Navy group's hall inducts Arkansan

Pearl Harbor hero honored for rescuing six sailors from sinking USS Arizona

WASHINGTON -- Five weeks after he was posthumously awarded a Bronze Star, Chief Boatswain's Mate Joseph L. George was honored again for his bravery at Pearl Harbor.

The Surface Navy Association, which highlights the importance of surface warfare capabilities, inducted the late Arkansan into its Hall of Fame on Thursday evening in Arlington, Va.

George, who rescued six men from the USS Arizona shortly before it sank, will join other inductees who risked or gave their lives in defense of their country.

Hall members are examples of the "heroes, past and present, who have made an exceptionally significant contribution to the Continental Navy, U.S. Surface Navy, U.S. Coast Guard or to Surface Navy Warfare, whether as a member of the armed services or as a civilian," the organization states.

The list includes Capt. John Paul Jones, the Revolutionary War hero; and Admiral of the Navy George Dewey, who helped lead the U.S. to victory in the Spanish-American War.

George, who died in 1996 at age 80, is buried at Little Rock National Cemetery.

His daughter, Joe Ann Taylor, traveled to Washington, D.C., to attend Thursday's ceremony.

"It feels wonderful to know that his story's being told," she said in an interview.

The Cabot woman, who traveled to last month's Bronze Star ceremony at Pearl Harbor, said it was a breathtaking experience.

"It was more than perfect. We couldn't even have imagined it would be this wonderful," she said.

She was joined at the medal ceremony by two of the six men her father rescued: Donald Stratton, 95, of Colorado Springs, Colo., and Lauren Bruner, 97, of La Mirada, Calif.

After returning from Hawaii, she took the medal to her father's and mother's gravesites. "I wanted to share that moment with my parents out there," she said.

Film crews in recent weeks also have visited George's final resting place.

A coming documentary, with narration by actor Gary Sinise, will highlight her father's heroism, she said.

George, a Georgia native, was serving aboard the USS Vestal on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, when Japan launched its surprise attack on American forces.

The repair ship was moored to the Arizona and, like the battleship, was hit early in the bombing raid; crew members, including George, rushed to sever the lines and to fight the flames.

The bombs, bullets and torpedoes that were raining that morning doomed the Arizona, triggering an explosion that destroyed the vessel.

The infamous attack claimed the lives of 1,177 of the 1,512 men assigned to the ship.

The toll would've been even higher were it not for George's gallantry.

When sailors who were trapped aboard the Arizona cried out for help, George, a boatswain's mate second class at the time, went to their rescue.

Ignoring, temporarily, his assigned tasks, he tossed a line across the water to a handful of sailors who were surrounded by flames and barely alive.

It took several throws before the imperiled sailors were able to grab it.

Battered and badly burned, they secured the rope to their dying ship and then, hand over hand, made their way across.

Dangling 45 feet above a flame-covered sea, they traversed the 75-foot-long rope, escaping before the line was finally severed. Soon thereafter, the Arizona slipped beneath the water.

Without George's efforts, the men "would likely have perished," the Bronze Star citation stated.

Once the rope was securely fastened, before the men had made their way to safety, George rushed off to help save the Vestal.

He never met the men he saved or their families.

Taylor, Stratton and Bruner had lobbied for years, without success, for federal officials to recognize George's heroism.

Eventually their story reached the White House. In July, President Donald Trump welcomed them to the Oval Office.

Trump called George "a true patriot, a well-known man ... a total hero."

The decision to award the Bronze Star came in November after U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., intervened, Taylor said.

Gardner had heard about George's heroism, and he promised during a Veterans Day visit to the Strattons' home that he would raise the issue in Washington.

Soon thereafter, the logjam broke.

"Sen. Gardner jumped on board and took it all the way up to [White House Chief of Staff John] Kelly, and within 12 hours of talking to Gen. Kelly, they had it all done," said Stratton's son, Randy Stratton.

It was the culmination of 16 years of lobbying, he added.

Randy Stratton had promised George's widow, before her death in 2015, that he would work to get her late husband some medals.

"I said, 'Thelma ... I'm not going to stop until I get it done,' and I kept my word."

Asked what had inspired him to keep fighting on George's behalf, Stratton said, "He saved my dad's life. Without him I wouldn't be here. I just felt obligated."

Metro on 01/15/2018

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