Discipline seems less important than it was in his day. "We're right-arm rates." Golfers play through 50 yards from Conter's driveway. did sharks eat pearl harbor victimshavelock wool australia. Why Did Pearl Harbor Happen? He settled in Palm Springs and built a career as a real estate developer, buying up land for commercial and residential projects. He headed east and landed in Paducah, Ky. From there, he worked jobs in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and back to New York, where he welded 20-inch gas lines going through Brooklyn. He would work in the port director's office, delivering sealed packets to the captains of Navy ships. He's never been back. He and Libby moved west to Walnut Creek east of San Francisco. The family visited the Arizona memorial and toured other sites near the harbor. They were dead in the water.". Just stay together, hold hands and kick slowly 'cause there'll be sharks around. Song's got some zip to it, he said. Potts says, shaking his head. did sharks eat pearl harbor victims. The Tennessee took hits in the attack, but two of the armor piercing bombs, the kind that sunk the Arizona, failed to detonate. 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. He says that decision was the best thing he could have done. He eases the truck out of the carport, far enough to show it off. He has told her about his escape from the Arizona. 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. "I'm planning to marry your wife's sister, but I've got to have somebody take my place at work. World War II veterans are a special breed, Lt. Col. Denis Riel said as the men accepted the medals. Long a bachelor again, Bruner has also entertained lady friends from time to time. For some reason I had always thought that the titanic had gone down way farther North. "I said, 'sure, I'll take it.' 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. 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. As they walked toward it, Langdell reeled at an odor. "I wasn't going out there. Rays. One morning, he was at his desk, catching up on paperwork, when he heard a vehicle screech to a halt outside. Hetrick slept on the battleship USS Tennessee, which had been moored just ahead of the Arizona along Ford Island. "No," the worker said. "Are you out of the Navy, Andy?" 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. He owns a chunk of the ship's burned deck, a reminder he keeps in a box with a few other items. "We don't think you'd make it. The clerks decided they could not send Stratton away without his permit. He agreed to play it on his show. 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. "It never gets easy to go back," he says. He returned after the war to his home along the railway in eastern Oklahoma. Jobs were few, so he set off for Warner, Okla, with the idea of playing football at Connors State Agricultural College. "I really miss it.". He was nervous about volunteering for anything, but he raised his hand. In his dining room in Colorado Springs, he keeps a replica of a hard diving helmet, the kind his divers used. poil bulbe noir ou blanc; juego de ollas royal prestige 7 piezas; ano ang kahalagahan ng agrikultura sa industriya; nashville hotels with ev charging 2023 www.azcentral.com. Yes, a lot of brave men died. He pushes his shirtsleeves up to show his arms. But he doesn't tell his story anymore, not on his own. The crew was evacuated and another U.S. destroyer scuttled the Lexington to keep the Japanese from capturing her. Almost imperceptibly, he sways. Jack shrugged. But when Ka'ahupahau realized that the girl actually did die, she regretted her rash order and instead said that sharks should never attack humans in the Pearl Harbor region. His job was to put the primer in the big 14-inch gun. 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. The song, "Hound Dog" and the singer, Elvis Presley, both went over pretty well, the way Cactus Jack remembers it. Abe offered condolences and said he prayed that all their souls were at peace. Posted on December 7, 2021, 5:08 pm. 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. Once a month or so, Clarendon Hetrick's phone rings with a call from Utah. 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. "The Navy Department deeply regrets to inform you that your son Louis Anthony Counter quartermaster third class US Navy is missing following action in the performance of his duty.". He still tools around town in the truck, but it's a classic now, so he drives it almost as often to car shows. USS Indianapolis at Mare Island. When he dies, his remains will be interred under the No. The venture was working out well. Joe had met Elizabeth McGauhy in Chicago half a decade earlier. The day after, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared it "a date which will live in infamy," and Congress . Though Conter turned around the first time he ventured toward the sunken Arizona, he has been back since, to see it with other survivors. But he didn't want to start his civilian life in the brig, so he left it in Honolulu. He still remembers the day he saw the Arizona in dry dock at Bremerton, Wash. "It was quite a sight for an old flatlander like me to see a 35,000-ton battleship out of the water," he says. Nightmares invade his sleep when he remembers those final moments. 