Yes, he'll say, he was on the Arizona and he survived. The family visited the Arizona memorial and toured other sites near the harbor. Sometimes he can't control his emotions, so he declines speaking requests. "I think my dad was one of the first American heroes of World War II.". As he waited, he had a feeling he knew what would happen, but he didn't say anything. All rights reserved. He keeps a photo from that tournament on a bookshelf in an alcove off the kitchen. After the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom, the United States opted to construct a naval base in 1899. amc gremlin for sale washington state did sharks attack titanic survivors. Not war stories, usually, not unless one of them has had it out with a doctor or a pushy clerk. "I got another ship for you," the officer said at last. "From down inside, it wasn't too bad when they fired it," Cook said. A platform marked the wreckage of the USS Arizona. December 5, 2021 at 11:21 a.m. EST. We hauled it all back in.". But he is proud of his service, of the other sailors on the Arizona. "There's the battleships there's the Nevada, the Arizona, the Tennessee, the West Virginia, Maryland, the Oklahoma. Langdell was discharged at the war's end and returned to Massachusetts, where his wife, Libby, waited. For a lot of people, meeting Elvis and playing one of his first records on the air might sound like one of life's truly unforgettable days. The Pearl Harbour . 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. Once, I made a dive in a two-man submarine, down in over 1,200 feet of water off Santa Barbara coast. person grazed by a shark), nor incidents classified by the International Shark Attack File as boat attacks, scavenge, or doubtful. That led to a job in Roswell, the Sagebrush Serenade and Elvis Presley. He was attending midshipman's school at Northwestern University. This list and the accompanying graphics do not include encounters in which a shark does not actually bite a person or board (e.g. I heard the general say, 'You're a remarkable guy.' "So they knew.". The ones that gave him nightmares, the stories from the day he nearly burned to death, he kept to himself. They knew the oil tanker Tippecanoe was out there, but couldn't see her. 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. "It acknowledges to people that I'm a survivor," Joe replies, his voice soft. "To go through that to me is incomprehensible. Only 35 dead were . A carnivorous shark diet usually includes fish, mollusks, and crustaceans. In March, the crew turned back Japanese forces in the Battle of Komandorski. He called back a few days later. "Knock it off. As they walked toward it, Langdell reeled at an odor. Golfers play through 50 yards from Conter's driveway. He and his wife, Doris, have lived in the same house for 54 years. Wherever he goes on the pickup, people ask him about his experience. His service on the Arizona also seemed to give him added credibility among the young sailors. He finally found people who understood his experience. He had a record, a new song he was trying out. An impressive collection of restaurant menus from 30 years of cross-country searches for used cars. An electro-mechanical computer would aim the guns. 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. His work turned toward survival training in a new military program called SERE, for Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape. The sea turned rough, tossing the ship with 40-foot swells, bouncing the vessel like a rubber ball in a washing machine. He asked what the fellow did. He wanted to interview Langdell for his project. Conter's doctor has sidelined him for now for health reasons, but he is certain he will return soon. ", "I was," Anderson said. Similarly, the . Joe Langdell found a table in the wardroom of one of the ships moored in Pearl Harbor and sat down with his breakfast. 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. He was eating breakfast when he heard the first pops of the attack planes strafing Battleship Row. Conter was stationed on the Arizona at Pearl Harbor in September 1941, when he turned 20. Pearl Harbor, naval base and headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, Honolulu county, southern Oahu Island, Hawaii, U.S. But there are moments when he knows what he did meant something. His son reaches in the cab and queues up one of the hundreds of songs he and his daughter downloaded onto the new MP3 player. "Are there any officers from the Arizona here?" Long a bachelor again, Bruner has also entertained lady friends from time to time. did sharks attack titanic survivors. The inscription reads "Spirit of Aloha Award, Timpview High School Marching Band.". "If you can stand up and stay up while we change the linen on this bed, we'll see about it.". 