"I got another ship for you," the officer said at last. USS Indianapolis at Mare Island. "What are you looking at?" He remembers the crewman trying to climb a ladder to escape through a hatchway on the deck. sinastria di coppia karmica calcolo; quincy homeless shelter; plastic bags for cleaning oven racks; claudia procula death; farm jobs in vermont with housing 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. He wasn't happy where he was, so he loaded up his big 12-cylinder Lincoln Zephyr and headed west. It was carrying parts of the Little Boy atomic bomb as a top secret mission and the Navy learned about its sinking four days after ot was torpedoed. "It was a big ship with a lot of metal, I'll tell you." "Three months later, I was in Korea.". war. They continued to see each other and, when Langdell left for Hawaii, they corresponded, often. We left and never fired a shot at them.". Only a few hundred people lived there then. At the time, sailors wore patches designating their rates, the enlisted expression of rank, on the right or left sleeve, depending on their assignment. The report: Oh, yes, she can cook. Today, Lou and Valerie Conter live in a two-level house at the end of a winding road on a golf course in Grass Valley, a mountain town about 60 miles outside Sacramento. alain picard wife / ap calculus bc multiple choice / did sharks eat pearl harbor victims. Large species also consume marine mammals such as dolphins, seals, sea lions, and porpoises, as well as large fish species such as tuna, mackerel, and even smaller shark species. He took up golf seriously in Palm Springs and played in the Bob Hope Classic six times, once on a team with crooner Johnny Mathis. No sharks did not eat Titanic passengers. About a month later, Japanese suicide bombers sunk the Pringle near Okinawa. He had turned down a promotion to ensign, preferring the camaraderie of the enlisted ranks. Golfers play through 50 yards from Conter's driveway. One day, he stopped for coffee at the Brown Derby restaurant in Hollywood. The crews were based on tender ships moored in secluded harbors. "That's what I want to remember. "We made friends. The band would cover all expenses for him and Doris. Their orders were lost on the Arizonawhen the battleship sankon Dec. 7. He wanted men with eyes set in the right place on their face. Langdell took a right turn instead of a left and the newlyweds didn't realize their mistake until they stopped for gas in Gilroy, about 80 miles south of San Francisco. "He called me one night and said if you won't let me come to California, I found a lady who's got a new black Buick and I'm going to move to Texas.". Someone had stacked the boxes too high and in the humid environment of the island, the cardboard had grown damp and weak. "He's there anytime I call him," Hetrick says. Now, stateside again, Hetrick reported to a Navy station in San Diego, where he met the woman who would become his wife, Jeanne. Bruner's neighbor, who has become a close friend and a source of transportation, picks the fruit to keep it from rotting on the ground. But the war was over. Five years ago, Haerry moved into a nursing home, He stays in a room on the second floor. It was the first time Randy, his son, had seen his father cry. An impressive collection of restaurant menus from 30 years of cross-country searches for used cars. He is one of nine living survivors of the Arizona and, at 97, he has amassed a lifetime of unforgettable days. "These guys were the first heroes of the war, even though the war hasn't been declared," Ray Jr. says. At Kulangsu, an international settlement on an island off the southern Chinese coast, Anderson's unit ran into the French Foreign Legion, who had been cornered by Japanese soldiers on a high ridge. He had turned 90 and was starting over again. "I don't think we'll ever be able to swim to shore. Today, he tries to pass on what he knows to students of history. Haerry sailed on Navy ships through World War II and again during the Korean conflict. He grew up in New Jersey and after high school, enrolled at MIT in Boston. As the boat heaved, the man with the ax missed and hit Haerry's hand, nearly severing it from his wrist. Using its sonar equipment, the ship fired depth charges and eventually sank the enemy submarine. Many have since died. The Navy began assigning sailors to new postings. "We got into San Francisco," he says, "and they never even opened my bags. His service on the Arizona also seemed to give him added credibility among the young sailors. 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. "It gets your breath when you first see it," he says. The venture was working out well. He introduced him to other officers. He stayed aboard the Solace about a month. He didn't have to pay for dinner. Lots of men brought home scars from World War II and Korea. One day, a Navy officer came on board and asked if anyone wanted to volunteer for an assignment in the aviation section. Posted on . 