December 7, 1941 was, until September 11, 2001, considered the most deadly attack on American soil. 188 U.S. aircraft were destroyed; 2,402 Americans were killedand 1,282 were wounded. Of those killed, 2008 were Navy Personnel, 218 were Army, 109 were Marines, and 68 were civilians
Legend has it that General Isoroku Yamamoto wrote in his diary about the attack, ‘I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.’ Indeed, of the 8 battleships that were attacked; all but one were salvaged. Six of those battleships went on to fight in decisive battles later in the war. The USS Arizona alone was lost forever as a ship of war, though it remains as the most significant memorial of the attack.
It is widely acknowledged that the attack on Pearl Harbor prompted the Navy to rely more on carriers, most of which were at sea and therefore not present at Pearl Harbor on December 7th. In fact, six months later at Midway, those American carriers sank two-thirds of the Japanese carrier fleet, striking a fatal blow to the Imperial Japanese Navy.
LT Beezley would go on to serve in Bougainville, Guadalcanal and the Solomon Islands. He retired in 1958 with a distinguished military career. But the attack on Pearl Harbor haunted him every day. Carol recalls of her father, ‘Mom said that prior to the war, Dad was happy-go-lucky but when he returned stateside in 1945, he had changed. He had witnessed the attack on the USS Arizona and lost many close friends who he had been with day and night for many years. He spoke very little about the war, and spent many hours reading.’
**Photo, Carol Beezley, her mother Frieda and father, LT. Joy Beezley on his retirement from the Navy.
