Journey Home To The USS Arizona

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Raymond Haerry Sr.

was one of just 335 on board the USS Arizona to survive on December 7, 1941.

1,177 of Haerry's crewmates, some more like brothers, did not live to see a second day of America's involvement in World War II.

Japan's surprise attack on the United States Pacific Fleet, on an otherwise typically quiet Hawaiian Sunday morning, changed the lives of millions of people.

The Japanese bomb that hit the battleship's forward ammunition magazine along Battleship Row in Pearl Harbor certainly altered the life of USS Arizona sailor Raymond Haerry.

Ray Haerry was on the deck of the Arizona that morning, and survived that momentous day in history.

He also grabbed a gun and fought back.

Haerry went on to serve throughout World War II and make a long career of the Navy.

During the rest of his life, Ray Haerry didn't talk about Pearl Harbor much.

Not to his fellow servicemen after World War II, his many friends, or especially his family.

Maybe just a sentence or two here and there.

Not unless I asked him questions about it.

He really didn't volunteer very much about the day.

However, December 7 and the USS Arizona was always just below the surface for this survivor, both literally and figuratively.

How could it not be?

It was the defining moment of Ray Haerry's life.

Haerry was part of a select few of the 1,500 sailors and Marines on board the USS Arizona to live a full life.

Raymond Haerry Sr.

passed away in Rhode Island in late September of 2016 at the age of 94.

He never once returned to Pearl Harbor to visit the memorial dedicated in memory to his fellow crewmates.

It was always too painful.

The memories of Pearl Harbor still too raw, even decades later.

Always there, every day.

I asked him several years running, I said, you know, come on.

I'd be glad to go with you.

We'll see a little bit of the island and check out the memorial.

And he just said, "No, I'm not interested."

It would not be until just before his death that Raymond Haerry decided it was time to go home, to be with his friends again.

To be back on the USS Arizona with over 900 of his crewmates who still lie entombed on the great battleship in Pearl Harbor.

Following his passing, Raymond Haerry's body was cremated, his ashes placed in a nondescript urn for his journey to Pearl Harbor.

Ray Haerry certainly did his part on December 7, 1941 on board the USS Arizona.

It was now up to his family and others to get him back to the battleship, to rejoin his fellow crewmates for eternity.

He's always said now, you know, "It's no big deal."

But I'd like to see him spend eternity with his shipmates.

The return of USS Arizona survivor Raymond Haerry's ashes to this iconic memorial of America's sacrifice in the opening minutes of World War II would be a long and emotional one.

It would also reaffirm the family's belief that our nation hasn't forgotten its heroes of World War II.

For those along the route of Raymond Haerry's urn, the journey would be inspiring.

A story that began here in Pearl Harbor on a quiet Sunday morning in December of 1941 would come full circle for one USS Arizona sailor more than seven decades later.

Good morning.

Guess what it is.

Hawaii?

Hawaii day.

Are you excited?

Me, too.

Jessica Marino and her family, husband Tim and children Olivia and Owen, are up very early on a cool New Jersey spring morning, preparing for a 5,200 mile journey.

I was nervous.

I didn't really know what to expect.

Are you ready to close this?

Until just a few months earlier, it was a trip Jessica never imagined she would be organizing for her young family.

Like most in her family, Jessica Marino had heard only bits and pieces from her grandfather about the ordeal he and his fellow crewmates on the USS Arizona suffered through.

I think it's hard for you to understand if you haven't experienced it.

I really -- I mean I don't know that I could put myself in that context, never having experienced anything like that.

Once in a while, Raymond Haerry would offer up a sentence out of nowhere about Pearl Harbor.

In a completely random moment, would just suddenly start talking and everybody would rush into the house to listen because it was such a huge thing for him to talk about it.

Haerry had first stepped aboard the USS Arizona in 1940.

He was barely 18 when he joined the Navy, and just 20 years old on December 7, 1941.

On the battleship, Haerry's main job was as a coxswain driving the small boats that shuttled Arizona crew around Pearl Harbor.

Jessica Marino wasn't supposed to be the one packing her bags for Hawaii.

This return was really the vision of her father.

But then Raymond Haerry Jr.

fell gravely ill.

I'm just trying to think if there's anything else that I needed.

So the emotional and also physical burden of delivering USS Arizona Crewman Raymond Haerry Sr.

