Early on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, 19-year-old Electrician’s Mate Floyd Welch was pulling together the microphone and other equipment for church services on his ship, the U.S.S. Maryland, anchored, with a sister ship, two by two, along one of the inlets at Pearl Harbor.
Within a half hour of noise, confusion, and alarms, he and his 1,000 shipmates were at battle stations. Where he stood through the smoke on the forecastle, he saw a battleship lying on her side.