He was assigned briefly to the Arizona, then to the Saratoga, an aircraft carrier, then, as the Navy tinkered once more with its troop alignment, back to the Arizona. It was the first time Randy, his son, had seen his father cry. She was attending an art academy to learn dress designing. He said, 'whatever I can get out of you.' "They gave me 30 minutes to get off the ship and catch a transport to San Diego for training," he said. The USS Arizona ballcap that almost every survivor owns and wears. He fiddles with the radio. She nods and smiles. Potts picked up the Colt 45 he'd found on Ford Island on Dec. 7, 1941. His wife, Libby, who died two years ago. Sentiment ran high against the Japanese, he said, but also against U.S. leaders whose decisions many questioned in the aftermath. 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. world war ii. He and a buddy had been talking about their future in the Navy. As a tender, he stayed on the surface, monitoring the divers working on rigs, piers, pipelines, any piece of seaside or seagoing equipment. He then spent 14 months recovering in Great . We cut the torpedoes loose.". He was able to visit the national cemetery at an area called the Punch Bowl. He started on a small station, playing organ music. He was assigned a battle station in the No. "I came back to the pier one morning and my name was on the list to do KP work," he says. "We would go in with a landing party or we furnished artillery for the landing force. It took Ray Jr. years, decades to piece together his father's story. He went to work as a junior accountant for a prominent Boston firm. He finally found people who understood his experience. He and his father chat a little. Civilian Casualties. Born in 1914, seven months after the first bolts were tightened on a new battleship in Brooklyn, Langdell grew up wooded agricultural area along the Souhegan River in southern New Hampshire. He returns his attention to the cranes and the catapults that flung the seaplanes into flight. "It's one of the best actual memorials I've seen," he says. The license plate reads USS ARIZ. A mural on a white bed cover depicts the USS Arizona and the memorial that floats above it in Pearl Harbor. "Mr. Langdell," he said, "when you're done with your breakfast, you'll report to the pier and you'll be met by a motor whale boat and a party of 20 enlisted men with sheets and pillow cases. "I canned 500 quarts of fruit one year," Marietta says. Stratton climbed to his feet and, biting back the pain, he stood and when his bed was ready, he collapsed back into it. Bruner was the second-to-last man to leave the sinking ship. A few years after that, they left for Las Vegas, where their son, Bob, and his family help them get around. did sharks eat pearl harbor victims - playtcubed.com "The only people he would talk to were either very close friends or relatives," his son says. Sea turtles. He was promoted to Lieutenant Commander in February 1954, the rank he held until he retired. From the Vestal, Bruner was taken to the USS Solace, a hospital ship in the harbor. By the end of the day, had persuaded Anderson to sign up for the Navy Reserve. The Attack on Pearl Harbor - Pacific Atrocities Education Answer: Yes- in 1945, after the USS Indianapolis was sunk by a Japanese torpedo. One of the survivors would receive the Rhode Island Cross. Yes, some of them were his friends. And the ships needed experienced sailors. After so many years of travel, the Cooks have settled into a more tranquil pace. 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. It turned out most of the regular stuntmen were still in the military. Updated: Dec 8, 2021 / 05:46 AM CST. "After 36 hours, I still hadn't put in a day. Williams was in the Arizona's band. "The kids coming up now have never heard of it," he says, his voice tinged with sadness and dismay. He's not so fond of the crowds around Honolulu and doesn't plan to go back. They went out for coffee afterward. The cities were in ruins. They are reminders of a moment in time he can never escape, a moment he sees again and again. As it fell, he was thrown from the ship into the harbor. Abe offered condolences and said he prayed that all their souls were at peace. Here is a story he will tell, a memory he will keep. We left and never fired a shot at them.". Squid. "I appreciate your thoughtfulness. The body parts we put in pillow cases. Cook and the other men stayed below deck until the smoke from a fire forced them to leave. "It was like a hard jolt.". what is florentine milan straw. He visited the memorial and was relieved to see the builders got it right. The fellow told him to report to the front gate of Sam Goldwyn's studio in Hollywood on Monday morning. With eyes too close or two far apart, a crewman could deliver faulty readings. And he has watched with dismay the changes in survival training. The report: Oh, yes, she can cook. On the actual night of the Titanic, were there actually sharks Just stay together, hold hands and kick slowly 'cause there'll be sharks around. The Langdells ended up honeymooning in Monterey and Carmel on the central California coast. Langdell returned to Pearl Harbor in 1976. He hired on with a farm labor contractor and within a year, he and a guy he worked with started their own business, contracting with the orchard owners to harvest crops. He enrolled, but after a couple of weeks, the noisy streetcars and the police sirens kept him up all night. In early January, Conter visited his young lady friend again and again, Admiral Calhoun was there. Attack on Pearl Harbor - Wikipedia In 1940, Anderson reported to the Arizona once more, joining his brother for the first time since they had enlisted. A woman from Illinois drew Bruner's name. A while later, he and Marietta