Why Did Pearl Harbor Happen? He stopped in the small town of Payson, Utah. Three days later, he and his buddy were on a ship to San Francisco and then a train to Pensacola. He spent long months on a tender, a vessel that carries equipment, parts and other supplies for ships at sea. A month after the Coral Sea battle, Cook's ship was part of the American forces in the critical Battle of Midway. During his voyage to Alaska, Cook remembers the flying fish, which stirred up the water like a torpedo wake. World War II veterans are a special breed, Lt. Col. Denis Riel said as the men accepted the medals. He had a record, a new song he was trying out. "I don't think we'll ever be able to swim to shore. An aerial view of "Battleship Row" at Pearl Harbor, photographed from a Japanese aircraft during the the bombing. "No," the worker said. Japan wanted the northern Pacific to control its shipping routes and block U.S. attacks from that direction. Why is the FBI checking up on you, she wanted to know. On a fall day in 1945, John Anderson teetered on the base of a church steeple 110 feet above the ground. He stayed on the 17thfloor of a hotel on Waikiki Beach. Clayton Schenkelberg, who was born in 1917 in Iowa and joined the U.S. Navy in 1937, died in a senior care facility April 14 in San Diego. The inscription reads "Spirit of Aloha Award, Timpview High School Marching Band.". He and a buddy would sneak off campus and hop freight trains to see how far they could get. They moved to Modesto, Calif., where he got a job driving a produce truck in the fruit orchards. The Lexington sailed out of Pearl Harbor not long after. Song's got some zip to it, he said. During construction of the memorial, the Navy sliced off pieces of the Arizona's wreckage to make room for the structure that sits above the sunken ship today. He decided to head back to the water. Anderson had finished his first day as a Hollywood stunt man. They went out for coffee afterward. Naming Pearl Harbor. The paneled room behind the door in the living room of the Provo house is filled with trophies of almost any imaginable sort. But he could not be prepared for what he found on the charred hulk of the battleship. He returned to Oklahoma again and started his own business, outfitting a one-ton Ford pickup with a winch and other equipment that let him work the oil fields. "I'd never seen so many guys with so much guts," he said. Or both. In World War II, he fought at Guadalcanal, in the battle of the Coral Sea, at Okinawa and Iwo Jima. He remembers when the order was given to abandon ship. As they talked, Ray mentioned that his dad had been aboard the Arizona. "I'm a painter," he said. Enemy patrol planes spotted the ships and the raid was canceled. Sea turtles. Haerry accepts the chocolate bars his son has brought him. Rays. When was the shark attack on the Jersey Shore? "When we got up into the Aleutians, we started banging on the Japanese that had already landed," Bruner said. John was sent from training camp in Illinois to Bremerton, Wash. person grazed by a shark), nor incidents classified by the International Shark Attack File as boat attacks, scavenge, or doubtful. Finally, the four U.S. destroyers were ordered to mount a torpedo run. For years, Stratton wore the scars from the Arizona without talking about them much. You need the exercise. "It was boring," Potts says. Their orders were lost on the Arizonawhen the battleship sankon Dec. 7. Three months before he would mark 30 years with the company, he was let go, bought out like a lot other older workers in those days. There was a tradition at the end of training that the graduates would give the chief a silver dollar. They are reminders of a moment in time he can never escape, a moment he sees again and again. And as the victims' blood spread through the water, sharks - which can smell blood up to three miles away - were attracted to the defenceless sailors, creating a feeding frenzy. Military Casualties. Once a shark finds its prey, it needs to decide on whether to eat or not based on smell and appearance. The story of the USS Indianapolis has become legendary with regards to shark attacks, and is known as the worst shark attack in recorded history. "I'm going to be back out there one of these days," Conter said, his voice wistful as he watches a foursome trying to stay on the greens. Las Vegas seems to like Hetrick. On a recent fall afternoon, Stratton ambles down the driveway and fires up the engine. Other crewmen would roll out the shell, use a mechanical device to ram it in, then load four bags of powder behind it. The day after, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared it "a date which will live in infamy," and Congress . At this one, he was looking around the room and he saw a picture of a sailor way back in the back, in a setting arranged like a memorial. did sharks attack titanic survivors. He doesn't like to talk about the attack. All but one of the Pacific fleet's