Last survivor of the USS Arizona that was sunk at Pearl Harbor is laid to rest with his crew-mates as divers take his ashes down to the ship and veterans gather on the anniversary of tragedy
Lauren Bruner, who died in September at the age of 98, was one of the last few survivors of the Japanese attack on the USS Arizona in 1941
A few years before his death, he made arrangements with the US Navy and the National Park Service to have his remains interred in the ship’s hull
He was the second-to-last sailor to escape the burning ship during the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor 78 years ago
Bruner will be the last sailor to be interred inside the USS Arizona, joining the remains of 44 shipmates who survived the attack but wished to be laid to rest at the site
Divers brought his ashes down to the ship’s hull during a solemn ceremony at the USS Arizona Memorial on Oahu on Saturday
Some 30 World War Two veterans and 2,000 members of the public took part in commemoration ceremonies on the anniversary on Saturday
The anniversary ceremony also remembered the victims of Wednesday’s attack at the base when a US Navy sailor shot and killed two civilian Department of Defense employees at the shipyard before taking his own life
ARIEL ZILBER
DAILYMAIL.COM
8 December 2019
One of the last American crew members to escape the USS Arizona during Pearl Harbor had his ashes interred inside the ship’s wreckage on Saturday.
Divers took an urn containing Lauren Bruner’s ashes down to the wreckage on the 78th anniversary of the bombing in Hawaii. Bruner, who died in September aged 98, had asked that an urn with his ashes be placed inside the Arizona’s sunken hull upon his death.
He was the second to last person to jump from the burning ship before it exploded and sank. The Arizona now rests at the bottom of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
Of the ship’s 1,512 crew, 1,177 were killed – more than half of the 2,335 killed in the overall attack on the naval base.
The anniversary ceremony also remembered the victims of Wednesday’s attack at the base when a US Navy sailor shot and killed two civilian Department of Defense employees at the shipyard before taking his own life.
Petty Officer Gabriel Romero, 22, killed 32-year-old Vincent Kapoi Jr. and one other civilian employee before turning the gun on himself in the attack. A third victim is still recovering in hospital.
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