My heart was full of joy that night; I’d just received good news:
I’d learned that my request for flight training had been approved.
That night was warm and the sweet scent of flowers filled the air.
As we sat in the Bloch arena, Navy bands for battle did prepare.
Bands from the Tennessee, the Pennsylvania and the Argonne played.
and no one in that audience gave a thought to an air raid.
Pearl Harbor was too shallow for torpedo planes to strike.
Or so we had been told and did believe till morning’s light
I’d had an ice cold beer (or two) to celebrate my good news.
My shipmates from Arizona sat beside me in the pews.
Our ship’s band was believed to be the finest in the fleet.
The surviving band tonight would be the foe they had to beat.
The golden sun had long since set in the Pacific sea.
Perhaps that was a harbinger of what was yet to be.
In just a few short hours hence did hell on earth arrive.
Though I was thrown from the burning deck, no band members survived.
The Arizona sank so fast; Eleven hundred died.
I watched from the oil-slicked water as their second wave arrived.
This was the day of infamy that entered into lore.
The last sweet strains of peace had been played the night before.
( This poem is told from the point of view of Louis Conter who was an able ****** on the USS Arizona and who had just been accepted into the Naval Flight training program. He survived the attack on Pearl Harbor and served in the war as a Navy pilot.
PEARL HARBOR (NNS) -- The U.S. Pacific Fleet Band honored the members of U.S. Navy Band Unit (NBU) 22, the last band to ever serve on the battleship USS Arizona, during a commemoration concert at the USS Arizona Memorial Visitor Center at the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument in Pearl Harbor Dec. 5.
According to U.S. Pacific Fleet's website, the following is an account of NBU 22's activities prior to and the day of Dec. 7, 1941:
"On the night of Dec. 6, 1941, there was a band competition called the 'Battle of Music' at Bloch Arena on Naval Station Pearl Harbor. It featured Navy bands from 'capitol ships' homeported in Pearl Harbor and those attached to shore installations in Hawaii. The USS Arizona band had already won the first round Sept. 13, 1941, and was not scheduled to play again until the final competition.
During the elimination tournament on the evening of Dec. 6, bands from the USS Pennsylvania (BB 38), USS Tennessee (BB 43) and USS Argonne (AG 31) competed against one another. Several members of the USS Arizona band attended the contest to see their upcoming competition and to visit with School of Music shipmates in the Tennessee band.
On the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, while the band from the USS Nevada (BB 36) played 'Morning Colors,' the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor occurred. The entire USS Arizona Band, while at battle stations passing ammunition under gun turret number one, was killed in the attack. In the weeks to follow, all the bands that had participated in the 'Battle of Music' voted to posthumously award the tournament trophy to Navy Band Unit 22, renaming it the 'Arizona Trophy.'"
