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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. 2023 www.azcentral.com. He endured what he did, he says, because that was his job. 12/28/2016. It had been shortly after midnight when their ship, the USS Indianapolis, was torpedoed and sunk by a Japanese submarine in the deepest part of the Pacific Ocean, some 500 miles east of the . Hetrick turns a rusted chunk of metal over in his hands, running his fingers along the curves and edges. The tender didn't want to be tied to the larger ship when the worst of the storm blew through. Updated: Dec 8, 2021 / 05:46 AM CST. Wherever he goes on the pickup, people ask him about his experience. We got into a run-and-gun battle. 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. Anderson had finished his first day as a Hollywood stunt man. Conter had made friends with a young lady in Honolulu. "There was a huge oil fire on the surface of the water fueled by the ships' tanks, so it created these giant fires all over the water," Nelson said. "Talk about treating you like royalty," he says. A few incidents were possible shark bites, but shark involvement was not [] From Virginia, he went to Utah, to France and then to Albuquerque, where he retired in November 1961. "It just didn't appeal to me to bring it up," he says. 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. "He's there for me. He has told her about his escape from the Arizona. He can tell stories about his years with the diving crews, but the truck has evolved into a reminder of another time. As the ships turned around, a squadron of enemy bombers appeared. One of our cruisers, the heavy cruiser, got hit and water got into the oil. The sea turned rough, tossing the ship with 40-foot swells, bouncing the vessel like a rubber ball in a washing machine. Now, Bruner prepares for his next trip in the Captain's Quarters. The worst shark attack in recorded history also happened to be a disaster for the US Navy. 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. "You," the fellow said. The ships sent up their own planes and turned back the assault. Lonnie Cook was born in this rural town south of Tulsa, not long after it was founded as a stop on the Ozark and Cherokee Central Railway. 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. "The nights up there were already short, so I didn't get much sleep," Cook says. Before the year was out, Cook was sent to gunnery school in Washington, D.C., and to the South Boston Navy Yard, where he joined the new destroyer Pringle on its shakedown cruise. LaRocque asked. He grew up in New Jersey and after high school, enrolled at MIT in Boston. Langdell lives now in a skilled nursing center. He was soon flying one of the Navy's Black Cats, a squadron of long-range patrol bombers painted black for night missions. We can't see our own ships. After about six months of training in San Diego, Hetrick returned to Honolulu and joined the USS Saratoga, the sister ship of the Lexington. 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 needed a truck to carry equipment back and forth, so he scouted out a car lot and bought a 1965 Chevrolet pickup. "I put on two life jackets," Hetrick said. He half-swam, half-walked the 70 yards to Ford Island and manned a mounted machine gun. Occasionally, they head into Okmulgee for an evening out at the One Fire, a casino operated by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. He had turned down a promotion to ensign, preferring the camaraderie of the enlisted ranks. They knew the oil tanker Tippecanoe was out there, but couldn't see her. They wouldn't send her over so I didn't re-enlist.". "We'd patrol at night. When he dies, his remains will be interred under the No. "After 36 hours, I still hadn't put in a day. He clashed with the station manager of the radio station and finally quit. The Lexington sailed out of Pearl Harbor not long after. did sharks attack titanic survivors. mailchimp archive contacts Controle dos clientes e convnios; fatal car accident loveland colorado Abertura e fechamento de caixa, Sangria e despesas; I had one pair of dungarees and that was it, that and a towel and shaving gear.". Posted on . Bass. Before the big battleship could leave Puget Sound, Anderson volunteered for another mission, joining the small Asiatic Fleet along the coast of China. In early January, Conter visited his young lady friend again and again, Admiral Calhoun was there. "I'd already sent word, even before the first one got there," he says. Haerry held the rope that connected the ships as another crewman swung an ax to cut it. He had chased Japanese soldiers along the coast of China three years before America declared war on Japan. This time the objective was clear. "I said, 'Well, come on, then,'" Marietta says, and in 1950, they wed. That's where the cross-country adventures begin. Conter was at the young lady's house one day when her father received an important visitor: Admiral William Calhoun, the commander of base force for the Pacific Fleet. "I bought it at the receiving station in Pearl Harbor. The ship was still a day away from Honolulu when the captain received new orders. Conter served on the San Pablo and Half Moon. popeyes vs chicken express; do venmo requests expire 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. The Navy loaded 5,000 bunks on board, along with a row of portable latrines, and the Saratoga sailed to San Francisco, passing under the Golden Gate Bridge with toilet paper streamers and thousands of sailors who needed something to do. On the 70thanniversary of the attack, the men had been brought to the state capitol to receive new honors. Potts was returning to the Arizona with fresh produce when the first Japanese bombers dove into Pearl Harbor. Ke awa lau o Puuloa, the bay and lochs that make up the complex most people know simply as Pearl Harbor, was once the home of the guardian sharks, Kaahupahau and her brother Kahiuka. Conter helped establish training bases in Florida and California and in 1965, he returned to Pearl Harbor to write training materials for troops headed to Vietnam. It was Sunday and some of the crewmen with liberty wanted an early start. Anderson demanded to know. The Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor began just before 8 a.m. local time Sunday morning, December 7, 1941. 