There are a few personal photos on the table, but nothing from his years in the Navy. @webtv.net wrote in message. Conter told the admiral he was interested in flight school, but doubted he would earn admission. Hetrick slept on the battleship USS Tennessee, which had been moored just ahead of the Arizona along Ford Island. It was the first time Randy, his son, had seen his father cry. Salvage work would begin soon on others. It was Sunday and some of the crewmen with liberty wanted an early start. What they didn't count on was the side-street parking. Photographs hang on the walls of his room. Explosions rocked the vessel and fires burned into the evening. "The lesson I've learned from that experience is that the 1,177 men entombed on the ship right now will never know the love of a wife or the joy of grandchildren," he said. Fire had blackened much of the structure still visible. 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 . 30 Chilling Photos From The Attack On Pearl Harbor - BuzzFeed 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.". But Hetrick couldn't find work, so inside of six months, he signed up for the Navy Reserve. 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. I think it was one of the proudest days of my father's life.". ages 2, 3 and 8, together with a 14-year-old cousin . "I don't think I'll ever forget what I saw that day.". Haerry held the rope that connected the ships as another crewman swung an ax to cut it. If a shark comes too close, hit it in the nose with your fist as hard as you can.". He was on Ford Island when the Japanese attacked, training for new assignment. Naming Pearl Harbor. He said he wanted Anderson to join the on-air staff. 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. LaRocque asked. He was on his own once again, he and his young family. ", "I was," Anderson said. As they walked toward it, Langdell reeled at an odor. "We got into San Francisco," he says, "and they never even opened my bags. Or both. He doesn't want to answer questions about his war service, shrugging them off or insisting he can't remember the details anymore. Conter got his wings in November 1942. It's the same place where the oil is leaking" oil stores aboard the ship that, even today, still seep to the surface "that's where I got out from below.". Sea turtles. Hetrick thought about it. The only question was how Langdell would send Libby word about his arrival from Pearl Harbor. did sharks eat pearl harbor victims They could ride to the mainland then and leave for Florida. Only 35 dead were . Hotline & WhatsApp : +971556212280 | Landline : +97143873596 , +97167499398 james reynolds obituary. On the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, Harold, 24, was on deck of the Oklahoma while William, 23, was working below, according to their family. Pearl Harbor centres on a cloverleaf-shaped, artificially . For a long time, Haerry never talked about his experiences at Pearl Harbor. The band had won a trophy in one of the competitions during their stay in Honolulu. Pearl Harbor: Attack, Deaths & Facts - HISTORY In 1940, Anderson reported to the Arizona once more, joining his brother for the first time since they had enlisted. He tried not to remember the days after the attack. "No one knew where the hell I was," Bruner says. Undertaker explains why many Pearl Harbor victims were left - mirror But he didn't want to start his civilian life in the brig, so he left it in Honolulu. He put the disc on a turntable and dropped the needle. 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. Yes, he'll say, he was on the Arizona and he survived. The tender didn't want to be tied to the larger ship when the worst of the storm blew through. He says that decision was the best thing he could have done. 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 He still tools around town in the truck, but it's a classic now, so he drives it almost as often to car shows. A clerk tried to complete the process, normally a routine, if messy, step to secure the permit. The owner said, 'give it a name and say who are. He looks forward to his time with the guys from his years in the Navy. They trade stories. Whether they're a spiny dogfish all the way to great whites, sharks love eating fish. "That's what I'm catching up now. Aviators most often arose from left-arm rates. He had stopped at Pearl Harbor more than a decade earlier, on his way to a posting in Korea. Finally, she located some of Bruner's tax records and found his address and telephone number. "Would you like a job?" "When I got back home, my doctors here wanted to know about my medical background," Bruner said. He called back a few days later. He likes to wear a cap that identifies him as a veteran of the Arizona. There were: Cook and another crewman. I heard the general say, 'You're a remarkable guy.' "To go through that to me is incomprehensible. Langdell is one of the last nine survivors from the Arizona. Anderson decided he had nothing to lose. He stayed on the 17thfloor of a hotel on Waikiki Beach. 