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. 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. It is dated Dec. 21, 1941. 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. He had stopped at Pearl Harbor more than a decade earlier, on his way to a posting in Korea. "That's what I want to remember. He built a reputation as a guy who could bring in the harvest on time. Before the attack, many Americans were reluctant to become involved in the war in Europe. Langdell says only this: "It took two days to take all the bodies. Three days later, he and his buddy were on a ship to San Francisco and then a train to Pensacola. Alcohol. He ran to the anti-aircraft battery, his battle station, but there was no ammunition ready. During the conference, the Pringle sailed into the Mediterranean Sea and anchored in a river. Coast watchers were military intelligence operatives who gathered information about enemy activities on islands across the South Pacific. The countries of Japan and The United States had been at odds for several decades before the attack on Pearl Harbor on the morning of December 7, 1941. I'd been told things like that before. "I told the men, 'If a shark comes close, hit it in the nose with your fist as hard as you can.'". "He said, 'I had survival training in the ocean. Stratton falls easily into the memories of his years on diving boats. But John Anderson, the Navy chief petty officer who called himself Cactus Jack on the air, had a good head start already. 2 gun turret. 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. "It ain't worth a damn if it ain't loaded," he says. Dec 12 2014. He told Ray about the plans to honor Pearl Harbor survivors at the statehouse. One day, some smaller boats sailed past. "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.". "He was out to sea nine months out of the year, only home for three months," Ray Jr. says. "We had to have two crews, a regular crew and a stand-by crew lined up waiting," Bruner said. After he returned from Korea, Haerry was promoted to master chief petty officer, signifying his experience and level of service. Cook is invited to such events occasionally and sometimes introduced as an Arizona survivor. "They said, 'If you re-enlist, we'll send her over.' Photographing survivors of the battleship USS Arizona. As each name was read, Rhode Island National Guard Maj. Gen. Kevin McBride presented the man with the Rhode Island Star, one of the state's highest military honors. Haerry nods and like a good sailor taking orders from the chief, he pulls himself up with a walker and shuffles off to lunch. June 12, 2022 . He wasn't happy where he was, so he loaded up his big 12-cylinder Lincoln Zephyr and headed west. At the time, sailors wore patches designating their rates, the enlisted expression of rank, on the right or left sleeve, depending on their assignment. His kids and grandkids. @webtv.net wrote in message. "Here we are, we can't see the enemy. This all changed when the United States declared war on Japan, bringing the country into World War II. Fire had blackened much of the structure still visible. As Conter told it, the story wasn't about punching sharks, or skulking in the jungle or chasing shadows to the waiting rescue boat. And he has watched with dismay the changes in survival training. It was one of the biggest rescues in World War II, but no one knew about it because everything was top secret in those days.". Conter got his wings in November 1942. World War II veterans are a special breed, Lt. Col. Denis Riel said as the men accepted the medals. He fought cold and hunger on a ship nearly dead in the ocean off Alaska. How could he say no? Salmon. Kuwait. Once, I made a dive in a two-man submarine, down in over 1,200 feet of water off Santa Barbara coast. The Japanese military had established strategic outposts in the Aleutian Islands and had its eye on Alaska. The attack was devastating for the Americans, though the Japanese . You don't fire guns in port, so I ran out real quick to see what was happening. The Saratoga sailed across the South Pacific, to Guam, the Philippines, around New Guinea. It scared him a little. Langdell is one of the last nine survivors from the Arizona. An avocado tree grows in the backyard. "They were very good days before the war. "I left them there and hoped to get them back," he says. A year later, he felt better, so he re-enlisted. "We'd leave at 5:30 in the evening and stay out 12 or 14 hours, then return in the morning," Conter said. 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. He sits in his wheelchair as his son recites the narrative, keeping his father's story alive. Pearl Harbor was the most important American . A clerk tried to complete the process, normally a routine, if messy, step to secure the permit. "Would you like a job?" He saw action across the South Pacific, patrolled areas where suicide bombers were attacking American destroyers. A month after the Coral Sea battle, Cook's ship was part of the American forces in the critical Battle of Midway. Put in eight years at least and you'll have a pension, he promised. "So that's what we did," he says, staring out at the harbor nearly seven decades later. You can't leave the Navy.". On Oct. 12, Langdell celebrated his 100th birthday with with his older son, John, who flew in from Spearfish, S.D. Libby had arranged stays north of the city. The six men stared straight ahead, almost as if they were back in line, at attention. "This went on for four straight hours. Bruner, who turned 94 in November, is now one of nine living USS Arizona crewmen who survived the ship's sinking. He finally received his orders to return to the states. He keeps up with what the military does, and some of it irritates him. We carefully wrapped them in sheets. Haerry sailed on Navy ships through World War II and again during the Korean conflict. Hetrick was on board during battles at Midway and Wake Island and for the U.S. invasion of Iwo Jima early in 1945. Bruner started as a painter, trained as a carpenter, then helped start a new sheet-metal department. If the shark feels like a dead fish isn't worth its time, it will leave without wasting more energy. striking a number of people in the water. 