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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.
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