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. As anniversaries of the attack passed, Ray Jr. would asked his dad if he wanted to visit the USS Arizona memorial at Pearl Harbor. After so many years of travel, the Cooks have settled into a more tranquil pace. Three years ago, Ray Jr. received a call from a lieutenant colonel in the Rhode Island National Guard. 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. 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. Libby got the message. "We'd patrol at night. He spent long months on a tender, a vessel that carries equipment, parts and other supplies for ships at sea. "It's just not going to happen. Wherever he goes on the pickup, people ask him about his experience. He liked the idea of working as an aircraft mechanic, so he volunteered. For a while, the young family lived in Puerto Rico as Haerry, now a chief boatswain's mate, drew new assignments aboard his tender. From the shore, he helped wounded men from the water, men whose bodies had been torn apart by bombs and bullets and fire. Explosions rocked the vessel and fires burned into the evening. "They were very good days before the war. The ships sent up their own planes and turned back the assault. One of the men started yelling. About a month later, Japanese suicide bombers sunk the Pringle near Okinawa. 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. By the time they were back, the icicles were forming again and two more guys would go out.". But he became restless. He saw Gene LaRocque, a man he'd served with aboard the Macdonough. I quit. Anderson always talks about his brother, Delbert "Jake" Anderson, when he tells the story of his own escape from the burning ship. Although he is 97, he decided he couldn't miss a final reunion this year and he bought his tickets early. Cook has returned to Pearl Harbor three times and he likes the Arizona memorial. There, he lost his twin brother, "It was a bloody catastrophe, a bloody mess," he says. "Sometimes, we'd come back, eat, then sleep on the beach.". The ship carried four 5-inch anti-aircraft guns and six half-inch machine guns, and, initially, five 21-inch torpedo tubes. He tried not to remember the days after the attack. Haerry had made two runs to shore on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941. 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. It hastened the United States' entry . Only a few hundred people lived there then. They would serve together for a little over a year. The fellow told him to report to the front gate of Sam Goldwyn's studio in Hollywood on Monday morning. "We'd leave at 5:30 in the evening and stay out 12 or 14 hours, then return in the morning," Conter said. He was soon flying one of the Navy's Black Cats, a squadron of long-range patrol bombers painted black for night missions. Anderson went aboard the USS Edsall, a destroyer that supported various military action at sea and ashore. "Hi," he said, introducing himself. Sometimes we never landed, but we kept the line, always watching out for kamikazes.". A clerk tried to complete the process, normally a routine, if messy, step to secure the permit. "I just got discharged. By the end of the day, had persuaded Anderson to sign up for the Navy Reserve. The man walked over and looked at Langdell's name tag. 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 . "This went on for four straight hours. The burn ward filled with the injured. Usually, sharks will prioritize eating: Smaller fish. That was enough to rattle nerves on board the ship, which was at general quarters every day an hour before sundown and an hour before sunrise. "Cover the decks, anywhere you can find them up to the top of the masts.". It is dated Dec. 21, 1941. Then they'd go by.". He endured what he did, he says, because that was his job. "Mr. Langdell, Mr. Langdell, you've got to come here quick," he said. 3 gun turret. When the regular stuntmen returned and the studio cut loose the subs, Ladd hired some of them to work on his house in the Holmby Hills above Los Angeles. "Why do you like the hat, dad?" He can tell stories about his years with the diving crews, but the truck has evolved into a reminder of another time. A few years later, a new station owner showed Anderson his plans to start a TV station. "A brush painter.". sinastria di coppia karmica calcolo; quincy homeless shelter; plastic bags for cleaning oven racks; claudia procula death; farm jobs in vermont with housing "To go through that to me is incomprehensible. He got the west coast and I got the east coast. "I put on two life jackets," Hetrick said. The next night, an American PT boat retrieved all 10 men. "We were told to watch out for them, these guys were assassins," Anderson said. Her sister knew Jack Warner, the film studio mogul, and invited Valerie to a movie premiere party Warner was hosting in Palm Springs for his latest project, "Camelot". "It hadn't really sunk in what had happened.". "That's what I want to remember. Inside the packets were the captains' new orders, military secrets, classified information that required clearance to handle. "One day our boat was stacked with two dollar bills," he said. You're on your own, every day.'". Squid. Pearl Harbor, naval base and headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, Honolulu county, southern Oahu Island, Hawaii, U.S. 