9. . He would draw out snippets and stash them away, collecting them until he would weave the barest narrative. He stopped in the small town of Payson, Utah. He worked his way up to crew chief on a squadron of B-26 bombers, After 18 months overseas, he returned to Langley Field in Virginia. We all have to remember that they did not die in vain.". They called the Marines out with rifles to protect the plane and the guys while we hauled it in.". 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. Stratton's eyes brighten. The bomb that shattered the Arizona's bow exploded as Cook and the others climbed out of the turret. "The only people he would talk to were either very close friends or relatives," his son says. I had one pair of dungarees and that was it, that and a towel and shaving gear.". He could see the planes were flying too low for his guns anyway, but before his crew could figure out their next move, an armor-piercing bomb detonated near the powder magazine beneath the No. His fingers were almost smooth, lacking all but a few of the swirls that create an identity. He keeps it with him when he travels. The first couple of trips back to Hawaii were difficult. The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, just before 8:00 a.m. (local time) on Sunday, December 7, 1941. In 2006, one of his sons offered to take Potts to Hawaii for the 65thanniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack. In May 1942, the Aylwin joined a task force in the Coral Sea with the USS Lexington, one of the Navy's early aircraft carriers. "Can you tell me what ship did he go on after the Arizona?" He had stopped at Pearl Harbor more than a decade earlier, on his way to a posting in Korea. "I said goodbye and left.". Enemy patrol planes spotted the ships and the raid was canceled. In the spring of 1943, the Macdonough headed north toward the Aleutian Islands, where Japan was trying to establish strategic strongholds that could control shipping lanes and thwart allied attacks on the Japanese islands. They knew the oil tanker Tippecanoe was out there, but couldn't see her. person grazed by a shark), nor incidents classified by the International Shark Attack File as boat attacks, scavenge, or doubtful. He liked the idea of working as an aircraft mechanic, so he volunteered. You have a great voice, he was told. In early January, Conter visited his young lady friend again and again, Admiral Calhoun was there. And he has watched with dismay the changes in survival training. 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). Answer (1 of 23): Before I begin this answer I must confess to a surprising degree of ignorance, I once thought myself pretty well versed in maritime history and sea lore, until I began research for this answer. They were dedicating it to Potts and wanted him to have it. By 1991, the 50th . Schenkelberg was no stranger to hardships . The tanker towed them to Adak, Alaska, and from there, another ship took the crippled destroyer to San Francisco for repairs. "We got halfway there and I told them to turn around," Conter said. He would work in the port director's office, delivering sealed packets to the captains of Navy ships. 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 . The two men not only met, they took a boat to the USS Arizona memorial and laid a wreath in front of the wall with the names of the crewmen who died on the ship. The Americans stopped the Japanese ships and wiped out some of the top officers. "I was on a date on that Saturday night with a gal I'd been running around with," he says. "It never gets easy to go back," he says. 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. He wanted one last unforgettable day. His job was to put the primer in the big 14-inch gun. Octopus. The man in the boat was from Muskogee, a town about 40 miles east of Morris. They struck up a conversation and, after a brief courtship, married. He doesn't want to answer questions about his war service, shrugging them off or insisting he can't remember the details anymore. He wasn't ready to see it all again, to sharpen the memories he'd tried to dull. He remembers when the order was given to abandon ship. The ones after that were, too. UPDATE: Bruner died in 2019. On the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, Cook was changing clothes at his locker, savoring the thought of a day in Honolulu with the $60 he'd won in a craps game the night before. There are a few personal photos on the table, but nothing from his years in the Navy. 2022-06-16 Uncategorized Uncategorized McBride reached the last man, Raymond Haerry, a 20-year-old coxswain on the day of the assault. But he became restless. Haerry had made two runs to shore on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941. Haerry says he wants lunch delivered to his room, but the nurse says no. A lot of people agree that what George did was heroic, but the Navy balks at every step, in part because George disobeyed a direct order. In 2006, Hetrick returned to Pearl Harbor for the 65thanniversary of the Japanese attack. "When I got back home, my doctors here wanted to know about my medical background," Bruner said. We got as close as 5,000 yards, which was point-blank for those ships. by Pia Peterson. Not long after he returned to Pearl Harbor near the end of the war, Anderson searched out some of the battle reports from Dec. 7, 1941. The Navy occasionally cuts away small bits of the wreckage for memorials. He spent long months on a tender, a vessel that carries equipment, parts and other supplies for ships at sea. Three years later, Ray Haerry Jr. holds the cross in his hand, fighting back tears. "They were saying, when it first started, some of the ones whose station was up here ", He traces his finger up onto the main forward mast, to the crow's nest and the bridge. 