One of the last survivors of the USS Arizona was interred on the sunken warship

One of the last survivors of the USS Arizona was interred on the sunken warship

by Violet Bell



Lauren Bruner, one of 334 crew members to endure the December 7, 1941 attack, died on September 10, just months before his 99th birthday.
Cherished ones gathered at sunset at the USS Arizona Memorial in Honolulu, Hawaii. Relatives and good friends handed Bruner’s ashes above to divers who put the urn inside of the nicely of the barbette on gun turret No. 4. A barbette is an armored composition defending a gun turret on a warship.

The ceremony incorporated a rifle salute, flag presentation and plaque presentation in honor of the veteran.

The memorial can only be attained by boat as was built over the submerged hull of the sunken battleship. The hull is a tomb for additional than 900 sailors who stay in and serves as an artificial reef giving habitat for marine lifestyle.

Only the remains of USS Arizona survivors can be interred on the sunken battleship. Pearl Harbor survivors can have their ashes scattered more than the harbor.

Bruner was on the sky handle deck when the ship was struck by quite a few bombs, igniting explosions which killed 1,177 Arizona crew associates. He was just one of a handful of sailors on deck to endure the catastrophic explosion when a bomb struck the Arizona’s forward magazine.
Immediately after the explosion, he swam across 70 feet of burning drinking water to attain the fix ship USS Vestal. Bruner experienced burns on virtually 80 % of his system and was wounded by Japanese gunfire.

He recovered from his wounds and returned to sea, serving aboard the destroyer USS Coghlan in eight more battles in opposition to the Japanese, according to the Navy. He finished the war as a fire handle main on Coghlan, steaming into Nagasaki harbor only times after the atomic bomb explosion.

Bruner is the 44th and past USS Arizona survivor to be interred, according to Emily Pruett, a spokeswoman for the Pearl Harbor Countrywide Memorial.

“The wrecks of only two vessels keep on being in the harbor — the Arizona and USS Utah — so survivors of those ships are the only types who have the selection to be laid to relaxation this way,” Pruett informed CNN.

The relaxation of the ships which were struck that working day were possibly fixed or scrapped, she said.

The final three dwelling survivors of the USS Arizona approach to be laid to rest with their people.



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