Pearl Harbor: Memories of that day of infamy
Much as it hurts for veteran Ed Wentzlaff to remember the attack on the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor, it hurts more to forget.
By KEVIN GILES
Star Tribune
December 7, 2009 — 9:25pm
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Ed Wentzlaff remembers well that December morning in 1941 when Japanese warplanes screamed out of the sky to bomb his ship, the USS Arizona.
"The concussion was frightful," he told about 200 people who gathered Monday in St. Paul for a Pearl Harbor remembrance ceremony.
Wentzlaff, a Minnesota sailor, was standing on the battleship's forward deck, waiting for a Sunday church service to start on Dec. 7 at 8 a.m. Minutes later the first wave of warplanes strafed the deck. Fire and rocking explosions followed. The sky darkened with planes and smoke.