's urn back to the battleship fell to his only grandchild, Jessica.

Very early on an April morning, the Marino family left their New Jersey home in darkness and headed for Newark Liberty International Airport, and a flight that would eventually conclude in Honolulu, Hawaii.

My dad did a lot of work to really, you know, draw attention to my grandfather and his experiences.

And then he was the one that really wanted to be the one to bring his ashes.

That was probably the worst day of my life, having to tell him that he couldn't go.

That was really hard.

But he was really understanding.

You know, he knows that his health is really important, it's just I know he worked so hard to get everything going, and then it feels a little like I'm stealing it from him.

So that's hard.

But I know he doesn't think that way.

So this is the bow of the Arizona.

This is gun turret No.

1.

Daniel Martinez of the National Park Service and chief historian of the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument at Pearl Harbor would be in charge of bringing Raymond Haerry Sr.

's final request to fruition, like he has for so many other sailors and Marines who have asked to be returned to the battleship since 1982.

I talked to the granddaughter, Jessica, and ran through what it's going to be like.

But talking about it is a little different than actually it being done.

And I think that what most of the families feel is just absolute awe at the pageantry and the honor that's rendered to that member of the Navy or Marine Corps that's going back to the ship.

And that it's a formal ceremony, it's a military funeral.

It's a military funeral with honors, and that some of the public will be there and military will be there, and we'll be on the memorial and just the setting, I think, is what will have some emotional feeling about being there, and knowing that their family member is part of this greater story.

It felt like a big responsibility to have to be the one to kind of shepherd the ashes and get this accomplished.

And you know, I hadn't planned on being the one to do it, it was going to be my dad.

So, I mean, I wanted to learn as much as I could about what was going to happen and what we were going to do and I wanted my kids to be prepared for it.

It's unique.

There's nothing like this that takes place in America.

This is the ship that, I guess, in many ways, still lives.

It lives because there are still crew members that are alive.

There are some crew members that choose to return.

The words "Pearl Harbor" and "USS Arizona" have resonated with Americans since December 7, 1941.

Avenging Pearl Harbor and the deaths of those on the USS Arizona and around the island of Oahu that day fueled a nation to rise up and strike back with all its industrial and military might.

Ho!

Every American was affected in some way, and today Pearl Harbor Day still echoes.

All right, we'll get you taken care of.

All right.

That people still remember something that happened so long ago and so far away certainly is an eye-opener for the Marino family, as they arrived just before sunup at Newark International Airport for the first leg of their trip.

Do you guys have boarding passes?

Good morning.

ID please.

Yeah.

Raymond Haerry Sr.

's return home to the USS Arizona would not go overlooked.

It's an honor to be in you guys' presence.

Yeah.

[ Bagpipes playing "God Bless America" ] American Airlines is tremendously proud to welcome a very special hero and his family aboard today's flight.

The whole time I was kind of just in awe of how big of a thing it was, and everybody standing up in the airport and watching, and you know, paying respects was really neat.

[ Applause ] The thing that was amazing to me is that everybody who we spoke to was so like, "It's an honor for us to do this for your family and for him."

Come on up, guys.

Go ahead.

You can sit in... Go ahead in.

You have seats up front, okay?

Oh, my gosh, look at that!

That's Owen and Olivia.

Oh, my gosh, this is making his day.

He's so happy.

Oh, look.

It's a little bio about him and his picture, too, which is cool.

It's the most recent picture I think there is.

I think that, as far as I know, the first time that the only representative we're going to be the grandchildren.

And this spans that generation that's so removed from World War II where now that family members are thrust into the memory of World War II, that it's only a couple of generations away and that they will be the representatives for the family.

And I had talked to Jessica about that and she's fully aware that it will be a profound moment, and that she'll be carrying out the wishes of her grandfather.

Even my husband, he just turned to me and he said, "I just can't believe the reaction of people.

This is incredible."

And it really does make you think like, "Oh, okay.

People still care about this.

They recognize that this is like so important and that it makes you feel good."

Work on the 184-foot memorial to the 1,177 killed on the USS Arizona began in the late 1950s.

The designer was Alfred Preis.

Construction was completed in 1961, and the memorial dedicated a year later.

The memorial straddles the hull of the sunken battleship.

At both ends, it rises and sags in the middle.

The first peak signifies America's pride before the war.

The drop in the middle represents the shock and depression the country faced just after Pearl Harbor.