battleships were in port that morning, most of them moored to quays flanking Ford Island. The Pearl Harbour . How could he say no? But Hetrick couldn't find work, so inside of six months, he signed up for the Navy Reserve. As he was packing, a buddy warned him that his possessions would be searched at the port in San Francisco. The river wound through dense vegetation, leaving 15 or 20 feet of clearance on each side of the plane. He waited for the result. Aviators most often arose from left-arm rates. Hetrick, who is 91, has outlived most of the men he knew on the Saratoga. On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Years later, at a reunion in Tucson, Cook learned that one of his buddies from the Arizona had been sent to the Lexington and was in the Coral Sea when the carrier was attacked. Nobody was expecting anything like that.". For a while, the young family lived in Puerto Rico as Haerry, now a chief boatswain's mate, drew new assignments aboard his tender. '", "Some things," he says, "you don't know about what they'll mean until years later.". Similarly, the . He needed a truck to carry equipment back and forth, so he scouted out a car lot and bought a 1965 Chevrolet pickup. Then we had to go back.". 2022-06-16 Uncategorized Uncategorized If a shark comes too close, hit it in the nose with your fist as hard as you can.". When, on July 30, 1945, USS Indianapolis was sunk by a Japanese submarine, the Navy didn't realize the ship had been lost until four days later - after which hundreds of men floating in the ocean for days had been eaten by sharks.. Toward the end of July 1945, the Portland-class heavy cruiser USS . Someone had stacked the boxes too high and in the humid environment of the island, the cardboard had grown damp and weak. I still get to the point when I'm talking about it, first thing you know, I go to bed at night, wake up and can't sleep for a week.". "I hadn't told him he was going to be individually honored that day," he says. Among those killed were over 1,700 aboard the USS Arizona, 103 . "Mr. Langdell, Mr. Langdell, you've got to come here quick," he said. -Ryan Dutcher. The day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Anderson volunteered for duty on the Macdonough, a destroyer that downed at least one of the Japanese attack planes on Dec. 7. The planes took off and landed on the water; the pilots tied up to buoys near the ship. OAHU, Hawaii (NEXSTAR) On the day that will live in infamy December 7, 1941 2,403 U.S. personnel were killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor. He joined the USS Arizona Reunion Association and stays in touch with a few of the remaining survivors. UPDATE:John Anderson diedin November 2015, less than a year after this report. dwayne johnson rock foundation contact. Once a month or so, Clarendon Hetrick's phone rings with a call from Utah. The trophy sits on a small white base that raises it above other items on a shelf. Admiral Yamamoto of the Imperial Japanese Navy came to the conclusion that for the Japanese to be victorious in the pacific, they had to destroy the . He keeps up with what the military does, and some of it irritates him. He hasn't hunted in a while, though he still reloads his own ammunition on a garage workbench. Pearl Harbor centres on a cloverleaf-shaped, artificially . Handout . It is a piece of rigging used to secure a mooring line from a ship. But he clutches the cap and puts it on as he sits in an easy chair by the window. At the time, sailors wore patches designating their rates, the enlisted expression of rank, on the right or left sleeve, depending on their assignment. Ray Jr. has arranged for his father's remains to be interred in the sunken Arizona, an honor accorded any of the sailors or Marines who survived the attack. Within a day or two, someone came into the ward and said a few of the wounded would be sent to California. Hetrick turns a rusted chunk of metal over in his hands, running his fingers along the curves and edges. The venture was working out well. Pearl Harbor was a United States Naval base on the island of Oahu, located west of Honolulu. He stayed aboard the Solace about a month. Uncle Ray was nearing the end of his career in 1937 when John and Jake both decided to enlist. During the conference, the Pringle sailed into the Mediterranean Sea and anchored in a river. Now, some courses require less than a week of field time. She was attending an art academy to learn dress designing. He had held on to it through the war. The cities were in ruins. by Pia Peterson. At his request, he was assigned to the officer candidate school in Newport, R.I. Photographing survivors of the battleship USS Arizona. They generally prefer the shallows in temperate, tropical regions, which is usually where divers and surfers come into contact with them and potentially become the victims of shark trauma. He was assigned a battle station in the No. Be immersed in the details of the infamous