Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941 -- A Tiny Few Live To Share USS Arizona Memories

Each year, around Dec. 7, Glenn Lane makes a pilgrimage. Most years he goes to Arizona; every five years he goes to Hawaii.

And always, he revisits memories of exploding bombs, burning ships and dying crewmates. Memories "so engraved in your mental computer that you can't forget it," said the 78-year-old Oak Harbor resident.

Fifty-five years ago today, Lane was on the deck of the battleship USS Arizona during the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.

He, along with 11 other Arizona survivors and about 150 relatives of crew members, are in Hawaii this week with the USS Arizona Reunion Association to commemorate the ship's 1,177 crewmen who died during the attack.

Lane remembered seeing a plane armed with torpedoes heading down the harbor that day in 1941.

"Next thing I knew, the torpedoes were dropping onto the ships," Lane said by phone from Hawaii.

People screamed, an air-raid signal blared, and then the Arizona was hit. Fires burst out all over the ship. Lane was working a fire hose when the torpedo that would sink the ship hit.

"I remember dropping the fire hose, turning around, ducking my head into my arms as the fire hit," he said. "Next thing I knew, I was in the water."

The force of the explosion blasted Lane into the harbor. He swam toward the nearest ship - the Nevada.

"As it turned out, it was the wrong place to be," Lane said.

The second wave of the attack concentrated on the Nevada, which eventually ran aground.

"We fought fires until we couldn't fight it any more," he said.

Lane and about 300 other people were expected to take part in a ceremony today at the Arizona Memorial. The ceremony honors the 2,388 Americans who died during the attack on Dec. 7, 1941. The ashes of three Arizona survivors who died in the past year will be interred in the ship during the ceremony. They will join the nearly 1,000 crewmen who were entombed in the battleship.

But this may be the last gathering at Pearl Harbor for the USS Arizona Reunion Association, which meets at Pearl Harbor every five years and yearly at the University of Arizona in Tucson, where the ship's bell is displayed.

Ruth Campbell, 71, the association's reunion coordinator, guessed that fewer than 100 survivors of the Arizona are still alive.

"But if we have enough friends or people to help us perpetuate the memory, we'll still do this every five years," she said.

In Seattle, about 50 people were expected today at a program at Evergreen-Washelli Memorial Park, organized by the Seattle chapter of the Pearl Harbor Survivors' Association. The program starts at 9:30 a.m.

More than 1,000 Pearl Harbor survivors live in this state, said Al Weddle, president of the association.

In Olympia, Gov. Mike Lowry issued a message commemorating the day, along with a list of 5,445 Washington-state veterans who died in defense of their country during World War II.

Names on the list will be carved into a proposed World War II memorial in Olympia, said Skip Dreps, legislative director of the Northwest chapter of Paralyzed Veterans of America. To check if a Washington state World War II veteran's name is on the list, call the Northwest chapter of PVA at 241-1843 or Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs at 1-800-562-2308.