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. LaRocque took Anderson to San Pedro, where his current ship was anchored. I think it was one of the proudest days of my father's life.". Toward the end the war, Langdell was stationed in the Philippines, at a base in Manila. The Macdonough pulled picket patrol often, protecting other troops and guarding against kamikaze attacks by Japanese planes. 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. In time, he felt no anger toward the Japanese, but he couldn't forget what they did. He had escaped the USS Arizona, the battleship whose losses surpassed any other. "I don't think I'll ever forget what I saw that day.". Potts stayed in Honolulu until the end of the war. He spent the rest of the day retrieving bodies from the harbor. He weighed 92 pounds by the time he was sent to rehabilitation in Corona, Calif. The USS Arizona ballcap that almost every survivor owns and wears. He wasn't happy where he was, so he loaded up his big 12-cylinder Lincoln Zephyr and headed west. "I left them there and hoped to get them back," he says. I quit. The family sold maple syrup distilled from the trees on their farm. The California was way down here. He tried not to remember the days after the attack. And the ships needed experienced sailors. "The sea was real rough when it came in and the sharks started gathering around. Potts says, shaking his head. "It's easier if you come see it," the sailor said. He got to know Alan Ladd, who had starred in a series of war movies. He and Evelyn had their first son, Ray, Jr., in 1947. With a gun, he could defend himself. "What houses they built!" 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. In 1967, Conter retired from the Navy. ", "Fine," the worker said. "The hat represents the Arizona. He was soon flying one of the Navy's Black Cats, a squadron of long-range patrol bombers painted black for night missions. It took more courage on your part to present this wreath than it did for me to accept it.". Calhoun quizzed Conter about his posting, his job on the ship. The Stratton men have taken up a more personal cause. Photos of the ship and other survivors at reunions in Honolulu. "When I got back home, my doctors here wanted to know about my medical background," Bruner said. The job wasn't what he expected in September, when he was discharged from the Navy. Now, stateside again, Hetrick reported to a Navy station in San Diego, where he met the woman who would become his wife, Jeanne. "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. "She went to California and I followed her," Lonnie says. Chile. "What's up with this one? His own battle station was beneath the gun turret shattered by the last bomb to hit the Arizona. He spent long months on a tender, a vessel that carries equipment, parts and other supplies for ships at sea. The Saratoga had returned to Pearl Harbor by the time the Japanese surrendered. He was in the studio on Valentine's Day 1955 when a nervous young man walked in. Abe's Pearl Harbor speech has been well received in Japan, where most people expressed the opinion that it struck the right balance of regret that the Pacific war occurred, but offered . The steeple clock chimed and a statue of an angel wielding a sword emerged from an alcove and knocked Anderson off the steeple. Sometimes, Japanese pilots attended memorial ceremonies and some of the other survivors would shake their hands. Anderson always talks about his brother, Delbert "Jake" Anderson, when he tells the story of his own escape from the burning ship. "I had to start training the new recruits on every machine," Bruner said. He's not sure he'd have learned that lesson if he hadn't enlisted in the Navy. She nods and smiles. He stopped in the small town of Payson, Utah. UPDATE: Bruner died in 2019. Stratton told her why: He had been aboard the USS Arizona when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec 7, 1941. A pistol sits on top of his television at home. He didn't have to pay for dinner. Crippled ships still floated around the mooring posts along Ford Island. The USS Shaw explodes after being hit by bombs during the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in this December 7, 1941 photo. "That lumber was so damn green then, we used to kid we had to shoot the squirrels out of it.". 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. As far he was concerned he was saving lives.". Usually, sharks will prioritize eating: Smaller fish. 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. That was the way it was.". 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. "We worked with a crane barge capable of lifting 700 tons," he sys. "It hadn't really sunk in what had happened.". . Anderson decided he had nothing to lose. "I hadn't told him he was going to be individually honored that day," he says. We'd go out and blow them up.". For a long time, Haerry never talked about his experiences at Pearl Harbor. 