2,614 Pearl Harbor Attack Premium High Res Photos Trains run close enough to hear the horns during the day, but not close enough to make them a nuisance. One of the men started yelling. USS Arizona: The men who survived the attack on Pearl Harbor They catch up. "Talk about treating you like royalty," he says. The best time for a bombing raid was after 1 a.m., when the ship was quiet. Though Conter turned around the first time he ventured toward the sunken Arizona, he has been back since, to see it with other survivors. The next night, an American PT boat retrieved all 10 men. Anderson had finished his first day as a Hollywood stunt man. 11 Oldest Pearl Harbor Survivors (Updated 2021) - Oldest.org He's not so fond of the crowds around Honolulu and doesn't plan to go back. Before the end of the war, he went to San Diego for gunner's mate school. LaRocque took Anderson to San Pedro, where his current ship was anchored. "When somebody says get out of here and you're on a hundred tons of ammunition, well, you don't question it," he says. Haerry would come home on those days with cigar boxes full of the coins. he met his contact and not long after, he was standing in for Orson Welles in a scene from the movie "The Stranger.". "That must be old Clyde Williams," he thought, the Arizona band member killed at Pearl Harbor. He gave Anderson the name of a contact there. By 1991, the 50th . However, larger shark species like to eat large marine mammals and large fish species, including dolphins, sea lions, tuna, mackerel, and seals. The Pearl Harbour . Photographing survivors of the battleship USS Arizona. Their backs are gray, blue, or brown in color and covered with regularly arranged light spots. There's a little air bubble. This time the objective was clear. "He's there anytime I call him," Hetrick says. 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. The Attack on Pearl Harbor - Pacific Atrocities Education 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. He did not reach a hospital for several days, but doctors still saved his hand. Finally, after a few weeks on the tanker, Potts was handed a new assignment. 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. Pearl Harbor Victims | How Many Died at Pearl Harbor? - Popular Mechanics 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. I had to take them to the parties and sit there until it was over.". Enemy patrol planes spotted the ships and the raid was canceled. A smile spreads across his face as Dean Martin's voice fills the cab. Photos of the ship and other survivors at reunions in Honolulu. He and a buddy had been talking about their future in the Navy. Cook enlisted in the Navy in 1940 and was assigned to the USS Arizona, one of the largest battleships in the fleet with a crew that, at full complement, numbered more than 1,500. The primer went in last, before the end of the gun was sealed shut. Jobs were few, so he set off for Warner, Okla, with the idea of playing football at Connors State Agricultural College. He was still adjusting to his new life in Colorado, hundreds of miles inland from his old home in coastal California and more than a mile higher in elevation. And it holds deep meaning for Potts, even though he did nothing to win it. At nights, Anderson was taking classes in meteorology and electronics, trying to learn skills that could help him stand out among all the returning servicemen and women. amc gremlin for sale washington state did sharks attack titanic survivors. Some even extend their consumption to seabirds. Fish, in general, are the most common prey for sharks. As it fell, he was thrown from the ship into the harbor. 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. "We would go in with a landing party or we furnished artillery for the landing force. "I thought you'd be in flight school," he said. He once helped design programs that sent soldiers into the wilds for days or weeks at a time. With a total of 1,195 men aboard, about 300 went down with the ship. 39 Interesting Pearl Harbor Facts | Pearl Harbor Warbirds "We had 10 or 12 sharks around us all the time," Conter says. "It ain't worth a damn if it ain't loaded," he says. Williams was in the Arizona's band. Haerry straightened in his seat as his story was told. After he returned from Korea, Haerry was promoted to master chief petty officer, signifying his experience and level of service. His oldest son had joined the Navy and his first posting was aboard the USS Ouellet, a frigate. A carnivorous shark diet usually includes fish, mollusks, and crustaceans. They eventually bought a home-furnishings outlet farther inland and finally built their own store in Yuba City, north of Sacramento. A painting of the Arizona hangs on the wall of a sitting room. "They were saying, when it first started, some of the ones whose station was up here ", He traces his finger up onto the main forward mast, to the crow's nest and the bridge. How could he say no? "We took all the bodies we could find.". "Are you in the Navy? Or got fired. We were going to have a date the next day. Calhoun quizzed Conter about his posting, his job on the ship. The burn ward filled with the injured. At 100, he is the oldest. He keeps a folder of newspaper clippings, magazine stories and copies of a telegram. Crustaceans. Dec 12 2014. You need the exercise. 