The ‘Forgotten Ship’ will be forgotten forever. At the incredible age of 105, Warren Upton, the final living survivor of the attack on USS Utah (BB-31), has passed away. With him goes the last living link to the other side of Ford Island, where the Utah’s proud hull still rests, a watery grave for 58 of his shipmates.
He was just 22 years old when the first torpedo shook his ship. As the battleship began to list and capsize, he was forced to abandon ship. He swam through the burning, oil-slicked harbor to Ford Island, where he took shelter in a trench to escape the strafing fire of Japanese planes. He carried the weight of that morning with him for more than a century, the memory of fire, the sound of explosions, and the sight of men lost. His survival was a testament to endurance, but his passing is a poignant reminder that the generation who witnessed that day of infamy is now a memory themselves. The silent steel of his shipmates now has its final company.