attack on Pearl Harbor and . Yet in a place where you couldn't cross the street without running into a war vet, Bruner was not just another ex-sailor who made it home. "It is only by the grace of God that I stand here today," he said. Tall pines tower over the house. He had a ticket home to Minnesota, but decided to find a place to stay and come up with a plan. In 1887 the harbor's military history began when the US Navy set up coaling stations in the harbor. The primer went in last, before the end of the gun was sealed shut. Servicemembers stationed in Hawaii took care of the memorial during the 2013 government shutdown: Servicemembers stationed in Hawaii treat Pearl Harbor as a living . Conter and his buddy waited for new instructions, but heard nothing. He squeezes past the pool table, past the photos and the maps and the medals. Late in the year, after an overhaul in San Francisco, the Coghlan returned to patrol duty off the Aleutians with a half dozen other U.S. vessels. When he left Morris the first time in 1939 after high school, Cook wasn't sure where he'd end up. "The Arizona was a fighting battleship," Joe says. With eyes too close or two far apart, a crewman could deliver faulty readings. Japan and China were at war again and America was trying to protect its interests without getting involved in the conflict. He doesn't need to say which Saturday night by now. He knew he was near release the day an officer came by and launched into a pep talk about the war and the Navy's role in it. "In the Army you were crawling around in the mud and everything else and I didn't want to do that.". He spent the rest of the day retrieving bodies from the harbor. Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. "The station wagon was for the captains of some of the ships that would come in," he said. he said. That summer, the ship joined others for the invasion at Guadalcanal, in the Solomon Islands, one of the first major assaults against Japan by the Americans. We can't let it happen again.". 1914-1941:The mightiest ship at sea | Dec. 7, 1941: The attack that changed the world| Documentary: 'Witness to Infamy' | 2014: The final toast. In 1940, Anderson reported to the Arizona once more, joining his brother for the first time since they had enlisted. Potts was working aboard an oil tanker, making short runs out of the harbor to refuel ships anchored off the coast. Conter's crews flew missions across the South Pacific: New Guinea, Borneo, New Britain, the coast off Perth, Australia. The body parts we put in pillow cases. Potts returned to Illinois in late 1945 to await his formal discharge, hanging out in Chicago. Stratton falls easily into the memories of his years on diving boats. He made bargemaster on a huge drilling rig, but yearned for something more interesting, so he got a job as a tender with a commercial deep sea diving business. Sharks in turn were revered because they . Amidst the rush to war following the attack, there was also the painstaking effort to recover those who had been sunk with ships like the USS Oklahoma and the USS Arizona. Photos of the ship and other survivors at reunions in Honolulu. The Navy censors would never allow such information in a letter. Here is a story he will tell, a memory he will keep. He had settled in New Mexico with his family. They traveled around the country, meeting up with other USS Arizona survivors, with shipmates from the Frazier. He wanted to interview Langdell for his project. Yes, a lot of brave men died. Lonnie had taken up trap shooting and hoped to do a little hunting back home. One day, a Navy officer came on board and asked if anyone wanted to volunteer for an assignment in the aviation section. Fire had blackened much of the structure still visible. The owner said, 'give it a name and say who are. By April 1940, the Navy seemed like a good idea and by summer, he was on board the Arizona, stationed at Pearl Harbor on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. 11 Oldest Pearl Harbor Survivors (Updated 2021) December 7, 1941 is a date that everyone in America has committed to memory. It was constructed to comply with the 1922 Washington Naval . Lou Conter is telling the story of the night his patrol bomber was shot down seven miles off the coast of New Guinea, dumping the seaplane's 10-man crew into the Pacific Ocean. In March, the crew turned back Japanese forces in the Battle of Komandorski. He had stopped at Pearl Harbor more than a decade earlier, on his way to a posting in Korea. However, larger shark species like to eat large marine mammals and large fish species, including dolphins, sea lions, tuna, mackerel, and seals. "They were very good days before the war. "I think my dad was one of the first American heroes of World War II.". The man told him later he had broken both his hips in one of the explosions and had survived only because Hetrick was there to urge him on. Calhoun quizzed Conter about his posting, his job