Matthews heard a noise and looked to the right where he spotted aircraft flying toward the ship He heard a thundering noise and then saw fire and dirt flying up beneath the planes He thought he was seeing one of the scheduled gunnery practices for the soldiers and TEENS IN THE NAVY sailors who were training in and around Recruits had to be 17 years old to join the US Pearl Harbor military but Martin Matthews entered the navy Then an alarm sounded on the Arizona at only 15 years of age If a military recruiter thought someone like Matthews looked too and Stafford ran to report to his duty young he would ask the recruit's parents to station Each sailor had an assigned job sign a legal paper called an affidavit Because in a specific location They prepared the Matthews s father signed an affidavit saying ship to fight the attackers the Japanese his son was 17 years old Matthews was able to join the navy He was stationed at Ford Island Matthews stayed toward the back of the Naval Air Station in Pearl Harbor While there he ship because he did not have a job or the attended aviation metal craft school and learned training to know what to do to repair damaged aircraft The Arizona was hit sometime between 8 30 and 8 45 a m when an explosion thundered on the right side of the ship Matthews saw flames and the ship shuddered beneath his feet as he watched the men try to get the guns ready to fire The gunners had to get the ammunition out of locked storage but the person in charge of the locker would not unlock it without the permission of the officer of the day In the confusion of planes firing and dropping torpedoes the men
Japanese planes began their attack on Battleship Row on the morning of December 7
G DIRE NILO Ta at 2 Sailors rescue a survivor as the USS West Virginia
did not know where this officer was so one sailor broke the locker open with a DAWN ATTACK metal tool The Japanese knew the best time to attack Pearl As the Japanese planes dropped bombs Harbor would be at dawn on a Sunday Prior several hit the Arizona Matthews ended up to the attack the army flew no dawn patrols in the sea but later he could not remember and Sundays were light duty days making it an especially quiet time on base When the whether he had jumped or been blown attack came most of the soldiers and sailors overboard Once he was in the water were either still asleep or eating their breakfast he swam away from the ship toward the completely unprepared to defend themselves closest mooring buoy their bases or their country The buoy was approximately 25 yards 23 m from the Arizona and Matthews hung on to the far side keeping it between himself and the ship He watched as Japanese planes attacked the US ships in the harbor and the aircraft on Ford Island As the battle raged steel pieces of wood fire and even body parts rained into the water around Matthews Eventually a series of explosions went off aboard the Arizona Matthews watched as the final blast lifted the middle of the battleship up in the water Then the ship buckled and as water poured through the broken hull the Arizona settled on the bottom of the shallow harbor It came to rest with the bridge from which the captain commanded the ship still above water level Matthews left the algae covered buoy and swam nearly a mile 1 6 km through water covered in oil and diesel fuel When he crawled onto the beach
