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“Pearl Harbor is always a solemn day for my family,” said Maydona Melton, a Marlin resident since 1991.

She was only 12 when the Japanese military attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Dec. 7, 1941. The North Texas native was listening to the radio at a friend’s house when word came of the devastating blow to the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

“It made an indelible impression on me,” she said, almost 68 years later. The brother of her young friend was to lose his life in the war that followed the attack. And Maydona herself would gain a husband in 1949 — a survivor of that grim first day when America entered World War II.

John Lewis Melton, a Sanger, Texas, high school graduate at 17, had to have his father approve his enlistment in the U.S. Navy in the summer of 1941. He signed on for the education opportunities and to see the world but found more adventure than he bargained after his ship — the USS Utah — was stationed in Pearl Harbor that fall.

Melton had just purchased a copy of Reader’s Digest and was settling on the deck to read in the early-morning sunshine that Sunday.

He could see three planes heading his way — not too unusual a sight at that hour because of the numerous training exercises going on throughout Battleship Row.

It wasn’t until Melton could make out the color of the aircraft and the insignia of the Rising Sun that he raised the alarm, going down into the ship to shout warnings about the oncoming planes, Maydona Melton said. As frantic efforts were made to batten down the hatches, the ship was hit by numerous bombs and two torpedoes, before rolling over on its side and sinking within 12 minutes. The Utah took 58 men with it to the bottom.

Escape from USS Utah

The Texas farm boy and his buddies hit the water as soon as the “abandon ship” order came down. He dropped into water coated with flaming fuel oil, so he’d swim underwater as far as he could before surfacing for a breath, his wife said. When he was clear of the wreckage and immediate danger, he was picked up by a rescue boat and brought to Ford Island, located in the middle of Pearl Harbor.

All he managed to escape with, in addition to his life, were the shorts he was wearing and the quarter in change from his purchase of the magazine.

Five of his brothers joined the military after Pearl Harbor. One, a paratrooper in the Pacific theater, died in the war.

Melton was transferred weeks after Pearl Harbor to the USS Minneapolis and served the rest of the war there, seeing action in the Pacific theater in engagements such as the battles of Coral Sea, Midway, Tassafaronga, Philippine Sea and Guam. In all, the ship received 17 battle stars for World War II service. Melton left the service in 1945 as a third class petty officer.

He died at age 77 in 2000.

Maydona Melton, a retired teacher, said that at 79, she’s working on writing a children’s book on the Pearl Harbor attack and what it means for the generations raised by the “greatest generation.”

The Utah was among the 18 ships sunk or run aground in the Japanese attack. It is often called “the forgotten ship,” she said, because for many years its final resting place was off limits to civilians. A public monument, in fact, wasn’t erected until 1972.

The USS Utah is still at her berth under water, like her sister ship, the USS Arizona. Pieces of her rusty hull peek above the waterline.

Additional sources: USSUtah.org, Maritime Quest.com, www.history.navy.mil.