on the ship. Pearl Harbor is a U.S. naval base near Honolulu, Hawaii, that was the scene of a devastating surprise attack by Japanese forces on December 7, 1941. His dad operated a livery stable and a small dairy and later earned money as an auctioneer. It wasn't, but the flash was a reminder, as if he needed anything more. Friends told them when the left the church, keep the water on their left. By the time they were back, the icicles were forming again and two more guys would go out.". Sight-setters and pointers would locate targets visually and determine their distance and range. Ted asks. ("Two of us with the same rank were up for the same kind of job," he said. Libby had arranged stays north of the city. Answer: Yes- in 1945, after the USS Indianapolis was sunk by a Japanese torpedo. You don't fire guns in port, so I ran out real quick to see what was happening. When she says anything, I tell her I'm catching up from the war.". Over the course of nearly two hours during the morning of December 7th, 1941, a fleet of Japanese fighters and bombers assaulted the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in hopes of crippling the US Navy for the duration of World War II. A smile spreads across his face as Dean Martin's voice fills the cab. Posted on December 7, 2021, 5:08 pm. They wouldn't send her over so I didn't re-enlist.". Why not try radio? The unprovoked attack on Pearl Harbor killed more than 2,400 Americans and struck a blow to the Navy's Pacific fleet, which had been based at Pearl Harbor. Finally, she located some of Bruner's tax records and found his address and telephone number. He met up with some of the guys from the turret crew and they hopped a boat to shore, where there was a call for volunteers to join the Navy's destroyers. The tender didn't want to be tied to the larger ship when the worst of the storm blew through. He and his wife, Doris, have lived in the same house for 54 years. This day, which marks the attack on Pearl Harbor, has come to be known as the "Day of Infamy" (derived from President Franklin D. Roosevelt's speech the day after the attack). He resumed one of his old jobs from the Arizona, piloting motor launches from the receiving station out to the Navy ships. Keeping the memories alive. As he prepared to jump off the burning ship, he took the shoes off and set them on the quarterdeck. "He's there for me. "It was like a hard jolt.". He went out to the floating memorial. They were dedicating it to Potts and wanted him to have it. As the war with Japan intensified, the Navy was building new warships as fast as it could. He had five brothers, including Jake, and four sisters, all grouped so close in age that paying for college wasn't practical for their folks. A few years after that, they left for Las Vegas, where their son, Bob, and his family help them get around. On Veteran's Day, he participated once more in a parade through Marysville, the next town over from Yuba City. He asked if Jeanne could come with him. The ship carried four 5-inch anti-aircraft guns and six half-inch machine guns, and, initially, five 21-inch torpedo tubes. A few years later, a new station owner showed Anderson his plans to start a TV station. Only 335 men survived the bombing of the USS Arizona, the mighty battleship whose loss at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, inspired a nation to go to war. ", "You will go to the Arizona and you will take off all the bodies and body parts above the water line," the man said. For 30 years, Lauren Bruner punched a clock at a manufacturing plant south of Los Angeles, a World War II veteran in a landscape crawling with them. The job paid $700. As he talks about Pearl Harbor again, other memories surface. On the morning of May 8, the fighting intensified as American aircraft tried to turn back the enemy planes. Farther down the paneled wall hangs a painting of the USS Arizona, the battleship Navy recruit Potts boarded in December 1939. He fought with other sailors in the Battle of Midway and watched the Marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima. The sky began to darken and the wind grew. We left and never fired a shot at them.". "I decided I'd do whatever they told me to. Browse 2,614 pearl harbor attack stock photos and images available, or search for world war ii or pearl harbor 1941 to find more great stock photos and pictures. "If you can stand up and stay up while we change the linen on this bed, we'll see about it.". The attack was devastating for the Americans, though the Japanese . He wasn't happy where he was, so he loaded up his big 12-cylinder Lincoln Zephyr and headed west. He got to know Alan Ladd, who had starred in a series of war movies. We cut the torpedoes loose.". Hetrick took a motor launch to the receiving station on shore, where he and other survivors were allowed to shower and given a change of clothes. He was the opening act for country superstar Hank Snow that night at the North