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. "One of the last ones" He talks about going aboard the Frazier. He had a ticket home to Minnesota, but decided to find a place to stay and come up with a plan. Doctors and nurses wove among gurneys, administering morphine shots and looking for the victims most in need. He had chased Japanese soldiers along the coast of China three years before America declared war on Japan. "There's the battleships there's the Nevada, the Arizona, the Tennessee, the West Virginia, Maryland, the Oklahoma. Bruner was burned over more than two-thirds of his body. He was cut loose in San Francisco and returned to Los Angeles, where he had married a girl back in late 1942. They still had to climb onto the dock and then into a truck for a short ride to a Navy hospital. He missed enough of his classes that he was finally asked to leave. "No one knew where the hell I was," Bruner says. "I really miss it.". The man walked over and looked at Langdell's name tag. He hasn't hunted in a while, though he still reloads his own ammunition on a garage workbench. 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. When she says anything, I tell her I'm catching up from the war.". 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. Everything was taken ashore and properly taken care of.". ", "Baloney," Conter replied. By the time the woman from Illinois found him, he was ready to face his past. Many veterans who survived the attack on Pearl Harbor have met over the years and become friends, particularly at the annual Dec. 7 gatherings at the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor. "Would you like to listen to it?" On the 70thanniversary of the attack, the men had been brought to the state capitol to receive new honors. 1914-1941:The mightiest ship at sea | Dec. 7, 1941: The attack that changed the world| Documentary: 'Witness to Infamy' | 2014: The final toast. As soon as he turned 18, he enlisted in the Navy. He was still adjusting to his new life in Colorado, hundreds of miles inland from his old home in coastal California and more than a mile higher in elevation. The treaty also gave the US Navy exclusive access to use Pearl Harbor as a coaling and repair station. did sharks eat pearl harbor victimshavelock wool australia. He and Evelyn had their first son, Ray, Jr., in 1947. We were going to have a date the next day. His story is always in demand, though he'd just as soon not tell it in front of a lot of people. It is dated Dec. 21, 1941. Nope. Were there sharks Pearl Harbor? The attack was devastating for the Americans, though the Japanese . The marching band had been invited to fly to Pearl Harbor and perform at activities commemorating the 70thanniversary of the attack. In 1967, Conter retired from the Navy. No one among the groups knew where he was or what he was doing, but the woman persisted. "I'd already sent word, even before the first one got there," he says. Handout . He looks forward to his time with the guys from his years in the Navy. The Coghlan left San Francisco in September 1942 and sailed toward Pearl Harbor for an assignment. The offshore diving business could leave its own kind of scars. A year after World War II ended, Haerry went home for a while and married a girl he'd met not long before. pearl harbor 1941. uss arizona. One morning, he was at his desk, catching up on paperwork, when he heard a vehicle screech to a halt outside. The smell of burned skin filled the air. The ship accompanied General Douglas MacArthur to the Philippines and was anchored in the harbor off Nagasaki, Japan, when the second atomic bomb exploded. He has been telling his story to an author, Ed McGrath, who is working on a book and a film about Bruner's escape from a collapsing tower on the ship. Pearl Harbor Warbirds offers the best Hawai'i flight adventure tours available. A clerk tried to complete the process, normally a routine, if messy, step to secure the permit. For a long time, he didn't think he would ever return to Pearl Harbor. "He saved six people's lives. At 93, he is one of the last survivors ofthe attack on the Arizona. He asked if Jeanne could come with him. "That's what I'm catching up now. Within a day or two, someone came into the ward and said a few of the wounded would be sent to California. "I decided I'd do whatever they told me to. Not war stories, usually, not unless one of them has had it out with a doctor or a pushy clerk. Now, some courses require less than a week of field time. Here's what he revealed: The USS Arizona (BB-39) burns after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Anderson went aboard the USS Edsall, a destroyer that supported various military action at sea and ashore. She was attending an art academy to learn dress designing. I