The second peak embodies the might and power of the United States following the war.

Inside the Memorial Shrine Room, at the far end, carved on white Vermont marble, are the names of all the sailors and Marines killed on that day of infamy.

To the lower left and right of those names are marble blocks representing survivors who have decided over the past several decades to rejoin their shipmates, by having their ashes interred on the battleship.

Very soon, Raymond J. Haerry Sr.

's name will be added.

The attack on December 7 was attack an attack on Oahu, so this whole entire island is a battlefield.

But ground zero is the Arizona.

The guys that are still there, they're the heroes.

While Jessica Marino was starting to grasp the magnitude of her trip to Hawaii, to return her grandfather's ashes to the USS Arizona, Daniel Martinez of the National Park Service and the United States Navy at Pearl Harbor were already hard at work planning something that had been done 41 previous times on the USS Arizona -- the interment of a survivor's ashes.

Well, you're looking at a 3-D model of the USS Arizona that was done as a result of 3-D scans that were made of the ship.

So every little detail here is part of that 3-D scan.

Gun Turret No.

4 is the focus of the interment.

This opening, which goes down about 30 feet, is where the divers will go in and then go down with the urn, and place it in a special place where all the urns are.

They actually are dropped into a central area very carefully.

The ship is a wreck.

You can see the shipwreck here.

That's one phase of it.

And she's also a reef.

And out of all of this death comes this new life and there is plentiful marine life here.

There are sea turtles that live towards the bow of the ship.

The return of sea horses, oyster beds back at Pearl Harbor.

And it's kind of amazing when you dive with the ship and get down there, you're in awe of what you see, but you see this other life that's there.

And in a way, that tomb and that shipwreck and this new reef all blend together into how the USS Arizona is remembered, even the faint part of oil which comes up to the surface which is, in this area, only about 12 feet above, drifts over the ship.

And she's been leaking oil since December 7, 1941, and in the foreseeable future she'll still continue to leak oil.

In a way, for the Arizona survivors, some of them say "the blood of the ship."

You can still smell this 5C bunker oil when you're out there, and it's a vivid reminder that the oil you smell and see takes you back to December 7, 1941.

The Marinos' reception at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport on the second leg of their trip reaffirmed the honor and respect a nation still has for its World War II veterans, especially for those like Raymond Haerry who lived through the opening minutes of the war at Pearl Harbor.

Land of the free, and the home of the brave We just thank you for the service of our American hero, Raymond Haerry, and his brothers and sisters of the Greatest Generation.

But especially today, we honor a service that began before Pearl Harbor and went on through the war, and concluded as a full naval career.

We thank you for his commitment, his services, his contributions, and his investments in the lives that he touched.

And we are so proud today to have the privilege to fly the Haerry family back to a place that was a defining moment for Raymond Haerry.

A defining moment because what happened there changed the course of the world in a fight for freedom, to free the world.

And we cannot offer enough thanks and appreciation to Mr.

Haerry and all the members of our Greatest Generation, and all of those who wear the cloth of this nation, and their families, for the sacrifice that they have given which allows us to be free.

I sadly did not have the honor of meeting Mr.

Haerry in order to thank him for his service, but those five words are not enough to truly express the gratitude I feel for the sacrifices he made during the war.

Without the service of him and his fellow soldiers, I would not be able to stand here today in a free nation, an act that deserves much more than a simple thank you and is inexplicably beyond words.

We got to hear these people talk about how important this was and how important his contribution was and how important it was to keep the memory of him alive.

And actually the thing that really hit me with Dallas was the high school student that stood up and said she had spent time with veterans and, you know, she never got to meet my grandfather but she would have been so honored.

I would ask that we join in a round of applause on behalf of Mr.

Haerry's family and his service.

A lot of people actually came up when we got on the plane after we had done one of the ceremonies, and they, you know, shook my hand and asked questions about him.

And all the flight attendants also wanted to know more about him.

The weight of it, it's physical but it's also just like, you can't believe what you're carrying and what you're responsible for shepherding to so far away.

So, you know, it was on the seat next to me in the plane and I was afraid to go to sleep almost.

Not that I thought anything would happen, but just, like, mentally, I was, you know, so concerned about it.

A final water cannon salute sends Flight 5 carrying the Marino family and Ray Haerry's urn off to Hawaii.

You are part of a very special team.

