Floyd Welch, credited with pulling 33 survivors from the USS Oklahoma during the Pearl Harbor attack. He passed away peacefully at his home in Connecticut on Monday, his family said. He was 99. "By using blueprints of the Oklahoma, so as not to burn into a fuel void, we began the long and extremely difficult process of cutting holes through the bottom steel plates of the Oklahoma," Welch wrote in a remembrance of the battle.
"When we could see the planes coming, we would try to find cover. We would cut near where we heard the trapped crewmen tapping. In all, I believe 33 men from the Oklahoma were rescued through these holes."
He is survived by his wife Marjorie, six children, 13 grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren.
May we always remember heroes such as Floyd Welch.
Fair winds and following seas, sir..........
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