By Captain Lawrence B. Brennan, U.S. Navy (Retired)
The first and last U.S. warships sunk in the Pacific during World War II were violently destroyed with the massive loss of life; both were built by New York Shipbuilding in Camden, New Jersey; both suffered fatal damage from multiple torpedoes; both capsized within 12 minutes. The battleship, USS Oklahoma (BB 37), was sunk at Pearl Harbor on the morning of Sunday, 7 December 1941, with the loss of 429 officers and men; suffering the second greatest number of casualties that morning…