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. A woman from Illinois drew Bruner's name. "We wouldn't get much fire back and by the time they sounded general quarters, we were on our way," Conter said. Dec 12 2014. Bruner keeps mementos of his time on the Arizona in the sitting room. "I went back and told my mother I wasn't going up there anymore," he said. After the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom, the United States opted to construct a naval base in 1899. The Coghlan turned back, almost spent. Handout . Lots of men brought home scars from World War II and Korea. Here's what he revealed: The USS Arizona (BB-39) burns after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. He was in the studio on Valentine's Day 1955 when a nervous young man walked in. It sits a little higher than most items, but not necessarily on a platform. Stratton and other men climbed into a small boat that took them ashore. Many have since died. Now, stateside again, Hetrick reported to a Navy station in San Diego, where he met the woman who would become his wife, Jeanne. Langdell returned to Pearl Harbor in 1976. If a shark comes too close, hit it in the nose with your fist as hard as you can.". He hasn't hunted in a while, though he still reloads his own ammunition on a garage workbench. They were married in an Episcopal Church on Van Ness Avenue. As the USS Arizona burned and sunk into the harbor, Stratton and five other men had been trapped on an anti-aircraft gun control platform on the ship's foremast, burned in a fireball when below-deck ammunition exploded. The Coghlan supported Army landings and Navy bombing runs. The ship accompanied General Douglas MacArthur to the Philippines and was anchored in the harbor off Nagasaki, Japan, when the second atomic bomb exploded. medge. Pearl Harbor Warbirds offers the best Hawai'i flight adventure tours available. "They gave me 30 minutes to get off the ship and catch a transport to San Diego for training," he said. Sight-setters and pointers would locate targets visually and determine their distance and range. "When I got back home, my doctors here wanted to know about my medical background," Bruner said. In early January, Conter visited his young lady friend again and again, Admiral Calhoun was there. He and his father chat a little. "Lou, let's go to flight school," Conter's buddy said one day. It wasn't, but the flash was a reminder, as if he needed anything more. Haerry sailed on Navy ships through World War II and again during the Korean conflict. He and his wife, Doris, have lived in the same house for 54 years. He made bargemaster on a huge drilling rig, but yearned for something more interesting, so he got a job as a tender with a commercial deep sea diving business. And my co-pilot, Lou Conter, saved my life. Seventy-three years later, he is one of just nine survivors of the attack on the Arizona. One of our cruisers, the heavy cruiser, got hit and water got into the oil. And that's what he told every soldier and airman who took his courses.*. That's why the FBI was nosing around me, Potts thought. Before the big battleship could leave Puget Sound, Anderson volunteered for another mission, joining the small Asiatic Fleet along the coast of China. Langdell says only this: "It took two days to take all the bodies. "I hadn't told him he was going to be individually honored that day," he says. Similarly, the . "I ain't seen 'em since.". We cut the torpedoes loose.". 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. The exhausted crew dragged ashore an hour later and hid in the jungle, fearful they would be captured by Japanese soldiers. He was smart enough to excel, but started cutting classes not long after the start of his first semester. "I think my dad was one of the first American heroes of World War II.". I still get to the point when I'm talking about it, first thing you know, I go to bed at night, wake up and can't sleep for a week.". In World War II, he fought at Guadalcanal, in the battle of the Coral Sea, at Okinawa and Iwo Jima. Someone had stacked the boxes too high and in the humid environment of the island, the cardboard had grown damp and weak. We got as close as 5,000 yards, which was point-blank for those ships. Calhoun quizzed Conter about his posting, his job on the ship. Until his partner ran off with all the money. The nurse who checks in on him regularly likes Haerry. For years, Stratton wore the scars from the Arizona without talking about them much. "I'd already sent word, even before the first one got there," he says. High winds could slam one ship into the other and sink one or both of the vessels. He keeps a photo from that tournament on a bookshelf in an alcove off the kitchen. 