were on the road again, to a missile base in Sturgess, S.D., to gas lines in Wisconsin and North Dakota. A few weeks later, Conter and his buddy passed a flight test at sea and on Nov. 1, they got their orders: Report to Navy flight school in Pensacola, Fla. Two weeks later, the Arizona's captain called the two sailors in and told them the ship was headed back to Long Beach in early December. About a month later, Japanese suicide bombers sunk the Pringle near Okinawa. Before sharks became movie villains, they were celebrated in myths Back on land, Cook followed welding jobs from Kentucky and Pennsylvania to New Jersey and Long Island, west to North Dakota and Wisconsin and finally to a ranch house in Salinas, Calif., where he raised a family and stayed put for almost 30 years. One morning, he was at his desk, catching up on paperwork, when he heard a vehicle screech to a halt outside. He stayed aboard the Solace about a month. 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. "We don't think you'd make it. "Are you out of the Navy, Andy?" Sight-setters and pointers would locate targets visually and determine their distance and range. His work turned toward survival training in a new military program called SERE, for Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape. An avocado tree grows in the backyard. At dawn on December 7, 1941, more than half of the United States Pacific Fleet, approximately 150 vessels and service craft, lay at anchor or alongside piers in Pearl Harbor. He will meet three other survivors in Hawaii for their last reunion. He pushes his shirtsleeves up to show his arms. He still tools around town in the truck, but it's a classic now, so he drives it almost as often to car shows. The woman helped connect Bruner with other survivors from the Arizona and Pearl Harbor. He was at a restaurant last summer and someone noticed his USS Arizona cap. He finished his stint in the Navy in Shanghai, working shore patrol the way he did back in Honolulu. "They tried to jump off. 2 gun turret. View of "Battleship Row" during or . The six-year Pentagon project identified nearly 400 who died on the USS Oklahoma in 1941. In 1967, Conter retired from the Navy. "I told the men, 'If a shark comes close, hit it in the nose with your fist as hard as you can.'". 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. For a long time, Haerry never talked about his experiences at Pearl Harbor. 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. He saw action across the South Pacific, patrolled areas where suicide bombers were attacking American destroyers. On the other end of the line is an old shipmate from the USS Saratoga, the aircraft carrier where Hetrick worked as a mechanic through most of World War II. He wasn't ready to see it all again, to sharpen the memories he'd tried to dull. five letter words with l; jaiswal surname caste; pros and cons of herzberg theory; sechrest funeral home obituaries; curious george stuffed animal 1975; cornerstone staffing application 0 "I was always wanting to learn more when I was younger," says Hetrick's younger son, Robert, who lives not far from his dad in Las Vegas. The face plate is glass and around the bottom are screws that would secure it to the diving suit. For Haerry, McBride had a the state's highest military honor, the Rhode Island Cross. He saw Gene LaRocque, a man he'd served with aboard the Macdonough. "I thought you'd be in flight school," he said. I guess he'd do anything he could for me. He had held on to it through the war. Cook has returned to Pearl Harbor three times and he likes the Arizona memorial. His fingers were almost smooth, lacking all but a few of the swirls that create an identity. Pearl Harbor (2001) - IMDb The men helped one another, holding up anyone who weakened. The Pentagon said Tuesday it would exhume and try to identify the remains of nearly 400 sailors and Marines killed when the USS Oklahoma sank in the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. All but one of the Pacific fleet's battleships were in port that morning, most of them moored to quays flanking Ford Island. He likes chocolate and is disappointed if Ray Jr. forgets it. Conter served on the San Pablo and Half Moon. "The worst shark attack in history" - Epic Diving Her father was an engineer and a top executive for a dredging company with a big Navy contract. The ship carried four 5-inch anti-aircraft guns and six half-inch machine guns, and, initially, five 21-inch torpedo tubes. Thickets of tangled shrubs and rows of trees are visible from his window. They could ride to the mainland then and leave for Florida. 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. Anderson always talks about his brother, Delbert "Jake" Anderson, when he tells the story of his own escape from the burning ship. 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. He brought all of his family: his wife Jeanne, his three sons and their families. The song, "Hound Dog" and the singer, Elvis Presley, both went over pretty well, the way Cactus Jack remembers it. Uncle Ray was nearing the end of his career in 1937 when John and Jake both decided to enlist. Today, he is one of nine remaining survivors from the mighty battleship. After the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom, the United States opted to construct a naval base in 1899. That fateful day led the United States . He was eating breakfast when he heard the first pops of the attack planes strafing Battleship Row. One, Joe Langdell, lives about 40 miles away in Yuba City. Finally, the Navy gave him a medical discharge. Today, he tries to pass on what he knows to students of history. A platform marked the wreckage of the USS Arizona. Photographs. And it holds deep meaning for Potts, even though he did