Ray Pentico had reached the rank of seaman 2nd class by the time he got to the Oklahoma where he joined a crew of a thousand men. He was just 16 when the ship left the mainland for Pearl Harbor on October 1, 1941.
His captain, Howard Bode, was unpopular with the crew, but survived the attack at Pearl Harbor, but later killed himself after the Battle of Savo Island.
On December 7, the Oklahoma, in the space of 11 minutes, had 12 torpedoes launched at her by dive bombers, of which 5 struck home. The Oklahoma began to list and capsize within 15 minutes.
It is not known where Ray Pentico was on the ship at the time, but he was one of 429 men killed or missing in the attack.
Ray Pentico had just been aboard the USS Oklahoma for nine weeks.
Pentico and the 394 sailors and Marines on the Oklahoma could not be identified when they fin ally were able to get at the bodies two years later and were buried in communal graves in Hawaii.
--Pearl Harbor
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