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. He was also interviewing a Japanese pilot named Zenji Abe, a pilot who had taken part in the raid on Pearl Harbor in 1941. "But it was a lot better than being shot at.". He squeezes past the pool table, past the photos and the maps and the medals. "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. by Pia Peterson. 5 Jun. Seven decades later, he is one of nine living survivors from the Arizona. At the USS Arizona memorial, he became friends with a National Park Service historian and inspired a Pearl Harbor action figure that the service sold at the gift shop. The day when they assigned him and a crew of divers to a motor launch and sent them to the Arizona to remove bodies of dead sailors. "It didn't take me that long. Finally, they made their way to Salinas, Calif., just inland from Monterey on the central coast. And my co-pilot, Lou Conter, saved my life. Potts was working aboard an oil tanker, making short runs out of the harbor to refuel ships anchored off the coast. "I motioned to crane operator what we needed, what tools to send down." Other crewmen would roll out the shell, use a mechanical device to ram it in, then load four bags of powder behind it. "We're were out and around. "Talk about treating you like royalty," he says. war. Did sharks eat Titanic victims? They respected a guy who survived such a horrific attack. That was the way it was.". The day after, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared it "a date which will live in infamy," and Congress . They catch up. He and a buddy would sneak off campus and hop freight trains to see how far they could get. The smile widens. The mangled bodies such as J.J. Astor was probably caused by the 1st smokestack falling into the water and. I said, 'You send her over, I'll re-enlist.' "He's there for me. "I appreciate your thoughtfulness. Today, he tries to pass on what he knows to students of history. "If you can stand up and stay up while we change the linen on this bed, we'll see about it.". Still traveling at 17 knots, the Indianapolis began taking on massive amounts of water; the ship sank in just 12 minutes. Before the big battleship could leave Puget Sound, Anderson volunteered for another mission, joining the small Asiatic Fleet along the coast of China. It wasn't, but the flash was a reminder, as if he needed anything more. It was Sunday and some of the crewmen with liberty wanted an early start. The six-year Pentagon project identified nearly 400 who died on the USS Oklahoma in 1941. As he was packing, a buddy warned him that his possessions would be searched at the port in San Francisco. 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. 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. "We're right-arm rates." Haerry would come home on those days with cigar boxes full of the coins. Handout . He touches the diving helmet. For Hetrick, the section of mooring line links him to those final moments of the Arizona. Conter served on the San Pablo and Half Moon. They went out for coffee afterward. 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. With eyes too close or two far apart, a crewman could deliver faulty readings. He and Evelyn had their first son, Ray, Jr., in 1947. "I'm planning to marry your wife's sister, but I've got to have somebody take my place at work. As he waited, he had a feeling he knew what would happen, but he didn't say anything. When the fourth bomb detonated in the powder magazine, anyone left was blown over the side. Haerry accepts the chocolate bars his son has brought him. As the war with Japan intensified, the Navy was building new warships as fast as it could. He doesn't want to answer questions about his war service, shrugging them off or insisting he can't remember the details anymore. 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. The men stayed afloat until another plane saw the burning wreckage and tossed out a life raft. "They said what a wonderful place it was to live, with jobs and everything, so I bought a little place up in Spanish Fork," he says, "I'm still looking for that easy money.". He squinted and thought about where he was. He kept the truck, held on to it through repairs, engine overhauls, new paint jobs. They are the marks of a survivor, 73 years on. "I'd do it a hundred times more," he says. The guns hit the periscope. A framed painting of the Arizona, the repair ship Vestal next to it. DES MOINES, Iowa - A World War II veteran thought to be the oldest survivor of the Pearl Harbor attack died last month at 103. Pearl Harbor Warbirds offers the best Hawai'i flight adventure tours available. Conter was talking about survival, about coming back alive. Sometimes, Japanese pilots attended memorial ceremonies and some of the other survivors would shake their hands. "Listen, all those men down there on that ship, a thousand of them, they wouldn't do it and I don't think they'd want me to do it," he says. 