75 years later, USS Arizona band remembered

Two rows of uniformed band members stood on the USS Arizona's fantail warming up, waiting to play the national anthem at 8 o'clock sharp on a sunny morning 75 years ago.

They held trumpets, saxophones, trombones, drumsticks. Among them was Gerald Cox, a clarinetist born in Viroqua, Wis.

More than musicians, they were friends who had met in the U.S. Navy's music school. More than half were teenagers, a few were married, many were the sons of World War I veterans. Most were still making payments on new musical instruments.

They didn't get to play a note of the "Star-Spangled Banner" that morning.

Japanese dive bombers began swooping down out of the sky a few minutes before the colors could be posted. All 21 band members dropped their instruments and ran to their battle stations below decks. They had been trained as ammunition handlers in the event of an emergency.

When the Arizona blew up a few minutes later, 1,177 men on board the battleship lost their lives. Among the casualties was the entire band.

Much has been written about the Pearl Harbor attack on Dec. 7, 1941, but the story of the band has been virtually lost.

It was the only U.S. Navy band that formed, trained, transferred to a ship, competed against other bands, fought in combat and died together.

"They could see the planes with the Rising Sun and they were shooting at them. They knew it wasn't a rumor anymore" that Japan would attack America, Molly Kent, 95, said in a recent interview from her Kansas City, Kan., home. Kent is the author of the 1996 book "USS Arizona's Last Band."

Kent's only sibling, her younger brother Clyde Williams, played cornet in the Arizona band. His body was never recovered.

Rigorous audition

Navy Band No. 22 was formed in May 1941 with 20 members and a bandmaster, Fred Kinney.

All the musicians had excelled in music in high school, winning state competitions, many playing in other bands and orchestras in addition to their school ensembles. All played several instruments. Two had formed their own professional dance bands; several had attended college, majoring in music.

Each had to go through basic training at Naval Station Great Lakes in northern Illinois, and pass a rigorous audition because only accomplished musicians were accepted into the Navy School of Music in Washington, D.C. At the school, new recruits enrolled in classes in harmony, musical theory and ear training, and had instructors for private lessons on both their major and minor instruments. As apprentice seamen they were paid $21 per month.

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Musicians in fleet bands stationed on ships had to be versatile — playing military music in the morning, jazz at noon and symphonic numbers at night, according to Kent. On board they were responsible for all music played on their vessels — performing for their shipmates during lunch and dinner — as well as additional performances on shore. They ate and bunked together in a compartment on the second deck and spent their non-performance time rehearsing and arranging much of their own music.

After graduation from the Navy School of Music on May 23, 1941, they shipped out and boarded the Arizona while it was docked in Long Beach, Calif., on June 17. Replacing a band of older musicians, they played a concert shortly after boarding their new home and got an enthusiastic response from the younger sailors who appreciated the new group being able to play popular jitterbug and modern dance music, Kent wrote in her book.

The musicians were a varied lot. They came from the Midwest, the South, and both coasts; they were golfers, boxers and singers. But on the ship they became a cohesive unit, even inventing nicknames for each other — Chow (short for Chowhound) for Ralph Burdette, a still-growing 6-foot-tall french horn player; Buttercup for Oran Brabbzson, a french horn player who suffered severe sea sickness; Casanova for Wendell Hurley, a clarinet/saxophone player and ladies man; Scrooge for Jack Scruggs, trombone and accordionist.

Born in Viroqua in 1922, Jerry Cox and his parents and younger sister moved to East Moline, Ill., in 1939. His father, Nathaniel, a welder, played guitar. Cox graduated from East Moline High School in 1940 and within months joined the Navy.

His nephew David Nielsen thinks Cox, whose family was of modest means, was attracted to the Navy's strong music program so he could support himself as a musician at a time when the nation was still coping with the Great Depression.

"I think he had an opportunity to advance his musical education. Back then, doing an audition and getting into the military music program was almost like getting into Juilliard or another top-notch musical program," said Nielsen, whose mother, Jean, was Cox's only sibling.

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Fourth bomb

By the fall of 1941, swarms of new sailors had descended on Hawaii as the U.S. ramped up its military presence in the Pacific. Most were teenagers with no money, which meant they spent much of their free time on their ships. To keep the men entertained, the military organized sporting and music contests. Among the competitions was the Battle of Music featuring 17 Navy bands and one Marine Corps Barracks band. Every other Saturday night four bands competed, with the winner chosen by audience applause.

Arizona's band qualified for the finals on Nov. 22, but many of the band members attended another qualifying competition on the night of Dec. 6. They were eager to see the USS Tennessee's band perform because they had graduated from music school together. The Tennessee band joined the Arizona among the four finalists, to compete Dec. 20.

The contest and dance ended before midnight. Earlier in the day many had cashed their paychecks and rushed to buy Christmas presents and mail them to their families. The Arizona band was awakened at 6 the next morning, a half hour later than usual because it was a Sunday.

When the bombs began falling, band members headed to the ammunition hoists for Turret No. 2, the second large gun pointing toward the bow. Standing in rows on each side of the hoists on the third deck, their job was to make sure bags of gunpowder didn't snag as they moved up from the ammunition hold.

The Arizona had been hit by three bombs as well as strafing fire, but was withstanding the attack until a fourth bomb penetrated the armor-plated deck, plunging deep into the battleship next to Turret No. 2 at 8:09 a.m. In an instant, black smoke shot sky high as the Arizona heaved up and exploded.

Most of the band members' bodies were never recovered, although Cox's body was found floating in the water a few days later. He is buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii.

Families didn't get word of their sons' fate until at least a couple of weeks later. Kent and her parents received a telegram on Dec. 20. "We knew by then it was not good news. Others in our town were getting telegrams from their boys. We didn't hear anything," Kent remembered.

Cox's family also waited a long time for word. Because Cox's body had been recovered and identified by his name stenciled on his underclothes, however, he was the first band member listed as "killed in action" rather than "missing."

"My grandparents as well as a lot of others didn't know if their sons were alive or dead. I think the shock of it was so bad they never really talked about it," said Nielsen, a retired optometrist who lives in Michigan. "Looking back now I think that it was such a significant thing that happened that it kind of derailed a lot of things in their lives. I just don't think they had as much happiness in their life."

All Nielsen has is a few photos of his uncle, a newspaper clipping of his obituary and his Purple Heart.

"I often think what it would have been like had he survived and had a nice career in music. I can just see him surviving the '40s and being involved in music in some way. Who knows? Jazz or Nashville or something like that," Nielsen said.

With the U.S. at war and Pearl Harbor digging out from the attack, the Battle of Music final was canceled. Instead band members from other ships voted unanimously to award first place to the USS Arizona's band. Several musicians said the Arizona was the best band anyway.

The trophy was permanently renamed the USS Arizona Band Trophy, and inscribed with the musicians' names. It now sits in the Arizona Memorial Museum.