High School auditorium. Sentiment ran high against the Japanese, he said, but also against U.S. leaders whose decisions many questioned in the aftermath. "I've gotten letters from some of the officer candidates who had my father as an instructor," Ray Jr. says. He gave Anderson the name of a contact there. The Navy captain who lived on Waikiki Beach gave a lot of parties and invited these guys. But there are moments when he knows what he did meant something. He acknowledged the wreath. "To go through that to me is incomprehensible. But he doesn't tell his story anymore, not on his own. As the boat heaved, the man with the ax missed and hit Haerry's hand, nearly severing it from his wrist. They were dead in the water.". He had turned down a promotion to ensign, preferring the camaraderie of the enlisted ranks. A pistol sits on top of his television at home. He finally found people who understood his experience. No one seemed to be in charge on Ford Island, where Cook had spent the night. I said, 'You send her over, I'll re-enlist.' All rights reserved. A tale of war and romance mixed in with history. He then spent 14 months recovering in Great . "You," the fellow said. Not war stories, usually, not unless one of them has had it out with a doctor or a pushy clerk. a director yelled. Langdell returned to Pearl Harbor in 1976. Just stay together, hold hands and kick slowly 'cause there'll be sharks around. Now, stateside again, Hetrick reported to a Navy station in San Diego, where he met the woman who would become his wife, Jeanne. Conter told the admiral he was interested in flight school, but doubted he would earn admission. "Sure, let's see it." One day, he stopped for coffee at the Brown Derby restaurant in Hollywood. "When they dropped that bomb that made our ammunition explode, it dang near broke the ship in two, so we couldn't go anywhere forward of that," he says. He is one of nine living survivors of the Arizona and, at 97, he has amassed a lifetime of unforgettable days. The Saratoga was attacked by six Japanese suicide bombers within about 24 hours. Not long after, a second plane dropped a life raft and all 10 of the crew made to shore and, the next night, back to the base. He didn't know what to tell them. alain picard wife / ap calculus bc multiple choice / did sharks eat pearl harbor victims. He still remembers the day he saw the Arizona in dry dock at Bremerton, Wash. "It was quite a sight for an old flatlander like me to see a 35,000-ton battleship out of the water," he says. The clerks decided they could not send Stratton away without his permit. "I wasn't going out there. Nope. Hotline & WhatsApp : +971556212280 | Landline : +97143873596 , +97167499398 james reynolds obituary. "We didn't hear much from the outside at first," Hetrick said. USS Indianapolis was a Portland class heavy cruiser of the United States Navy. Cook was assigned to the USS Patterson, then two months later, transferred to the Aylwin, a destroyer that had been moored at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7 and engaged the bombers as the attack began. Before the trip, Langdell hadn't talked much about his years in the war, about his time on the Arizona. Conter's plane hadn't been out long in September 1943 when enemy bullets pierced one of their rear hatches and hit a parachute flare. The ship accompanied General Douglas MacArthur to the Philippines and was anchored in the harbor off Nagasaki, Japan, when the second atomic bomb exploded. "In three days, we rescued 219 coast watchers without losing anybody," Conter said. "I just didn't want to. The ship was still a day away from Honolulu when the captain received new orders. The Coghlan approached the Aleutians in October, as winter was pushing fall aside. "The new ones, they didn't know beans.". Today, he tries to pass on what he knows to students of history. He returns his attention to the cranes and the catapults that flung the seaplanes into flight. Sometimes we never landed, but we kept the line, always watching out for kamikazes.". He still tools around town in the truck, but it's a classic now, so he drives it almost as often to car shows. June 12, 2022 . He was treated there for four months. "I went back and told my mother I wasn't going up there anymore," he said. Mess hall duty. He felt a tap on his shoulder. "Something had happened that no one could comprehend.". 9. . He was still active, so would report to the Navy Pier each morning to check a list for the names of sailors who had been given duties for the day. What do great white sharks eat in Hawaii? In his dining room in Colorado Springs, he keeps a replica of a hard diving helmet, the kind his divers used. A storm was approaching, a big one by the looks of it. Though Conter turned around the first time he ventured toward the sunken Arizona, he has been back since, to see it with other survivors. For an hour or so, the two men talk.
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