To whether we're from the regular Navy or we're from Public Affairs or we're from the National Park Service, I guarantee you this will be something you'll tell your grandchildren about.

The family will be sitting right up front, right there.

An interment ceremony on the USS Arizona has to be perfect, for the family, for the military, and especially for the World War II veteran whose ashes are returning to the battleship.

All right, let's go from this line then.

Midway?

That line right there?

Yeah, that line right there.

Okay.

One step forward, march.

While the Marino family made their way from Dallas with the urn of their grandfather, the Navy, Marines, and National Park Service staff practice on the USS Arizona Memorial itself in the days leading up to the actual interment of Ray Haerry Sr.

So what we have to keep in mind here is... The opportunity of going back to the ship occurred nearly 30 years ago with the Navy, and they had a request to return that first member of the Arizona's crew that survived.

The USS Arizona Reunion Association had talked about this, and they made a criteria that only those that were on the ship that day, on the ship, not in Honolulu but on the ship, could have the honor of being interred.

And that was all worked out with the Navy.

It's the only place in America where this actually unfolds, an interment of a sailor that served on the ship.

So this tomb that represents 1,177 sailors, Marines, and officers who were killed probably still has about 900, and these small additions of men who go back to the ship restore part of the ship's company.

For the men of the United States Pacific Fleet, prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor, the island of Oahu was about as good as it gets for an assignment.

For the most part, prewar Honolulu was, for many of them, a paradise.

They had never seen anything this green, water this blue, beaches with this kind of sand.

They were in what they thought was this little slice of paradise.

And for the prewar years, it was.

It was this myriad of America.

And a small group of kids just basically out of high school, and then men more senior that are in charge of them, they're watching out for them and making sure they don't get into too much trouble.

There were eight battleships here in the Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor at that time in 1941.

And when they got liberty, you know, they were young kids.

I mean they were teenagers, some of them.

Today, Smith's Union Bar at 19 North Hotel Street remains the oldest drinking establishment in Honolulu.

It's been around since the mid-1930s.

In 1941, it was also the official hangout of Ray Haerry and the crew of the USS Arizona prior to December 7.

Almost every ship anchored at Pearl Harbor had their own place to have a good time.

And Smith's was it for the sailors and Marines of the Arizona.

Smith's was the spot for a cold beer when not on the battleship.

Some of them, you know, had favorite bars and one of them was Smith's.

The Arizona crew liked to go there.

They had a variety of activities.

Some of them not so good and some of them were pretty congenial in some ways.

Just going to see the grand hotels, which at that time were the Moana Surfrider and the Royal Hawaiian.

Seeing the scenery, going to the Blowhole or Waikiki Beach.

Just walking on the sand, looking at the girls, watching the hula dancers.

Well, it was just the weather and everything.

The weather was nice, we got to see a lot of things.

We seen the Big Black Cat Caf.

They loved getting pork chops there.

They couldn't get those aboard ship.

And they could just generally have fun.

Like Raymond Haerry, the crew of the USS Arizona came from all walks of life.

City kids to farm boys, Naval Academy graduates to sixth-grade dropouts.

A snapshot of America's military in the early 1940s.

A majority of the sailors and Marines on the Arizona are still entombed on the ship today.

If you took a slice of America, the military in Hawaii would have represented that part of that slice.

Preparation for the interment of USS Arizona sailor Raymond Haerry Sr.

goes on behind the scenes even as the plane carrying the Marino family and their grandfather's urn heads for Honolulu.

Henri Acevedo's job, like it has been for all the other 41 interments to date on the USS Arizona, is the carving of a new name on the white marble blocks on each side of the memorial's Shrine Room.

Raymond Haerry Sr.

's name is added just below the names of the last two Arizona survivors to be interred, John Anderson and Clare Hetrick.

Just initials and last name are added, along with rank and date of interment.

There's computer work that needs to be done.

We take the name that's going to go on the memorial.

We make up the stencil, and that process is probably about an hour, two hours of work, computer work, and then, of course, to develop the stencil.

And then we glue it up and then we bring it out.

Henri Acevedo now oversees his son Freddy, who carries on his father's work on the USS Arizona Memorial.

It's a Rayzist Photomask stencil that we use, that a company has developed.

And so we use aluminum oxide to sandblast at about 60 pounds of pressure.

Once it's sandblasted and carved, then we strip the stencil off, of course.

