HE DIED ABOARD USS OKLAHOMA AT PEARL HARBOR
During World War II there were thousands of “ordinary” men who led otherwise quiet lives but who in a way seldom seen since that time, put their plans and dreams on hold, their lives in jeopardy, and turned out to squarely face a lethal foe, an assault on their values. The Log pages of the Navy Memorial name many of those valiant men about who little has been recorded. Many have been honored with the simple phrase – LOST AT SEA.
PVT Otis Wellington Henry was one of these valiant men. He died on what began as a quiet Sunday at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, aboard USS OKLAHOMA. On the morning of December 7, 1941, OKLAHOMA was moored at Battleship Row adjacent to Ford Island in Pearl Harbor. The ship was berthed outboard of the USS MARYLAND (BB-46) and was a sitting duck when the Japanese struck the fleet in Pearl Harbor that fateful morning. An important inspection had been scheduled for OKLAHOMA the next day, so many of the ship’s watertight doors were open to allow easy access for the crew in preparing the ship for the scheduled inspection. As the Japanese began the attack OKLAHOMA became one of their first targets and within minutes three torpedoes exploded against her port side causing extensive damage below the waterline. As OKLAHOMA commenced to slowly roll over due to the tremendous amount of flooding seawater, terror reigned below deck and in the darkness men sought to find a way out of the burning, metal coffin. Barely ten minutes into the battle the 25-year old dreadnaught OKLAHOMA had been struck by nine torpedoes and finally rolled completely over until only her starboard propeller and some of her starboard underwater hull was visible. More than 400 sailors and marines who would never again see the light of day were trapped. OKLAHOMA suffered the second greatest number of casualties by any ship that day, surpassed only by the USS ARIZONA (BB-39) which had 1,177 officers and enlisted men killed.
As the Japanese attack began and battle stations sounded with the announcement, “THIS IS NOT A DRILL,” PVT Henry, a member of the Marine Detachment aboard OKLAHOMA, undoubtedly dashed to his duty station somewhere below deck. Very little information has been recorded concerning PVT Henry in addition to his reported birth on July 12, 1919, in Mio, Michigan. The date he entered the Marine Corps and the date he reported aboard OKLAHOMA are unknown. Following the Japanese attack PVT Henry’s name appeared among the missing and presumed dead. Although 32 crewmembers were subsequently successfully rescued alive from the capsized OKLAHOMA, PVT Henry was unfortunately not one of them nor was his body ever identified when the ship was salvaged. Although there is a memorial headstone in his honor at Kittle Cemetery in Mio, Michigan, It must be presumed that his final resting place is the Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu where approximately 390 unidentified men from OKLAHOMA have been buried in common graves which have been simply marked, “UNIDENTIFIED – USS OKLAHOMA – PEARL HARBOR - DECEMBER 7, 1941.”
Submitted by CDR Roy A. Mosteller, USNR (Ret)