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 said we'd volunteer if they'd put two or three of us together on the same ship," he said. I think it was one of the proudest days of my father's life.". Never would've found it.". 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. 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 has trouble remembering the past. He catalogs the scars and their origin. Oceanic whitetip sharks killed many of the surviving crew in the biggest attack on humans ever recorded Credit: Getty - Contributor. The smell of burned skin filled the air. He's not so fond of the crowds around Honolulu and doesn't plan to go back. "After 36 hours, I still hadn't put in a day. Pearl Harbor centres on a cloverleaf-shaped, artificially . December 5, 2021 at 11:21 a.m. EST. ", "Baloney," Conter replied. His ships steamed across the Pacific, through the Panama Canal to Africa. How could he say no? 1914-1941:The mightiest ship at sea | Dec. 7, 1941: The attack that changed the world| Documentary: 'Witness to Infamy' | 2014: The final toast. Conter was stationed on the Arizona at Pearl Harbor in September 1941, when he turned 20. The California was way down here. So he did. did sharks eat pearl harbor victims. Someone from the bureau had been asking questions. Just another site did sharks eat pearl harbor victims 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. A platform marked the wreckage of the USS Arizona. The things I don't want to remember was the blood.". Then we got hit.". 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. That was the end of it.". She was attending an art academy to learn dress designing. "Through all that, I never did lose consciousness," he says. Hetrick, who is 91, has outlived most of the men he knew on the Saratoga. He built a reputation as a guy who could bring in the harvest on time. Trains run close enough to hear the horns during the day, but not close enough to make them a nuisance. "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. did sharks attack titanic survivors. Anderson demanded to know. 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. Around 2005, he and Jeanne moved to Bullhead City. The bomb that shattered the Arizona's bow exploded as Cook and the others climbed out of the turret. "I don't think I'll ever forget what I saw that day.". From Virginia, he went to Utah, to France and then to Albuquerque, where he retired in November 1961. And he was aboard on Dec. 7, 1941, when the Japanese bombed the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor, a pivotal moment in history, but one that struck Anderson to his core. He doesn't want to answer questions about his war service, shrugging them off or insisting he can't remember the details anymore. "They said he was a tough bastard, but that's exactly what they needed.". The band would cover all expenses for him and Doris. 11 Oldest Pearl Harbor Survivors (Updated 2021) December 7, 1941 is a date that everyone in America has committed to memory. "Say your prayers, men, we're seven miles off shore and we're in 10, 15-foot swells," one of the officers said as the crew abandoned the plane. "We took all the bodies we could find.". With a gun, he could defend himself. Without them, Riel said, who knows where we'd be today. Today, he tries to pass on what he knows to students of history. He had settled in New Mexico with his family. Conter's crews flew missions across the South Pacific: New Guinea, Borneo, New Britain, the coast off Perth, Australia. The Hirasaki family suffered some of the worst losses that terrible morning. "I said, 'Well, come on, then,'" Marietta says, and in 1950, they wed. That's where the cross-country adventures begin. The ship provided fire support for the Marines going ashore. Smoke rises from the battleship USS Arizona as it sinks . "Sometimes they'd get shooting at you and you'd look at the shells and they looked like they were going to hit you. Too many strategic decisions come down from Washington instead of from the commanders on the ground. Calhoun told Conter to put in for the assignment. Would Langdell agree to meet Abe on film? The offshore diving business could leave its own kind of scars. On the 70thanniversary of the attack, the men had been brought to the state capitol to receive new honors. "I thought you'd be in flight school," he said. He jumped into the harbor, even though he had never passed his swimming test. They wouldn't send her over so I didn't re-enlist.". Her father was an engineer and a top executive for a dredging company with a big Navy contract. "You I know.") He once helped design programs that sent soldiers into the wilds for days or weeks at a time. He doesn't like to talk about the attack. It was Sunday and some of the crewmen with liberty wanted an early start. So you see how that works."). striking a number of people in the water. 