The USS Utah was no longer serving as a battleship at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor and not considered a prized target by the Japanese, but its sunken remains still play an important part in memorializing Dec. 7, 1941, and the men who died that day.
Since 1931 the former battleship had served as a target and training vessel. That was still its role as it sat on the other side of Ford Island from Battleship Row when the Japanese attacked.
Recalling the attack, Marion P. Perkins, who was an electrician’s mate on the Utah, wrote that he was awakened by an explosion and made his way to the quarterdeck “when I first saw the plane with the Japanese insignia and he was dropping an aerial torpedo aimed at our ship. The concussion knocked me back below deck. In a matter of moments all power was lost.”
The ship soon began to list to port, and the order to abandon ship was issued. “Amid the confusion I jumped over the side and swam to Ford Island and took cover in a ditch. All I was wearing at the time was a pair of skivvies,” Perkins wrote.
In all, 58 men died on the Utah, including Chief Watertender Peter Tomich, a 48-year old immigrant from Austria-Hungary. As the ship was keeling over, Tomich went to the Utah’s engineering plant “insuring that all fireroom personnel had left the ship and the boilers were secured,” wrote Lt. Cmdr. Solomon S. Isquith, the ranking officer onboard at the time of the attack.
Tomich was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his valor.
Isquith, who was injured, was awarded the Navy Cross for “extraordinary heroism and distinguished service in the line of his profession as Commanding Officer of the Target Ship USS Utah,” according to the citation. “With extraordinary courage and disregard of his own safety, Lieutenant Commander Isquith directed the abandonment of the ship when it was capsizing rapidly, in such a cool and efficient manner that approximately ninety percent of the crew were saved,” it read.
The ship was a total loss and not considered worth salvaging. The Utah was partially righted in 1943 and 1944, with about a 200-foot length of rusting hulk now above the waterline. A few portholes with broken glass are still visible just off Ford Island.
But like the USS Arizona, the Utah holds the remains of the men who died aboard the ship and serves as a memorial to their bravery and sacrifice.
Often called the “forgotten ship” of Pearl Harbor, the Utah became part of the World War II Valor in the Pacific Monument created in 2006.
Sources include Naval History and Heritage Center, National Park Service, newspaper reports.
