PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii, March 18 (UPI) -- Taking the Admiral's barge to visit the watery grave of the Pennsylvania-class battleship USS Arizona is always emotional and moving.
Of the 1,177 Arizona sailors killed that day, about 1,100 and their commander, Rear Adm. Isaac Kidd remain trapped as the ship was sent to the bottom on the morning of Dec. 7 1941, after Japan's surprise attack. One can only imagine the horror when Arizona's forward magazine exploded.
Of the eight battleships sunk or damaged that day, all but two returned to service. The Arizona and the USS Oklahoma did not.
But what if Adm. Chuichi Nagumo, who commanded the attack, had the good fortune or cunning to wait until two of Pearl Harbor's three carriers returned to port? What if USS Lexington and USS Enterprise had been sunk instead of the battleships? (The third carrier, the USS Saratoga, was undergoing a refit on the U.S. West Coast.)
What if Nagumo had attacked Pearl Harbor's vast fuel farms, destroying the oil that powered the U.S. Navy ships and aviation gasoline for its aircraft? And what if Nagumo had gone after the submarines alongside Naval Station Pearl Harbor?