9. . Five years ago, Haerry moved into a nursing home, He stays in a room on the second floor. Cook worked in California, mostly welding jobs, until the union he belonged to called a strike. Would Langdell agree to meet Abe on film? He keeps up with what the military does, and some of it irritates him. Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. Bruner, who turned 94 in November, is now one of nine living USS Arizona crewmen who survived the ship's sinking. The Navy wanted to keep him in Idaho, working with new recruits at a boot camp, but he pushed for a seagoing assignment and wound up on the destroyer USS Stack as a gunner's mate. As Conter told it, the story wasn't about punching sharks, or skulking in the jungle or chasing shadows to the waiting rescue boat. He told his story as his son, Ted, recorded it on video. Here's what he revealed: The USS Arizona (BB-39) burns after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. He remembers the crewman trying to climb a ladder to escape through a hatchway on the deck. In 2006, Hetrick returned to Pearl Harbor for the 65thanniversary of the Japanese attack. "In the Army you were crawling around in the mud and everything else and I didn't want to do that.". ", "It's a brand new destroyer, the Coghlan, DD-606," he said, "built right here in 'Frisco.". We swept the decks and took the small bones. As he talks about Pearl Harbor again, other memories surface. He has trouble remembering the past. Crippled ships still floated around the mooring posts along Ford Island. The next morning, the Arizona was still burning as oil flowed out of her full tanks. World War II veterans are a special breed, Lt. Col. Denis Riel said as the men accepted the medals. He had visited before, but this trip meant more. Ted asks. Redfish. Many places around the world are named for a stand-out feature, and Pearl Harbor is no different. It sits today in the carport outside his home. He missed enough of his classes that he was finally asked to leave. The job paid $700. 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. Minutes later, the Japanese attacked and the Arizona was on fire, sinking beneath the surface. I wasn't working for nothing.". He had held on to it through the war. 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. Nope. He was 20 when he escaped the burning wreckage ofthe USS Arizonain Pearl Harbor. Not war stories, usually, not unless one of them has had it out with a doctor or a pushy clerk. He returns his attention to the cranes and the catapults that flung the seaplanes into flight. Were there sharks Pearl Harbor? "That's what I'm catching up now. He keeps a folder of newspaper clippings, magazine stories and copies of a telegram. "It was rough weather, foggy, raining cold," Anderson said. The studios needed tough men who could handle dangerous situations. In 1940, Anderson reported to the Arizona once more, joining his brother for the first time since they had enlisted. Pearl Harbor centres on a cloverleaf-shaped, artificially . The things I don't want to remember was the blood.". "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. The man walked over and looked at Langdell's name tag. He won't talk much about the escape, or about the men who didn't make it across. One day, a Navy officer came on board and asked if anyone wanted to volunteer for an assignment in the aviation section. "OK," Bruner said. According to the History Channel, the Arizona "continues to spill up to 9 quarts of oil into the harbor each day " and visitors often say it is as if the ship were still bleeding. They could ride to the mainland then and leave for Florida. He stayed there for months. It was as if he had none. "I don't think I'll ever forget what I saw that day.". In 1971, Stratton was working long hours with a diving outfit on a nuclear power plant project not far from Santa Barbara. The ship remained anchored outside Pearl Harbor for most of a month as U.S. commanders planned their next move against the Japanese in the South Pacific. Colombia. Libby got the message. And he was allowed to visit a part of the Arizona few people ever see. He told Ray about the plans to honor Pearl Harbor survivors at the statehouse. Langdell is one of the last nine survivors from the Arizona. He was active in those groups for many years, serving as president of one devoted to the Arizona. "We'd send two guys out to knock the icicles off the guns, then they'd high-tail it back in. "Can you tell me what ship did he go on after the Arizona?" "Are you out of the Navy, Andy?" A moment passes. His mother had moved to Decatur, Ill., by then, so he followed and took a job at a hardware store. He survived, but was burned badly over two-thirds of his body. And he still likes to talk about that other young fellow from Oklahoma, the one who didn't make it home. -Ryan Dutcher. 