were eaten by sharks or succumbed to injuries or the elements.

The cruiser's skipper, Capt. Charles McVay III, was court-martialed for losing his ship. In July 2001 the Navy said McVay's record had been amended to exonerate him for the loss of the Indianapolis, but the conviction for hazarding his ship by failing to zigzag remained on McVay's record.

Haeg said that for many years, Erickson would not even read books about the Indianapolis.

"The war was just too tough," she added. "It took a long time. It was very difficult for him to come back. There were a lot of memories."

Missouri ceremony to
mark 1945 surrender

Adm. Gary Roughead, Pacific Fleet commander, will be the keynote speaker at tomorrow's ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II.

The commemoration ceremony will be held on the decks of the USS Missouri, berthed at Ford Island as a floating museum, which was the battleship where Japanese representatives signed the surrender documents.

On the port side of the Missouri's 01 deck, where the surrender ceremony took place, Roughead and several other guest speakers will address the veterans, family members and other invited guests who will be seated on the lower main deck of the battleship or on the adjoining Ford Island pier during the two-hour ceremony.

Other speakers will include retired Army Col. Ben Skardon, a World War II prisoner of war who survived the Bataan death march; James Starnes, who was Missouri's navigator and officer of the deck on the day of the surrender; Murray Yudelowitz, who served on the battleship as a gunner's mate; Gov. Linda Lingle; and retired Adm. Vice Adm. Robert Kihune, chairman of the USS Missouri Memorial Association.

At tomorrow's ceremony, decks of the battleship will be filled with World War II veterans -- reminiscent of the crowds of sailors, dignitaries and reporters who witnessed the surrender ceremony.