Soucy lived to be 90, passing away just last year. On Tuesday, seven decades after dozens of fellow sailors were killed when the USS Utah sank on Dec. 7, 1941, Navy divers took a small urn containing his ashes and placed it in a porthole of the ship. The ceremony was one of five memorials being held this week for servicemen who lived through the assault and want their remains placed in Pearl Harbor out of pride and affinity for those they left behind. "They want to return and be with the shipmates that they lost during the attack," said Jim Taylor, a retired sailor who coordinates the ceremonies.
The memorials are happening the same week the country observes the 70th anniversary of the aerial bombing that killed 2,390 Americans and brought the United States into World War II. A larger ceremony to remember all those who perished will take place today just before 8 a.m. Hawaii time — the same moment the devastating attack began. Most of the 12 ships that sank or were beached that day were removed from the harbor, their metal hulls salvaged for scrap. Just the Utah and the USS Arizona still lie in the dark blue waters. Only survivors of those vessels may return in death to their ships.
The cremated remains of Vernon Olsen, who served aboard the Arizona, will be interred on his ship during a sunset ceremony today. The ashes of three other survivors are being scattered in the harbor. Soucy, the youngest of seven children, joined the Navy out of high school so he wouldn't burden his parents. In 1941, he was a pharmacist mate, trained to care for the sick and wounded. He had just finished breakfast that Sunday morning when he saw planes dropping bombs on airplane hangars. He rushed to his battle station after feeling the Utah lurch, but soon he heard the call to abandon ship as the vessel began sinking. He swam to shore, where he made a makeshift first-aid center to help the wounded and dying. He worked straight through for two days.
The Utah lost nearly 60 men on Dec. 7, and about 50 are still entombed in the battleship. Today, the rusting hull of the Utah sits on its side next to Ford Island, not far from where it sank 70 years ago. Soucy's daughter, Margaret, said her parents initially planned to have their ashes interred together at their church in Plainview, Texas. But her father changed his mind after visiting Pearl Harbor for the 65th anniversary in 2006. "He announced that he wanted to be interred on the Utah. And my mother looked a little hurt and perplexed. And I said, 'Don't worry, Daddy, I'll take that part of your ashes that was your mouth and I'll have those interred on the Utah. And you can then tell those that have preceded you, including those that were entombed, what's been going on in the world,' " Margaret Soucy recalled saying with a laugh.
" 'And the rest of your remains we will put with Mother in the church gardens at St. Mark's.' And then my sister spoke up and said, 'Yes, then Mother can finally rest in peace,' " she said. The family had long kidded Soucy for being talkative —they called him "Mighty Mouth" — so Margaret Soucy said her father laughed and agreed. "He just thought that was hilarious," she said. "So that is what we are doing. We're taking only a portion of his ashes. It's going to be a small urn," she said. Soucy's three children and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren — 11 family members altogether — planned to attend the sunset ceremony Tuesday. His wife died earlier this year.
Read more: Pearl Harbor survivors can return to their ships after death - The Denver Post
http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_19485936#ixzz1fttVM1h0
