Pearl Harbor survivors come to honor USS Utah

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SALT LAKE CITY -- A small group of World War II veterans came to Utah for a reunion and to see how our state honored a piece of their history. The men of the USS Utah served together at Pearl Harbor and will always remember the comrades they lost Dec. 7, 1941.

2009 is the 100th Anniversary of the construction of the USS Utah. Wednesday, it rests under the waters of Pearl Harbor, a memorial to that day that will live in infamy. A temporary display about the battleship is now at the Utah Capitol.

The group of survivors of the USS Utah is dwindling in numbers but not in passion for men they served with.

Veteran Cecil Calavan said, "I know as time goes on, they were just great guys. And there's 58 of them that are still there that deserve to be remembered."

Calavan and three other survivors from the USS Utah looked at this display in a way no others will. They were in Hawaii in 1941 as the ship held anti-aircraft firing practice. They were on board when the Utah was one of the first ships the Japanese attacked Dec 7.

"She was a great ship. She had a great spirit," Calavan said.

Clark Simmons served on the USS Utah for two-and-a-half years as an officers' steward.

"She would have made a wonderful anti-aircraft ship with her speed and guns," he said.

The USS Utah was launched in 1909 and commissioned two years later. During WWI, it became a training ship for new recruits. It was later changed over to an anti-aircraft training ship for the Pacific Fleet.

Four-hundred-sixty-one men survived the Japanese attack; 58 were lost.

"She turned over in 17 minutes. So, it trapped a lot of young men that lived for a few days, knowing they were going to die," Calavan said.

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The USS Utah was one of the first vessels hit in the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Two Japanese torpedoes struck *Utah* just after 8 a.m. 58 men died. The USS Utah was commissioned in 1911 and served in the Atlantic fleet first as a training vessel then in combat. Due to the London Treaty, which limited the number of battleships in a country's Navy, *Utah* became an experimental mobile target ship with radio-controlled steering and steaming apparatus. In 1935 it became an antiaircraft training ship, training machine-gunners from other vessels. It would serve in that capacity until 1941. For several years crews tried to salvage the ship, but in 1956 the Chief of Naval Operations said the vessel was the final resting place for 58 sailors and should not be disturbed. In 1970 shipmates and supporters proposed a memorial, which was dedicated on May 27, 1972 by Utah Sen. Frank Moss. -*[U.S. Navy](http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/ships/battleships/utah/bb31-utah.html)*

The group met with Lt. Gov. Greg Bell and presented him a plaque. They also ran into a group of 4th graders who thanked the veterans for their sacrifices.

As Calavan looks back, he'll always remember the way the seamen responded to the crushing defeat.

"They had the Navy spirit. And you could tell from what happened all over in the Pacific, we went right after them, and that's because of men like that," he said.

That display will remain at the Capitol until Dec. 23, the 100th anniversary of the day it was decommissioned.

E-mail: jboal@ksl.com

Ford Island at Pearl Harbor

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