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. 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. His new employer manufactured industrial refrigeration units. He didn't have to pay for dinner. The treaty also gave the US Navy exclusive access to use Pearl Harbor as a coaling and repair station. Three days had passed since Japanese bombers had punched a fiery hole in the Navy's Pacific fleet. Friends told them when the left the church, keep the water on their left. Rays. . They would serve together for a little over a year. "We picked up a couple of girls and made the rounds. He stayed on the 17thfloor of a hotel on Waikiki Beach. He first visited the Arizona memorial in Pearl Harbor on the 50thanniversary of the attack and has returned since. In February, the Aylwin was part of a U.S. task force preparing for a raid on a Japanese base at Raubal, on the island of New Britain near Australia. High winds could slam one ship into the other and sink one or both of the vessels. After the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom, the United States opted to construct a naval base in 1899. While this is a genuine threat to safety, it continues to remain statistically unlikely. "What's up with this one? "They agreed.". 2022-06-16 Uncategorized Uncategorized He is one of nine living survivors from the attack on the USS Arizona, the battleship he boarded in 1941 when he was 17. The Japanese-American mother, father and their three children. The only question was how Langdell would send Libby word about his arrival from Pearl Harbor. Cook made it to his battle station on Dec. 7, 1941, but the Arizona was moored in a cramped harbor and couldn't have fired the big guns even in a prolonged assault. Afew weeks after the war started, sometime in early 1942, Potts opened a letter from his mother. Seventy-three years later, he is one of just nine survivors of the attack on the Arizona. He squinted and thought about where he was. "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.". I guess he'd do anything he could for me. An electro-mechanical computer would aim the guns. USS Indianapolis at Mare Island. He was at a restaurant last summer and someone noticed his USS Arizona cap. Three years later, Ray Haerry Jr. holds the cross in his hand, fighting back tears. The telegram, which misspelled Conter's last name, promises further information and asks his family not to divulge Conter's posting. / Reuters. They bought a small ranch and, while Lonnie continued to work welding jobs, they grew walnuts, almonds, peaches, apples, nectarines, cherries and grapes. She was attending an art academy to learn dress designing. His younger son believes the experience changed his dad forever. The Black Cats flew surveillance, search and rescue, sea patrol, but they proved especially valuable for nighttime assaults and nuisance raids on Japanese submarines and ships. When he returned home, he got another call from the band director. Then they'd go by.". He was soon aboard the USS Frazier, which left the shipyard at San Francisco in July 1942. ages 2, 3 and 8, together with a 14-year-old cousin . He was in the studio on Valentine's Day 1955 when a nervous young man walked in. A while back, Stratton and his wife Velma retired to Yuma and lived there about 15 years. "Remember Pearl Harbor!" became a rallying cry for the U.S. during World War II. 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. Helpless, I watched your bomb sink the Arizona in nine minutes.". 4 Comments. The offshore diving business could leave its own kind of scars. Fire had blackened much of the structure still visible. Williams was in the Arizona's band. The Frazier patrolled the South Pacific at first, but in early 1943, steamed northward toward Alaska, where Japan was trying to secure positions in the Aleutian Islands. 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 . The Americans stopped the Japanese ships and wiped out some of the top officers. Stratton logged thousands of miles of travel. Almost three decades later, he was the plant manager, second-in-command. "I said goodbye and left.". Anderson smiled. And it holds deep meaning for Potts, even though he did nothing to win it. His dad has never sought recognition for his service on the Arizona and barely talks about the day of the attack. A sailor on the deck of the repair ship Vestal spotted the men and threw a line across. He's not sure he'd have learned that lesson if he hadn't enlisted in the Navy. December 5, 2021 at 11:21 a.m. EST. They are the marks of a survivor, 73 years on. Survivors' groups wanted to find all of them so their stories would not be lost. Here is a story he will tell, a memory he will keep. "I can understand that," Ray Jr. says. One day, some smaller boats sailed past. I said, 'You send her over, I'll re-enlist.' Three days later, he and his buddy were on a ship to San Francisco and then a train to Pensacola. As the war with Japan intensified, the Navy was building new warships as fast as it could. He wanted to part of it. The primer went in last, before the end of the gun was sealed shut. Sailors jumped into fires to escape sinking vessels. He was thrown into the ocean and waited 57 hours to be rescued while shipmates around him were eaten by sharks. Debris from the Arizona showered the Tennessee's stern and started fires, but the vessel stayed afloat. He acknowledged the wreath. "When somebody says get out of here and you're on a hundred tons of ammunition, well, you don't question it," he says. About a month later, Japanese suicide bombers sunk the Pringle near Okinawa. This list and the accompanying graphics do not include encounters in which a shark does not actually bite a person or board (e.g. 