For me, it's just a privilege and an honor just to be a part of this history.

Somewhat surprisingly, Henri Acevedo has never attended an interment ceremony.

America, you know, fought for our freedom and this is the result.

Fighting for our freedom, this is the price that men pay.

When the Acevedos complete their work, the marble block is covered until the interment ceremony.

Like Raymond Haerry Sr., other Arizona crewmen have decided over the decades to rejoin their fellow sailors and Marines on the battleship.

All had their very personal reasons for doing so.

However, not every survivor will choose Pearl Harbor as their final resting place.

Donald Stratton was burned over 70 percent of his body when the forward deck ammunition magazine of the Arizona exploded in a massive fireball, following a direct hit from a Japanese bomber.

Well, I think I was cremated once already.

But, anyway... That's an option.

I might as well be there with the rest of my crew members.

It's an individual decision that's done with the family, and they have their own reasons.

For a lot of them, it's the shipmate, they want to rejoin their shipmates, they want to go home.

For others, it's just the privilege to go back to the ship again.

They have this connection.

And they go in that room that has the wall of names and they see their faces.

They remember their laughs.

They remember them.

They have this drive and they have this understanding that the USS Arizona is unique as the greatest loss of life of any ship in American naval history.

And, so, their consideration of going back to the ship for the final time is a huge personal decision they make.

And you know, one of them reminded me that they had a full life.

They had children.

They had a career.

They traveled.

They enjoyed their families.

They became grandparents.

They became great grandparents, some of them.

They had what those men on the wall never had.

He just, I don't know.

Maybe he valued that bond a little more as, you know, he got closer to the end of his life.

The USS Arizona and the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument draws almost 2 million visitors a year.

People come because this is where World War II began for the United States.

This is, as Daniel Martinez said, ground zero for America in a world war that, when finished, saw between 60 to 70 million people die.

More than 416,000 from the United States.

Every December 7 is special for those who work at the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Park, home to the Arizona memorial.

It's their important day.

The anniversary.

Everything must be perfect for visitors and the rapidly shrinking number of World War II veterans and Pearl Harbor survivors who return.

When the interment of a USS Arizona crewmen is also added to the calendar, Valor in the Pacific employees fully grasp that significance, as well.

Ray Eselu has witnessed many days like this.

I've been here, you know, over 30 years and I had a boss when I first got hired.

His main thing was, the reason why we have a job is that memorial out there, and it's our job to keep it clean and making it look nice for all the visitors who come to enjoy.

The work here is done with pride.

When you think of what had happened and you go to one of these ceremonies, it really hits hard at home, the sacrifice that they did to give us what we have today.

It's just, it makes you think, you know.

You sit back and you just reflect.

United States Navy Seaman Apprentice Evan Stewart will hopefully one day drive the launch that takes visitors to the Arizona Memorial.

For now, though he's in training.

He hasn't been assigned to Pearl Harbor long, but understood immediately why the memorial he visits several times a day is unique in American history.

Mostly, it symbolizes the freedom that all Americans have.

And that's really the best part about America.

Well, I think that the people that work here and that get involved in preparing for the interment, from the National Park Service perspective, it's just that rare privilege, and they see it.

But it isn't just a park service interment, it's a Navy interment.

But in the larger sense, it's America's interment.

The final leg of the trip the Marino family began in the cool early morning East Coast darkness ends in late afternoon Pacific sunshine and warmth at Honolulu International Airport.

[ Singing in Hawaiian ] There is one final island welcome for the family and the urn carrying Raymond Haerry Sr.

's ashes.

It's a big deal to the Hawaiian people, that a USS Arizona crewman is coming home.

God bless your grandfather.

Thank you so much.

What an cool experience for everybody.

I really appreciate this.

Bless your heart.

May he rest in peace.

It really was incredible to see all of those people standing there, and people coming up to me with the USO people saying, you know, "Thank you so much for coming."

And I'm like, "No, thank you for getting us here.

Thank you everybody for getting us here."

And having my children get to see all of that was so great.

After every big airport ceremony, or you know, they would see me kind of shaken and tears in my eyes and they would say, "Mommy, is that for Grandpa?"

It's their great-grandpa but they call him Grandpa.

I said, "Yeah, that was for Grandpa.

All of this, all of these people, everything, they are all here to honor Grandpa," and that's why we're here, too.

