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 – KILLED IN ACTION.
ENS Eldon Paul Wyman 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.
Eldon Wyman was born on January 11, 1917, in Portland, Oregon, and attended the University of Oregon from 1936 to 1940. On August 22, 1940, he enlisted in the Naval Reserve as an Apprentice Seaman. Following training on the USS TUSCALOOSA (CA-37) he was appointed as Midshipman on March 17, 1941, and after attending Midshipman’s School at Northwestern University he was commissioned an Ensign on June 12, 1941. On July 19, 1941, he reported aboard USS OKLAHOMA and was assigned duty as junior watch officer of the ship’s fire control division. As the Japanese attack began and battle stations sounded with the announcement, “THIS IS NOT A DRILL,” ENS Wyman undoubtedly dashed to his duty station below deck.
Following the Japanese attack ENS Wyman’s name appeared among the missing and presumed dead. Although 32 crewmembers were subsequently successfully rescued alive from the capsized OKLAHOMA, ENS Wyman was unfortunately not one of them nor was his body identified when the ship was salvaged about two years after the attack. After the salvage operation the remains of 381 from OKLAHOMA were buried in 14 mass graves at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu. ENS Wyman’s remains might have remained in one of those mass graves had it not been for the efforts of a Pearl Harbor survivor who collected evidence, sifted through records and walked through the Punchbowl cemetery to locate and identify those who lost their lives that day. He presented his findings to the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command in 2003 and one of the mass graves was exhumed. In September 2008 it was announced that through his sister’s DNA the remains of ENS Wyman had been identified and at the request of his family he was reburied with full military honors at Wilhelm’s Memorial Cemetery in Portland, Oregon, with other family members.
Submitted by CDR Roy A. Mosteller, USNR (Ret)
