Father Al Schmitt: The Catholic Hero of Pearl Harbor

December 7th, 1941 is a date that is stamped permanently in my memory, thanks to the opening line of FDR's excellent speech on December 8th, 1941: "Yesterday, December 7th, 1941---a date which will live in infamy---"
If you haven't heard this speech, I encourage you to look it up on YouTube. There are plenty of audio and video recordings of the speech there. Today, on National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day and therefore the 81st anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, I'd like to honor a brother of Christ, who now (hopefully) enjoys eternal life with God in the Kingdom of Heaven. This fellow Catholic was a hero of Pearl Harbor. One of many heroes that day, in fact. I've already you told his name, because it's in the title of this blog post. This is his story.

Father Al was a Navy chaplain stationed aboard the USS Oklahoma. On that fateful morning, he had just finished saying 7 AM Mass in the hold when the Japanese commenced their attack. He was getting ready for his day when three torpedoes hit the ship in rapid succession. Within ten minutes of the first strike, the ship began to capsize. Men were trapped in the hold and the compartment began to flood with water. The only way out was a small porthole. Father Al pushed about a dozen men through the porthole one by one. When all 12 men were out, they began to pull Father Al through. He made it partly through when he heard men behind him and told the 12 free men told push him back through. They warned him that he wouldn't come back out, but Father Al insisted that they push him back through. In his final moments, he tended to sailors who had come into the hold. Father Al Schmitt went down with the ship.