In the Autumn of 1941 USS Arizona (BB-39) based at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii had three Vought OS2U-1 Kingfishers assigned to it from the First Section of Observation Squadron One, VO-1. They were 1-O-1, BuNo. 1595, 1-O-2, BuNo. 1596, and 1-O-3, BuNo. 1597.
On September 6, 1941 two of the aircraft, 1-O-1 and 1-O-3, were photographed during a morning aircraft launch and recovery exercise.
1-O-1 taxies on Arizona's port side waiting for the recovery hook on the aircraft crane. The pilot was Lt.Crd. Welton D. Rowley, CO of VO-1. Rear-seat man, RM2 E.L. Higley, prepares to go out on the plane's wing to hook up the aircraft to the battleship's crane for recovery.
Some of the hazards in this "routine" seagoing evolution are evident as the rear seat man of 1-O-3 struggles to get the lifting hook from the shipboard crane steady before attaching it to the lifting ring on the aircraft behind the pilot's seat.
The pilot of 1-O-3 on September 6, 1941 was Ensign Lawrence A. Williams, (AV) USNR, who was killed in action during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The rear seat man was RM3 Glenn H. Land, USN, who survived Pearl Harbor and the Pacific War, and is one of 23 Arizona survivors still alive in 2009.
The BuNos were actually 1695, 1696 and 1697.
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