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. 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. "It sounded like someone shooting guns. Just stories, the kind buddies tell each other. He settled in Palm Springs and built a career as a real estate developer, buying up land for commercial and residential projects. Their ordeal . 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. His wife, Libby, who died two years ago. He wrote Libby a letter and suggested it would be a good idea if Libby visited her friend on or about a particular date. "I told the men, 'If a shark comes close, hit it in the nose with your fist as hard as you can.'". They had voted. The war's over.". Today, he is one of nine remaining survivors from the mighty battleship. He's more like family than just a friend.". "They tried to jump off. He looked for what he called medium spacing. "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.". The Japanese military had established strategic outposts in the Aleutian Islands and had its eye on Alaska. You're on your own, every day.'". Octopus. Langdell knew Libby was friends with a skater in the Ice Follies, which was summering in San Francisco. Stratton climbed to his feet and, biting back the pain, he stood and when his bed was ready, he collapsed back into it. "I think my dad was one of the first American heroes of World War II.". Hetrick saw a new opportunity and joined. The trophy sits on a small white base that raises it above other items on a shelf. Hetrick thought about it. "We don't think you'd make it. He then spent 14 months recovering in Great . Hetrick earned a Purple Heart for wounds during one of the bombing raids. ", "You will go to the Arizona and you will take off all the bodies and body parts above the water line," the man said. A pistol sits on top of his television at home. As he recounts the experience, he rubs his hands together, then holds them out, turning them over. This all changed when the United States declared war on Japan, bringing the country into World War II. The cities were in ruins. "Sometimes, we'd come back, eat, then sleep on the beach.". The fireball from the explosion engulfed the six men in the box and trapped them. "We wouldn't get much fire back and by the time they sounded general quarters, we were on our way," Conter said. He did not reach a hospital for several days, but doctors still saved his hand. I don't think sharks go that far. He asked for volunteers. "One day our boat was stacked with two dollar bills," he said. Two deer racks (his wife shot one, his son the other). "They told me the team was already picked," he said. "I witnessed your attack from Ford Island. "It's always a great thing for me to see them," he says. 5 Jun. Soon, he became one of the earliest TV weathermen and an evening fixture in Roswell homes, or at least those with televisions. Bruner was at his battle station in an anti-aircraft gun director, a metal box on the forward mast of the Arizona, when an armor-piercing bomb ignited the ship's powder magazine. Conter was talking about survival, about coming back alive. He . There are a few personal photos on the table, but nothing from his years in the Navy. "Some of the ships I was on had guys who liked to play the guitar, so I knew something about it. The planes could fly at low altitudes, then buzz upward for a bombing run, confounding enemy gunners trying to calculate speed and distance. Cook is invited to such events occasionally and sometimes introduced as an Arizona survivor. He enrolled, but after a couple of weeks, the noisy streetcars and the police sirens kept him up all night. "Cut!" After that, he steamed north to Kodiak, Alaska, where other Navy ships were trying to turn back Japanese inroads throughout the strategically important Aleutian Islands. On one mission, Haerry's tender was tied to a larger ship as the crew delivered supplies and completed maintenance tasks. "I said, 'sure, I'll take it.' north but again I'm not a shark expert. 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 describes the store of booze they pulled out of safe and the money. He looks forward to his time with the guys from his years in the Navy. On the morning of May 8, the fighting intensified as American aircraft tried to turn back the enemy planes. "I went and found the head guy and by the time I got through explaining things to him," Potts says, "my name was never on that list again.". 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. he said. After an initial run-in with the guard at the gate ("Three weeks ago, I was shooting at people and killing them and I didn't even know who they were," he growled at the guard. We cut the torpedoes loose.". All but one of the Pacific fleet's battleships were in port that morning, most of them moored to quays flanking Ford Island. An impressive collection of restaurant menus from 30 years of cross-country searches for used cars. 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. 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. Once a week, they motor on into Tulsa, where Marietta takes a china painting class and Lonnie wanders the aisles of sporting-goods stores. The Tennessee took hits in the attack, but two of the armor piercing bombs, the kind that sunk the Arizona, failed to detonate.

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