Video

Video by Spc. Jaime Ruiz

West Loch Disaster Memorial Commemoration Ceremony

8th Theater Sustainment Command

May 20, 2016 | 7:07

Hawaii government officials, community representatives, and retired and active
servicemembers from all branches of the military gathered on the U.S. Army Logisitc Support Vessel 4, the Lt. Gen. William B. Bunker, for the 72nd West Loch Disaster Remembrance Ceremony,
at Joint Base Pearl Harbor - Hickam, Hawaii. On May 21, 1944, Army troops were loading ammunition, weapons and fuel onto vessels in preparation for Operation Forager, a World War II campaign on the Mariana Islands. Following an explosion, fire spread through West Loch, which was for landing ships and a staging area of Pearl Harbor. In the next 24 hours, six ships sank, 163 personnel died and 396 personnel were injured in what was the second largest tragedy of Pearl Harbor during the war.