nothing to win it. Almost three decades later, he was the plant manager, second-in-command. An electro-mechanical computer would aim the guns. If the shark feels like a dead fish isn't worth its time, it will leave without wasting more energy. But he could not be prepared for what he found on the charred hulk of the battleship. "To see the people I knew back in those days," he says. He wanted men with eyes set in the right place on their face. "But it was a lot better than being shot at.". The Japanese-American mother, father and their three children. He wasn't happy where he was, so he loaded up his big 12-cylinder Lincoln Zephyr and headed west. "If somebody in authority said do something back then, you didn't question it. Langdell will return to the Arizona once more. He looks forward to his time with the guys from his years in the Navy. A sign over the arched door marks the room as "Captain's Quarters.". Hetrick turns a rusted chunk of metal over in his hands, running his fingers along the curves and edges. "That must be old Clyde Williams," he thought, the Arizona band member killed at Pearl Harbor. Doctors and nurses wove among gurneys, administering morphine shots and looking for the victims most in need. His younger son believes the experience changed his dad forever. Hetrick slept on the battleship USS Tennessee, which had been moored just ahead of the Arizona along Ford Island. He is one of nine living survivors from the attack on the USS Arizona, the battleship he boarded in 1941 when he was 17. While this is a genuine threat to safety, it continues to remain statistically unlikely. The band members had decided they wanted to honor survivors from that day. In 2006, one of his sons offered to take Potts to Hawaii for the 65thanniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack. "Next thing you know, I'm in a movie with John Wayne," Anderson says years later. "It acknowledges to people that I'm a survivor," Joe replies, his voice soft. . Haerry accepts the chocolate bars his son has brought him. He stayed there for months. He asked for volunteers. 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. "He said, 'I had survival training in the ocean. did sharks eat pearl harbor victims The survivors' group that found him was right, he has concluded: The stories of the Arizona should not die with the men who lived them. They were trying to replenish submarines or send smaller ships in. A second telegram, dated Jan. 6 reported that Conter was alive and would contact his family. He will answer questions about that December day when he escaped the burning wreckage of the Arizona, reciting as many of the details as he can remember. Conter's crews flew missions across the South Pacific: New Guinea, Borneo, New Britain, the coast off Perth, Australia. Conter told the admiral he was interested in flight school, but doubted he would earn admission. In January, another ship took him to San Francisco to the Navy hospital on Treasure Island. On Veteran's Day, he participated once more in a parade through Marysville, the next town over from Yuba City. He looked for what he called medium spacing. "He remembers body parts in the water, charred burned bodies that he swam by," his son Ray, Jr., says. Lonnie and Marietta Cook met in Morris after the war, but the road to their home here today winds thousands of miles across the country. A stunt coordinator helped pull Anderson from the pile of cigarette crates that had broken his fall. "But I had a brother in Vietnam who didn't want to talk about it at all, so I guess I realized if they want to talk, they'll talk. Minutes later, the Japanese attacked and the Arizona was on fire, sinking beneath the surface. 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. Did he ever. "We saved people on commercial ships on the seas, we rescued missionaries in the interior of China, we shot up a bunch of pirates," Anderson said. They danced. For an hour or so, the two men talk. How the attack on Pearl Harbor changed history He once helped design programs that sent soldiers into the wilds for days or weeks at a time. The smile widens. Kitchen patrol. "I said, 'Well, come on, then,'" Marietta says, and in 1950, they wed. That's where the cross-country adventures begin. He fought with other sailors in the Battle of Midway and watched the Marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima. 10 Things They're Still Not Telling You About Pearl Harbor 9 Things You Might Not Know About the Attack on Pearl Harbor Conter attended the same event and was seated next to Valerie. And he was allowed to visit a part of the Arizona few people ever see. The Navy began assigning sailors to new postings. Cook never got a chance to catch up with his buddy, but marveled at the connections he seemed to make from his short stint aboard the Arizona. The nurse who checks in on him regularly likes Haerry. He kept the truck, held on to it through repairs, engine overhauls, new paint jobs. "Lots of big band songs," Randy says, as the first bars of a brass line pour from the speakers. How remains of personnel killed in Pearl Harbor are - NewsNation He was thrown into the ocean and waited 57 hours to be rescued while shipmates around him were eaten by sharks. In 2011, he was one of six Rhode Islanders who had lived through the attack on Pearl Harbor, the only one from the Arizona. Almost imperceptibly, he sways. Oceanic whitetip sharks killed many of the surviving crew in the biggest attack on humans ever recorded Credit: Getty - Contributor. "I don't think we'll ever be able to swim to shore. Someone had stacked the boxes too high and in the humid environment of the island, the cardboard had grown damp and weak. After Pearl Harbor, Langdell asked for a posting on one of the new destroyers the Navy was set to launch. "I put on two life jackets," Hetrick said. In 1971, Stratton was working long hours with a diving outfit on a nuclear power plant project not far from Santa Barbara. He doesn't need to say which Saturday night by now. 