said, 'You send her over, I'll re-enlist.' Posted on December 7, 2021, 5:08 pm. LaRocque took Anderson to San Pedro, where his current ship was anchored. Of the 1,196 men aboard, 900 made it into the water alive. Soon, he became one of the earliest TV weathermen and an evening fixture in Roswell homes, or at least those with televisions. He describes the store of booze they pulled out of safe and the money. He squeezes past the pool table, past the photos and the maps and the medals. "I bought it at the receiving station in Pearl Harbor. That was the way it was.". Except the cap. He started chatting up a regular customer, a contractor, and got a job building houses. Oceanic whitetip sharks killed many of the surviving crew in the biggest attack on humans ever recorded Credit: Getty - Contributor. He keeps up with what the military does, and some of it irritates him. ", "You will go to the Arizona and you will take off all the bodies and body parts above the water line," the man said. He asked his brother, Ted, to visit Libby and see if she could cook. Just stay together, hold hands and kick slowly 'cause there'll be sharks around. He called back a few days later. Langdell says only this: "It took two days to take all the bodies. He found a report by a gunner's mate. The job paid $700. Afterward, Langdell sought out other survivors who had formed reunion organizations. Peeling potatoes. His own battle station was beneath the gun turret shattered by the last bomb to hit the Arizona. As they talked, Ray mentioned that his dad had been aboard the Arizona. He asked for volunteers. Salvage work would begin soon on others. "We don't think you'd make it. 12/28/2016. All but one of the Pacific fleet's battleships were in port that morning, most of them moored to quays flanking Ford Island. Two deer racks (his wife shot one, his son the other). "We said we'd volunteer if they'd put two or three of us together on the same ship," he said. Cook was discharged in 1948 in San Diego and stuck around California, where he worked as a metal finisher at Van Nuys manufacturing plant. I couldn't.". An aerial view of "Battleship Row" at Pearl Harbor, photographed from a Japanese aircraft during the the bombing. He was promoted to Lieutenant Commander in February 1954, the rank he held until he retired. Photographs. The Tennessee took hits in the attack, but two of the armor piercing bombs, the kind that sunk the Arizona, failed to detonate. As the war with Japan intensified, the Navy was building new warships as fast as it could. There, he lost his twin brother, "It was a bloody catastrophe, a bloody mess," he says. he said. BuzzFeed News Photo Editor. He agreed to play it on his show. World War II veterans are a special breed, Lt. Col. Denis Riel said as the men accepted the medals. 2023 www.azcentral.com. Anderson grew up in the Red River Valley of northern Minnesota, the son of a prominent local judge. "We'd send two guys out to knock the icicles off the guns, then they'd high-tail it back in. Finally, after a few weeks on the tanker, Potts was handed a new assignment. Conter's crews flew missions across the South Pacific: New Guinea, Borneo, New Britain, the coast off Perth, Australia. Then they'd go by.". Be immersed in the details of the infamous attack on Pearl Harbor and . "Hi," he said, introducing himself. "So they knew.". He clashed with the station manager of the radio station and finally quit. Potts was based out of the port director's office there were two, one at the harbor, one on the ninth floor of the Aloha Tower in downtown Honolulu but he logged most of his hours at the controls of the motor boat, a Jeep or a station wagon. He still tools around town in the truck, but it's a classic now, so he drives it almost as often to car shows. This time the objective was clear. Hetrick thought about it. We swept the decks and took the small bones. Cook stood on a shelf in the gun mount with his big binoculars and watched the Marines raise the flag to mark the U.S. victory. And my co-pilot, Lou Conter, saved my life. Stratton hesitated, then confirmed her suspicion. The fireball from the explosion engulfed the six men in the box and trapped them. Conter and others in his group boarded a boat to go out to the platform and see his old ship. The face plate is glass and around the bottom are screws that would secure it to the diving suit. "We were told to watch out for them, these guys were assassins," Anderson said. "It didn't take me that long. By winter, temperatures plunged below zero. Sentiment ran high against the Japanese, he said, but also against U.S. leaders whose decisions many questioned in the aftermath. Medals. Photographing survivors of the battleship USS Arizona. After high school, Langdell enrolled at Boston University, working nights to pay for his classes, and in 1938, he earned a degree in business administration. Each of the six men were at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, when Japanese planes swarmed the Navy fleet in an ambush that would provoke war. In 1949, the newly created U.S. Air Force was trying to fill it out its ranks with experienced support crews, almost begging for mechanics who knew the aircraft.