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. A year later, he felt better, so he re-enlisted. The USS Arizona ballcap that almost every survivor owns and wears. With his experience running cranes on the Arizona, Potts figures he could have landed a decent job at the Geneva Steel operation, but he didn't want to work shifts, so he worked as a carpenter again and eventually went into the used car business with a friend. The job paid $700. He settled in Palm Springs and built a career as a real estate developer, buying up land for commercial and residential projects. "They were holed up behind sandbags, but they never got hit.". The clerks decided they could not send Stratton away without his permit. He ran to the anti-aircraft battery, his battle station, but there was no ammunition ready. No sharks did not eat Titanic passengers. At this one, he was looking around the room and he saw a picture of a sailor way back in the back, in a setting arranged like a memorial. WWII veteran, thought to be oldest survivor of Pearl Harbor attack Early in the morning on Dec. 7, 1941, Japan's Imperial Navy launched a surprise airstrike on the US military base at Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu . His old co-pilot in the New Guinea days was asked once if he'd had survival training for the war. They danced. In 2006, Langdell walked along the steep shoreline of Ford Island, the Arizona memorial in the background. "He's there for me. 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. Langdell knew Libby was friends with a skater in the Ice Follies, which was summering in San Francisco. He had settled in New Mexico with his family. All those sailors from all those places and here was a guy who was practically a neighbor. "I don't think we'll ever be able to swim to shore. "He was out to sea nine months out of the year, only home for three months," Ray Jr. says. Bruner lives alone, in a post-war neighborhood in the far northern edges of Orange County. McBride reached the last man, Raymond Haerry, a 20-year-old coxswain on the day of the assault. "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.". After the war, Langdell returned to the family auction business in Massachusetts, but after all those years in Hawaii, the Philippines and in the tropical South Seas, he couldn't readjust to the cold. They still had to climb onto the dock and then into a truck for a short ride to a Navy hospital. The mast and towers near the bow tilted at a sickening angle. With Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett, Kate Beckinsale, William Lee Scott. In U.S. history the name recalls the surprise Japanese air attack on December 7, 1941, that temporarily crippled the U.S. Fleet and resulted in the United States' entry into World War II. "I decided I'd do whatever they told me to. He was cut loose in San Francisco and returned to Los Angeles, where he had married a girl back in late 1942. Survivors' groups wanted to find all of them so their stories would not be lost. He was treated there for four months. Cook was discharged in 1948 in San Diego and stuck around California, where he worked as a metal finisher at Van Nuys manufacturing plant. The Stratton men have taken up a more personal cause. "Hi," he said, introducing himself. The body parts we put in pillow cases. The Lexington sailed out of Pearl Harbor not long after. He could see the band was sincere. The planes took off and landed on the water; the pilots tied up to buoys near the ship. The lead-up to the Pearl Harbor attack. Hetrick saw a new opportunity and joined. She returned, puzzled. This list and the accompanying graphics do not include encounters in which a shark does not actually bite a person or board (e.g. Joe Langdell found a table in the wardroom of one of the ships moored in Pearl Harbor and sat down with his breakfast. From the Vestal, Bruner was taken to the USS Solace, a hospital ship in the harbor. Did he ever. "Here's the one that told my mother I was missing in action on the Arizona," he says. He bought another gun in the states and he is never far from it. As a youngster, Anderson heard stories about the Navy from his uncle, a man named Ray Stokes. He stayed there for months. "These guys were the first heroes of the war, even though the war hasn't been declared," Ray Jr. says. Calhoun told Conter to put in for the assignment. He keeps it with him when he travels. What Do Sharks Eat? - American Oceans "It acknowledges to people that I'm a survivor," Joe replies, his voice soft. High winds could slam one ship into the other and sink one or both of the vessels. Langdell lives now in a skilled nursing center. How remains of personnel killed in Pearl Harbor are - NewsNation List of Shark Species and Facts - ThoughtCo He had turned down a promotion to ensign, preferring the camaraderie of the enlisted ranks. Did he know anything about meteorology? Lonnie had taken up trap shooting and hoped to do a little hunting back home. Why not try radio? "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.". 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. "The hat represents the Arizona. He can tell stories about his years with the diving crews, but the truck has evolved into a reminder of another time. John was sent from training camp in Illinois to Bremerton, Wash. Bass. Here is a story he will tell, a memory he will keep. At 93, he is one of the last survivors ofthe attack on the Arizona. He had a record, a new song he was trying out. Stratton hesitated, then confirmed her suspicion. The day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Anderson volunteered for duty on the Macdonough, a destroyer that downed at least one of the Japanese attack planes on Dec. 7. It sits today in the carport outside his home. Everything was taken ashore and properly taken care of.". When he reaches that part of his story, he stops. 