A Navy veteran who survived the bombing of the USS Arizona was at the University of Arizona on Thursday to view the school library’s collection of memorabilia from the sunken warship.
“It still brings back a lot, a lot of thoughts,” said Lauren Bruner, 95.
Bruner was one of the 335 sailors from the battleship who survived the Japanese attack on Dec. 7, 1941. The surprise attack claimed the lives of 1,177 crew members.
He was in Tucson this week to commemorate the 74th anniversary of the attack, which is Monday, and to view the collections of USS Arizona memorabilia held at the UA Library’s special collections. He is scheduled to participate in an event Sunday at the UA. (See related story, Page A6)
Bruner nearly died in the bombing.
When the bombs began to fall from Japanese warplanes, Bruner was below deck attending church services.
He rushed to his battle station high above the deck on the topmost portion of the ship’s superstructure.
As the bombing continued, flames and explosions from the fires on deck scorched more than 70 percent of his body.
He is one of a handful of sailors on board the ship that fateful day who is alive today.
Richard Snow from Spring Valley, California, also attended Thursday’s viewing.
He was a child living with his parents in Honolulu at the time of the attack.
“I was standing there looking out the window, and I saw Japanese Zeros flying overhead,” Snow said, remembering the sight of the enemy planes that had moments earlier dropped their fatal payloads on the Pacific Fleet.
Snow’s father was stationed on the USS Arizona but lived with the family in the city when the ship was in port.
Just a boy at the time, Snow said he was too afraid to wake his father at the sight of the Japanese planes.
He still remembers what his father, Rutherford Hayes Snow, did once he heard news of the attack on the radio.
“He put on his uniform and stepped outside; a taxi picked him up, and he was gone for two weeks,” Snow said.
His father died a few years after the war in 1953.
Today, Snow is part of the USS Arizona Reunion Association, several of whose members organized and attended the event at the university.
The same for Larry Vandiver, an Amado resident whose uncle was stationed on the USS Arizona.
“It always reminds me of the survivors,” Vandiver said of the collection of photos, news clippings, flags and other memorabilia in the university collection. “They’ve become my close friends.”
Vandiver said he reveres the men who survived the USS Arizona and World War II who returned home, raised families and worked to make this country and the world better places.
But then Vandiver grew momentarily sad, tears building in his eyes and his voice quivering slightly.
“I cry because the world hasn’t gotten better yet,” he said, noting that despite the sacrifices of those who served and those who died, we still live in a war-torn world.
For Bruner, the USS Arizona reunions and events like Thursday’s viewing bring him joy.
“It’s been terrific,” he said. “I want to stick around till 2020.”
By then, Bruner would be 100 years old.
