By Ken Raymond and John Greiner
Staff Writers
Ira Williams doesn't know how he escaped the capsized USS Oklahoma.
In fact, he doesn't remember much about the infamous day the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.
Williams, 92, was at his 5-inch gun station in the middle of the ship when the attack began and the alarm sounded.
"The officer of the day passed the word that everybody man their guns," said Williams, who has lived in Dewey about 10 years.
"Japan was hitting us. It was too late."
There was no ammunition, Williams said. The gunners had been preparing for an inspection. He couldn't fight back.
Williams doesn't recall what happened next.
He can't remember the battle or what happened between the time the alarm sounded and the Oklahoma was hit.
"All I saw were two planes that dropped the torpedoes that hit us in midsection," Williams said.
"That's all I saw."
As the stricken ship rolled over, Williams somehow escaped.
"I'm not sure how I got out on the main deck," he said recently.
"I don't know how I got out and got topside."
Williams, originally from Kansas, spent six years in the Navy, including about 62 months aboard ships in the combat zone.
He and his wife, Bernietta, moved to Oklahoma a decade ago to be closer to relatives.