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. "He remembers body parts in the water, charred burned bodies that he swam by," his son Ray, Jr., says. 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. Cook is invited to such events occasionally and sometimes introduced as an Arizona survivor. Conter served on the San Pablo and Half Moon. "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. As it fell, he was thrown from the ship into the harbor. From the Vestal, Bruner was taken to the USS Solace, a hospital ship in the harbor. A few years after that, they left for Las Vegas, where their son, Bob, and his family help them get around. He joined the Navy because it seemed like a better environment. In the chaotic days following the Dec. 7 ambush, the Navy wasn't letting ships into the harbor, fearful the Japanese might send in more bombers. He describes the store of booze they pulled out of safe and the money. 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 was the opening act for country superstar Hank Snow that night at the North High School auditorium. The Japanese military had established strategic outposts in the Aleutian Islands and had its eye on Alaska. 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. Ray Jr. seems surprised. Once a shark finds its prey, it needs to decide on whether to eat or not based on smell and appearance. He . It scared him a little. He had chased Japanese soldiers along the coast of China three years before America declared war on Japan. is clu gulager still alive did sharks attack titanic survivors. And it holds deep meaning for Potts, even though he did nothing to win it. On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Almost three decades later, he was the plant manager, second-in-command. As he prepared to jump off the burning ship, he took the shoes off and set them on the quarterdeck. His name was Cactus Jack and to his fans in southeastern New Mexico, he was the dulcet-voiced host of Sagebrush Serenade, a program of country music on KSWS radio. "It sounded like someone shooting guns. "In the service, if you didn't use nasty words, you weren't a good sailor.". He stood strong and tall right in front of this general. For Hetrick, the section of mooring line links him to those final moments of the Arizona. UPDATE:John Anderson diedin November 2015, less than a year after this report. "We can't forget what happened there that day. The gun took away some of the terror he had felt from the moment he saw the first bomber, the panic he felt when he found the armories on board the ship locked. Photos of the ship and other survivors at reunions in Honolulu. 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. Fire had blackened much of the structure still visible. In Alaska, he helped set up platforms that could keep up with tides that rose and fell as much as 32 feet. "They said, 'If you re-enlist, we'll send her over.' It is a piece of rigging used to secure a mooring line from a ship. He clears his throat. As he walked past a bar, still in his Navy uniform, a fellow popped out the door and looked Anderson up and down, checking him out more closely someone would ordinarily. His dad operated a livery stable and a small dairy and later earned money as an auctioneer. Five years later, in 2011, he got a call from the band director at Timpview High School in Provo. Haerry accepted the medal, but found he could not speak. A storm was approaching, a big one by the looks of it. We all have to remember that they did not die in vain.". It was as if he had none. As he recounts the experience, he rubs his hands together, then holds them out, turning them over. They eventually bought a home-furnishings outlet farther inland and finally built their own store in Yuba City, north of Sacramento. "It's always a great thing for me to see them," he says. He asked for volunteers. A smile spreads across his face as Dean Martin's voice fills the cab. Anderson smiled. The parties sometimes dragged into the early morning hours. An administrator at Eastern New Mexico University in Portales, N.M., heard Anderson and talked him into joining the school to help improve its radio station and start a television station. The report: Oh, yes, she can cook. He started on a small station, playing organ music. He was sent to the Los Alamitos Naval Air Station up the coast in Orange County. 12/28/2016. The Edsall sailed farther north, then headed to the Philippines, where they played baseball with a group of indigenous Moros, who had fought the United States more than 20 years earlier. He had a ticket home to Minnesota, but decided to find a place to stay and come up with a plan. "I was back here on leave before the war started and he was here too," Cook says.
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