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. ", "Baloney," Conter replied. A moment passes. Nation Observes 80th Anniversary of Attack on Pearl Harbor In late 1943, Conter flew a mission to rescue more than 200 coast watchers in New Guinea. The strike climaxed a decade of worsening relations between the United States and Japan. A clerk tried to complete the process, normally a routine, if messy, step to secure the permit. 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. "We wouldn't get much fire back and by the time they sounded general quarters, we were on our way," Conter said. he said. I asked the boss, 'how many hours is in a day for you?' Nobody could debate what that was, no question about it.". Pearl Harbor centres on a cloverleaf-shaped, artificially . I said, 'You send her over, I'll re-enlist.' Hawaii Sharks | Incidents List Soon, he became one of the earliest TV weathermen and an evening fixture in Roswell homes, or at least those with televisions. "This went on for four straight hours. He settled in Palm Springs and built a career as a real estate developer, buying up land for commercial and residential projects. The USS Shaw explodes after being hit by bombs during the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in this December 7, 1941 photo. There are over 470 species of sharks throughout the world. He ran to the anti-aircraft battery, his battle station, but there was no ammunition ready. 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. "We made so many landings," Anderson said. One day, he stopped for coffee at the Brown Derby restaurant in Hollywood. When Anderson said he was, his old friend was incredulous. Potts was working aboard an oil tanker, making short runs out of the harbor to refuel ships anchored off the coast. The sky began to darken and the wind grew. The California was way down here. Finally, the tanker spotted the destroyer. Sailors found food and shelter wherever they could. In the documentary, "The Life and Death of a Lady," Langdell and Abe speak, side by side on the memorial. He gazes at the picture. That caught the lieutenant colonel's interest. We can't let it happen again.". At 100, he is the oldest. He joined the Navy because it seemed like a better environment. The story follows two lifelong friends and a beautiful nurse who are caught up in the horror of an infamous Sunday morning in 1941. The fellow he was talking with recognized Anderson's voice and they realized they had served together on the Yangtze Patrol before Pearl Harbor. "I motioned to crane operator what we needed, what tools to send down." Anything you choose is fine. It is dated Dec. 21, 1941. Never would've found it.". He touches the diving helmet. Haerry felt the entire ship life out of the water. DES MOINES, Iowa - A World War II veteran thought to be the oldest survivor of the Pearl Harbor attack died last month at 103. Langdell arrived at Pearl Harbor along a different path than many of the young sailors, who signed up for the service because they were unable to find work as civilians. He got the west coast and I got the east coast. Anderson had finished his first day as a Hollywood stunt man. In Korea, Conter flew 29 missions, but his work in Naval intelligence left him vulnerable if the North Koreans captured him, so he was shipped to Washington, D.C. "OK," Bruner said. They met at a dance at the YWCA on North State Street. He would work in the port director's office, delivering sealed packets to the captains of Navy ships. You're the bravest man I ever know. (See Pearl Harbor Attack.) popeyes vs chicken express; do venmo requests expire There's a little air bubble. She likes the story of how they tied the knot. So he did. He spent long months on a tender, a vessel that carries equipment, parts and other supplies for ships at sea. He agreed to play it on his show. Similarly, the . He's not sure he'd have learned that lesson if he hadn't enlisted in the Navy. Langdell says only this: "It took two days to take all the bodies. Everything was taken ashore and properly taken care of.". The Navy censors would never allow such information in a letter. He did not reach a hospital for several days, but doctors still saved his hand. "It's always been my fear that people are going to forget that day, that people are going to forget the sacrifice that was made that day.". Cook made it off alive. He hasn't hunted in a while, though he still reloads his own ammunition on a garage workbench. Song's got some zip to it, he said. 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. Libby got the message. We hauled it all back in.". They offered to perform at a gathering of Utah survivors. "We took off," Bruner said, "firing just as fast as we could. He keeps it with him when he travels. Potts returned to Illinois in late 1945 to await his formal discharge, hanging out in Chicago. The Macdonough stayed until September, then sailed back on patrol in the Pacific. "It didn't take me that long. List of Shark Species and Facts - ThoughtCo Yes, a lot of brave men died. 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. "It never gets easy to go back," he says. "I decided I'd do whatever they told me to. He has told her about his escape from the Arizona. Shark Trauma - StatPearls - NCBI Bookshelf They are the marks of a survivor, 73 years on. Bruner was put in charge of the gun batteries. "I'd do it a hundred times more," he says. They traveled around the country, meeting up with other USS Arizona survivors, with shipmates from the Frazier.