Their long trip over, the Marinos were finally able to check into their hotel just off Waikiki Beach, rest, and comprehend the day that was.

Beginning in New Jersey and ending almost a half a day later in Hawaii.

The kids were tired.

Jessica and her husband Tim, thankful, and most importantly, Raymond Haerry Sr.

's urn safe and secure.

The next few days would prove to be even more emotionally draining for the family, if that was possible.

The day prior to Ray Haerry's interment on the USS Arizona, Jessica Marino has one final task.

To deliver her grandfather's urn to Scott Pawlowski, who manages cultural and natural resources at World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument, and who would be the lead diver responsible for reuniting sailor Raymond Haerry Sr.

with his fellow shipmates.

So what we're basically going to do really quickly is, I'm going to fill this up with water and make sure that it's deep enough, and then we want to make it physically appropriate for the ceremony.

And it sinks, so that's great.

And it's pretty darn... A bucket of water confirms that Ray Haerry's urn is secure and will descend on its own to join those of other Arizona crewmen who, over the decades, have been returned to turret No.

4 on the battleship.

Time spent alone with the Marino family also gives Pawlowski and the other divers who will take part in the interment the chance to learn more about the sailor that they will be bringing back on board the battleship for the first time since December 7, 1941.

What you'll find is that the history that your grandfather experienced in 1941 is largely intact today.

Thank you.

Oh yeah, my pleasure.

I appreciate it very much.

So we want to know who he was, what he did.

If we have oral histories, all the divers read the oral histories, the oral accounts that they provide.

On this particular dive, we'll have practiced it three times prior to the actual ceremony.

We still go through it, just to make sure that whatever people have in their muscles is also fresh in their heads.

But when you're in the water, you're with somebody who served on that ship.

You know, it's really easy to make a connection that, hey, this is the deck you used to walk on, this is where your bunk used to be, or those types of things.

And that makes a huge connection that we can engage with history ourselves.

And I feel it.

And I would argue that there has not been a diver in the roughly 11 years that I've been here that hasn't felt something of that nature.

We all talk about it afterwards, you know, in the sense of, wow, wasn't that amazing, did you feel this?

I think until he's actually there, until he's actually down there and it's completed that I'm not going to relax at all.

Some of those USS Arizona sailors and Marines not entombed aboard the battleship rest eternally not far from Pearl Harbor in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, better recognized as the Punchbowl, as it's set in a long-dormant circular volcano.

More than 13,000 World War II veterans are buried here, many killed at Pearl Harbor.

The current project we have underway that's funded by the Pacific Historic Parks is the USS Arizona casualty project.

We're working with the National Archives in St.

Louis.

And all the records of those killed aboard Arizona are being scanned, sometimes anywhere from 200 to 300 pages of documents.

And we're getting to know those crew members very well.

We are finding pictures of them, we are finding their letters from their families, some of them just so difficult to read because they've just been given a telegram that their husband or their son or their brother or friend is missing in action.

The day of Raymond Haerry Sr.

's interment on the USS Arizona had been in the works for months.

All the behind-the-scenes planning, preparation, and the Marino family's travel had been completed.

Ray Haerry's urn had been delivered safely after an emotional 5,200-mile trip.

His return to Pearl Harbor had come full circle more than seven decades later.

On a somewhat breezy late Saturday afternoon in the spring, Raymond Haerry was about to go back on board the iconic battleship for the first time since December 7, 1941.

The final half-hour drive from Waikiki Beach to Pearl Harbor gives Jessica Marino time to reflect on what had been over the past few days, and what was about to be.

Right this way.

Okay.

Her grandfather had lived a full life of 94 years following that horrific December Sunday morning.

Jess Marino, very nice to meet you.

He was now about to rejoin those friends, brothers, and shipmates who never had that same opportunity.

That's where we're going.

See that white building that's out there, straight ahead?

That's where we're going to go.

That's where Grandpa's ship was.

Coxswain Raymond Haerry Sr., USS Arizona survivor, was finally going home.

Order, arms!

Aloha and welcome this afternoon to the interment ceremony for Raymond Haerry.

Raymond Haerry, who served aboard USS Arizona, was one of the lucky ones that survived.

His life was nearly taken when the explosion threw him overboard.

We are so happy to have his grandchildren here, and his great grandchildren.

This is a first.

And we're happy to have you all the way from New Jersey.