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 a piece of rigging used to secure a mooring line from a ship. "Cover the decks, anywhere you can find them up to the top of the masts.". Schenkelberg was no stranger to hardships . The Navy began assigning sailors to new postings. The United States declared war on Japan on December 8, 1941, the day following the attack on Pearl Harbor. He will meet three other survivors in Hawaii for their last reunion. Pentagon ends program to identify Pearl Harbor victims - The Washington 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. Cook got the buddy's telephone number and tried to call him. "On the day I swore into the Air Force, I was still in my Navy uniform," he said. Friends told them when the left the church, keep the water on their left. "It is only by the grace of God that I stand here today," he said. Stratton told her why: He had been aboard the USS Arizona when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec 7, 1941. By the time they were back, the icicles were forming again and two more guys would go out.". Finally, they made their way to Salinas, Calif., just inland from Monterey on the central coast. "You either had a nice place aboard a ship and were high and dry or you didn't have anything," he reasoned. "Why do you like the hat, dad?" Helpless, I watched your bomb sink the Arizona in nine minutes.". He enrolled, but after a couple of weeks, the noisy streetcars and the police sirens kept him up all night. Langdell's ship, the USS Arizona, lay dead in the water where she sank 14 minutes into the attack. The Coghlan supported Army landings and Navy bombing runs. "It sounded like someone shooting guns. So he did. sinastria di coppia karmica calcolo; quincy homeless shelter; plastic bags for cleaning oven racks; claudia procula death; farm jobs in vermont with housing "The new ones, they didn't know beans.". "They paid me by the day," 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. Did sharks eat Titanic victims? It is about three feet tall, with a carved island figure on top and the silhouette of a Hawaiian warrior on a plaque. He will tell his story if he's asked and he will remember details along the way. These Photos Of The Pearl Harbor Attack Are Still Shocking Decades Later "A day that will live in infamy." By . He squinted and thought about where he was. On the 70thanniversary of the attack, the men had been brought to the state capitol to receive new honors. The Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor began just before 8 a.m. local time Sunday morning, December 7, 1941. Langdell took a right turn instead of a left and the newlyweds didn't realize their mistake until they stopped for gas in Gilroy, about 80 miles south of San Francisco. It was constructed to comply with the 1922 Washington Naval . I still had to wait 29 years for that guy to come back and take his brush back.". By 1991, the 50thanniversary of the attack, the number of living Arizona crewmen had shrunk. The day after, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared it "a date which will live in infamy," and Congress . "I left them there and hoped to get them back," he says. The ship was dead in the water. 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. He didn't have to pay for dinner. UPDATE: Bruner died in 2019. The family sold maple syrup distilled from the trees on their farm. The story of the USS Indianapolis has become legendary with regards to shark attacks, and is known as the worst shark attack in recorded history. After Pearl Harbor, Langdell asked for a posting on one of the new destroyers the Navy was set to launch. We got as close as 5,000 yards, which was point-blank for those ships. By the time the woman from Illinois found him, he was ready to face his past. Pearl Harbor Attack In Photos - BuzzFeed News But he could not be prepared for what he found on the charred hulk of the battleship. 11 Oldest Pearl Harbor Survivors (Updated 2021) December 7, 1941 is a date that everyone in America has committed to memory. Uncle Ray was nearing the end of his career in 1937 when John and Jake both decided to enlist. Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. "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. He . It is respectful. Anderson's road to the radio booth started in Hollywood, with a screen test at a studio where he had worked. the young man asked. He was also interviewing a Japanese pilot named Zenji Abe, a pilot who had taken part in the raid on Pearl Harbor in 1941. The ship steamed toward the Asiatic Pacific and soon Anderson was chasing Japanese forces again, only this time the United States was at war. He didn't know what to tell them. He started on a small station, playing organ music. a director yelled. The offshore diving business could leave its own kind of scars. He looked for what he called medium spacing. The face plate is glass and around the bottom are screws that would secure it to the diving suit. I think that's what kept me living to this day.". The Japanese military had established strategic outposts in the Aleutian Islands and had its eye on Alaska. They hopped in a Jeep and head up the hill toward one of the Quonset huts, the one where liquor for the officers' clubs was stored. "We don't think you'd make it. And in the back corner, a real trophy. UPDATE:Joe Langdell diedin February 2015, months after this report. As a tender, he stayed on the surface, monitoring the divers working on rigs, piers, pipelines, any piece of seaside or seagoing equipment. 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. "After 36 hours, I still hadn't put in a day. Their skin charred and falling off, the men crawled down the line to the Vestal. The Solace dispatched motor boats to the Arizona to rescue wounded sailors and her crew pulled others from the water. He asked for volunteers. "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.".