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PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii - More than 60 years ago, Russell Lott struggled to pull himself across a lifeline to escape the fiery USS Arizona. But when his life ended, it was the sunken ship he chose as his final resting place.

Lott's interment aboard the Arizona in Pearl Harbor this week was likely among the last. National Park Service divers carried the seaman's ashes below the sea to one of the Arizona's gun turrets, among the remains of his shipmates.

"It's a unique moment of closure of being back with their shipmates," said Bernard Doyle, chief ranger at the Arizona memorial. "It's a bonding through catastrophe."

Lott, of Fort Dodge, Iowa, died May 22 at the age of 83. Speakers at the memorial Tuesday said that during the Japanese attack, he was knocked unconscious by explosions that rocked the ship. When he awoke, he ripped the burned flesh from his arms and sought escape. Dangling from a 60-foot-long line stretched four stories above a cauldron of fire, he made his way hand over hand to safety.

The seaman's actions were remembered in a poignant ceremony. But it was a service attended by no relatives of Lott and few who had ever met him.

Still, those who gathered above the Arizona said the significance could not be lessened.