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Hawaii News

West Loch Disaster: ‘Second Pearl Harbor’ remembered 75 years later

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Video by Craig T. Kojima and William Cole, ckojima@staradvertiser.com and wcole@staradvertiser.com
Seventy-five years ago, Pearl Harbor experienced its second greatest tragedy in what's called the West Loch Disaster. On Tuesday, West Loch Disaster survivor Joe Kelly, 99, returned to the site of the disaster.
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U.S. NAVY

Smoke billowed from vessels burning at Pearl Harbor’s West Loch on May 21, 1944.

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CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARADVERTISER.COM

Twenty-nine amphibious landing ships were clumped together and being loaded with ammo and fuel when a chain-reaction explosion occurred on May 21, 1944. West Loch Disaster survivor Joe Kelly, age 93, saluted as MU3 Tyler Reed played taps Tuesday.

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CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARADVERTISER.COM

An escort boat cruised past wreckage of LST 480 in Walker Bay at Hanaloa Point in Pearl Harbor on Tuesday.

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CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARADVERTISER.COM

Cpl. Jeremy X. Pena, left, and Petty Officer 1st Class William Wynn presented a wreath Tuesday in remembrance of the West Loch Disaster.

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NAVAL HISTORY & HERITAGE COMMAND

Smoke rose from the wreck of USS LST-480, at right, as the crews of tugs and other craft worked to put fires raging in Pearl Harbor’s West Loch on May 22, 1944.

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