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. 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. The Langdells ended up honeymooning in Monterey and Carmel on the central California coast. December 7, 1941: Pearl Harbor Casualties. In the documentary, "The Life and Death of a Lady," Langdell and Abe speak, side by side on the memorial. Some common species of fish sharks hunt include: Tuna. He had taken a bullet to the back of his leg as he was climbing the tower, but the burns were far worse. Over the next year, Anderson would sail across the South Pacific, joining other ships in the American assault on the Marshall Islands, Parry Island and the Palau Islands. They spoil their granddaughters and can now move on to a new great-granddaughter. did sharks eat pearl harbor victimshavelock wool australia. Sailors jumped into fires to escape sinking vessels. "The only people he would talk to were either very close friends or relatives," his son says. "In the service, if you didn't use nasty words, you weren't a good sailor.". 1914-1941:The mightiest ship at sea | Dec. 7, 1941: The attack that changed the world| Documentary: 'Witness to Infamy' | 2014: The final toast. He missed enough of his classes that he was finally asked to leave. 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. Bruner was put in charge of the gun batteries. Anderson has returned to the Arizona memorial often and has taken his family there. He tries to abbreviate it: "We went to California and got married.". So he did. He bought another gun in the states and he is never far from it. Williams was on deck, tuning up to play for colors, an early call after the previous day's fleet Battle of the Bands on shore. "We didn't hear much from the outside at first," Hetrick said. The Coghlan approached the Aleutians in October, as winter was pushing fall aside. "The Arizona was a fighting battleship," Joe says. On the same bookshelf sit mementos from his time on the Arizona. In order to produce enough energy to hunt and keep their body temperatures up, they have to feed on high-fat animals like seals and large tuna.The sharks have good eyesight, and they have electromagnetic sensors on their snout where they can tell the difference between a seal and a human from over 100 yards away. After Pearl Harbor, Langdell asked for a posting on one of the new destroyers the Navy was set to launch. He stood strong and tall right in front of this general. The pieces the largest is about as long as a bus sit in a salvage yard on the Waipi'o Peninsula on Oahu. They would be married in San Francisco, before the Frazier set sail. That led to a job in Roswell, the Sagebrush Serenade and Elvis Presley. The ship provided fire support for the Marines going ashore. For over an hour, in two waves, some 350 Japanese aircrafthaving taken off from six . "Not Navy ships, other ships. The United States declared war on Japan on December 8, 1941, the day following the attack on Pearl Harbor. You're on your own, every day.'". What they didn't count on was the side-street parking. He resumed one of his old jobs from the Arizona, piloting motor launches from the receiving station out to the Navy ships. Pearl Harbor: Directed by Michael Bay. He refused to cut the line no matter what. popeyes vs chicken express; do venmo requests expire 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. I don't think sharks go that far. He liked teaching and liked the chance to instill discipline. "So they knew.". He first visited the Arizona memorial in Pearl Harbor on the 50thanniversary of the attack and has returned since. Now, Bruner prepares for his next trip in the Captain's Quarters. "The sea was real rough when it came in and the sharks started gathering around. It's in good shape for a paper.". I guess he'd do anything he could for me. Deer and rabbits wander the hillside. Stratton could not. Photographs hang on the walls of his room. Too many strategic decisions come down from Washington instead of from the commanders on the ground. As a youngster, Anderson heard stories about the Navy from his uncle, a man named Ray Stokes. Anderson had finished his first day as a Hollywood stunt man. He asked what the fellow did. Anderson grew up in the Red River Valley of northern Minnesota, the son of a prominent local judge. Donald Stratton completed the paperwork for a concealed weapons permit at the El Paso County Sheriff's Office and approached the counter to submit fingerprints. Nobody was expecting anything like that.". 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. A storm was approaching, a big one by the looks of it. In the years after, he became active in survivors' groups and started going back to Pearl Harbor more often. Cook worked in California, mostly welding jobs, until the union he belonged to called a strike. Guns. He wants to secure a proper medal for Joe George, the sailor from the Vestal who helped rescue the six men from the gunner's control tower. He finally found people who understood his experience. They wouldn't send her over so I didn't re-enlist.". The smell of burned skin filled the air. They were having trouble reading his prints, she told Stratton. "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.". 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.