I'm inspired every time I stand here, in the heart of this iconic memorial, and I'm awed by the elegance and simplicity of its design.

It's modest, simple, yet so profound.

It makes one think about great qualities and great character in action.

Courage, selflessness, and sacrifice.

Master Chief Haerry represented a generation with a very simple approach to life.

A generation that believed in taking care of family and community, and working hard and accepting responsibility in service and in being on station and answering the call, despite the perils and dangers.

We honored those qualities then and we honor those qualities now.

Master Chief Raymond Haerry was one of those men who changed the world.

He left home back in 1940 at the age of 18 to join the Navy.

He had no idea he would be at the center of history.

He became a USS Arizona sailor in September, 1940, and he was here on December 7, 1941.

The massive explosion that sealed the fate of this mighty warship threw young Raymond overboard.

It plunged him into the flaming waters of the oil-drenched Pearl Harbor.

He later recounted that somehow he made his way to shore by sweeping his arms and pushing the flames out of the way.

After swimming to shore, he found a gun and opened fire on the attacking aircraft.

And after the attack ended, the anguish continued, and he spent the next few days recovering the bodies of fallen shipmates.

Master Chief Haerry would serve throughout World War II and the Korean War.

In 1964, he completed a total of 25 years in the Navy of honorable and dedicated service.

And now we return Raymond Haerry to be with his shipmates, in this great ship's final resting place, the place where he first experienced the crucible of battle, an event that would influence him throughout his long and honorable naval career and throughout his life.

He taught us about honor, about service to his country, about integrity, and yes, about toughness.

And also, about the value of personal responsibility.

He taught us about courage.

Not the absence of fear, but a deep and abiding belief in something greater than self.

On this late April afternoon, we are gathered here to fulfill the wishes of Raymond J. Haerry to be returned to his ship, and in particular, to his shipmates aboard the USS Arizona.

Here we mourn the dead and we honor the memory.

Let our grief for the men of Arizona be for all those who died or survived on December 7, 1941.

Here they will never be forgotten.

Let us pray.

Gracious and eternal God, I pray that your spirit will rest upon this ohana and all of those that have gathered here this afternoon.

May your blessings be upon them and may your comfort bring your peace, giving them the reassurance of your love for them in their time of sorrows as well as times of joy.

His heroic actions on 7th December 1941 undoubtedly saved many lives.

But sadly, many lives were lost on that day, including the 1,100 or so shipmates that were on board the USS Arizona.

And salute!

Now hear this.

Master Chief Raymond Haerry, effective immediately, shore duty is canceled.

Report back to USS Arizona to your appointed place of duty and assume the watch.

As we bring Raymond Haerry to his final resting place here on Earth, we pray that your blessings and your peace will be upon all of those who rest here.

For Raymond's remains will now rest alongside many of his former shipmates, even as his spirit reunites with them in your heavenly kingdom.

It is your most holy name that I pray, amen.

It's always an honor to dive the Arizona, and the ultimate honor is to be able to bring one of the sailors back home.

Aim, fire!

[ Gunshots ] [ Shouts indistinctly ] Aim, fire!

[ Gunshots ] [ Shouts indistinctly ] Aim, fire!

[ Gunshots ] Present arms.

[ Bugle plays "Taps" ] The last thing that the family sees is the urn passing into the water and into the ship.

We tell the American story here.

But it's that family's American story whenever we get to meet and interact with them.

It's just powerful.

[ "Taps" continues ] [ Sobbing ] Until they went down with the urn, that was kind of the first time that I was like, oh, this is saying good-bye.

Because we always talk about keeping his memory alive, but really, I'm also saying good-bye.

So, I mean, it was hard, but it was beautiful, too.

Please accept this flag as a symbol of our appreciation for your loved one's honorable and faithful service.

Thank you.

Can you read that?

Do you know what it says?

As long as this nation lives, these names will be honored and remembered.

Raymond Haerry never visited this place.

His wish was to come back to his ship and his shipmates, and we have done that.

Everything that we enjoy today is largely in part a reminder of those who served during that critical time in world history and that contribution and that sacrifice that was made and by the men and women who did it, and Pearl Harbor brings us back to that moment in time.

[ Woman vocalizing ] This program was made possible by support from the Surface Navy Association.

Promoting recognition of the role of the Navy and surface forces in United States security.

Support for this program was also made possible by... Additional support provided by...