U. S. S. WHITNEY RESTS BEHIND TORPEDO NETS IN PEARL HARBOR, APRIL 17, 1942.
so everybody was getting ready to head ashore and spend what they had. I was getting paid thirty dollars a month at that time, but we all called ourselves rich on pay day. Needless to say, thirty dollars never lasted long.
After breakfast, about half our fleet was getting ready to go ashore. I was planning to go later that day, but the first shore boats were preparing to leave at 8 a. m. I’ ve often thought about how much more devastating the Pearl Harbor attack might have been if they had waited a bit longer and all these boats had been landing. Fortunately, it happened just a few minutes before the shore boats left and everyone was able to man their battle stations.
Aboard the U. S. S. Whitney, we were positioned in the northeast of the harbor, approximately two miles from the shore. At this position, we had a clear view of everything that was going on, but there was little we could do to influence the battle. All the ships were given orders that if anything should happen we would do whatever we could to get our ships out of the harbor. Our captain had the same orders, but our movement was somewhat complicated by the fact that we had four destroyers tied up next to us and they all had to get unhooked and moving, which took a little time. Three of the four destroyers were able to get their aircraft gunners manned with three-inch, 50-caliber guns, and get into the action a bit.
We received our orders to move out, but because of all the activity among the destroyers and ships around us, we were tied up and ultimately told to stay put. The ship commanders were mostly able to get their destroyers moving and there was one going out in the channel with guns blazing, before they were hit and caught fire. The fire crews responded as quickly as they could because they knew the channel was so shallow that if you sunk a ship in it, nobody could go in or out. Of course, the Japanese knew this too. They had good intelligence on what was going on and how to complicate our movements.
The U. S. S. Nevada battleship had a fire going on both ends. The Japanese wanted to sink the ship in the channel, but the commander was smart and turned the ship around and ran it into the ground. As a result, he saved it, and later they were able to re-commission the ship. He used his head because he realized what they would do if he got stuck in that channel. There were an untold number of brave actions performed that day by sailors, marines, and army men.
Everybody had been drilled assuming that if anything like Pearl Harbor occurred, there would likely be a landing of some kind. Typically in war, there would be a bombing on the shore and that would be followed up with a ground invasion. So that’ s what we’ d anticipated and what we were looking for. Fortunately, it never happened and the Japanese didn’ t proceed that way. They weren’ t prepared for a ground landing as it turned out, but that’ s what we were all alerted to while we were still trying to care for the problems posed by the Pearl Harbor bombing, including addressing severe damage to several ships.
You did what you had to do is what it all amounted to. I can say that the sailors, for the most part, didn’ t have to be told what to do. They could see what needed to be done and they did it.
The next day, we went back to Ford Island, a small island in the center of Pearl Harbor, to assist with the repair and recuperation of some of the ships that were badly damaged. We had full electrical power, and so we were able to run lines over to them so the electricians could hook up before we moved on to the next one.
8 AMERICAN VALOR QUARTERLY