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. Once a shark finds its prey, it needs to decide on whether to eat or not based on smell and appearance. It fit in that location. Just stay together, hold hands and kick slowly 'cause there'll be sharks around. Finally, the four U.S. destroyers were ordered to mount a torpedo run. Whether they're a spiny dogfish all the way to great whites, sharks love eating fish. 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 . Hotline & WhatsApp : +971556212280 | Landline : +97143873596 , +97167499398 james reynolds obituary. "I never talked about it much then," he says. "It was boring," Potts says. "These captains of the ships, when they left the states, they had no idea where they were going, just that they're going via Pearl Harbor," Potts said. ages 2, 3 and 8, together with a 14-year-old cousin . He was nervous about volunteering for anything, but he raised his hand. He owns a chunk of the ship's burned deck, a reminder he keeps in a box with a few other items. did sharks eat pearl harbor victimsi miss you text art copy and paste. "We lit into them, started firing on them," Bruner said. "We took off," Bruner said, "firing just as fast as we could. "I got the lay a wreath in front of the names of the fallen," he says quietly. "One day our boat was stacked with two dollar bills," he said. Or got fired. "It was like a hard jolt.". "I'd do it a hundred times more," he says. Once a month or so, Clarendon Hetrick's phone rings with a call from Utah. "These guys were the first heroes of the war, even though the war hasn't been declared," Ray Jr. says. He keeps up with what the military does, and some of it irritates him. Before the war started, a hospital stay that long would have earned a sailor a discharge, but not anymore. "I'd already sent word, even before the first one got there," he says. Discipline seems less important than it was in his day. Enemy patrol planes spotted the ships and the raid was canceled. In 1940, Anderson reported to the Arizona once more, joining his brother for the first time since they had enlisted. Salmon. Only 335 men survived the bombing of the USS Arizona, the mighty battleship whose loss at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, inspired a nation to go to war. "We wouldn't get much fire back and by the time they sounded general quarters, we were on our way," Conter said. ", "Baloney," Conter replied. "We made friends. That fateful day led the United States . As they talked, Ray mentioned that his dad had been aboard the Arizona. -Ryan Dutcher. But he could not be prepared for what he found on the charred hulk of the battleship. He first visited the Arizona memorial in Pearl Harbor on the 50thanniversary of the attack and has returned since. They trade stories. Nobody could debate what that was, no question about it.". The crews were based on tender ships moored in secluded harbors. 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. The woman helped connect Bruner with other survivors from the Arizona and Pearl Harbor. He climbed aboard the ship, ducking to avoid bullets from the gunner planes. The ship was dead in the water. "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. Anderson smiled. Three days since the war started. It never returned, crippled in the Battle of the Coral Sea and scuttled by the Navy to keep the enemy from salvaging her. Hetrick thought about it. It is respectful. Anything you choose is fine. He keeps a folder of newspaper clippings, magazine stories and copies of a telegram. During his voyage to Alaska, Cook remembers the flying fish, which stirred up the water like a torpedo wake. He had stopped at Pearl Harbor more than a decade earlier, on his way to a posting in Korea. Haerry felt the entire ship life out of the water. The ship provided fire support for the Marines going ashore. Eighty years later, many of those killed are finally returning home and being laid to rest. Potts returned to Illinois in late 1945 to await his formal discharge, hanging out in Chicago. Abe offered condolences and said he prayed that all their souls were at peace. He finished his stint in the Navy in Shanghai, working shore patrol the way he did back in Honolulu. Hetrick turns a rusted chunk of metal over in his hands, running his fingers along the curves and edges. Minutes later, the Japanese attacked and the Arizona was on fire, sinking beneath the surface. "One of the last ones" He talks about going aboard the Frazier. The Coghlan approached the Aleutians in October, as winter was pushing fall aside. He settled in Palm Springs and built a career as a real estate developer, buying up land for commercial and residential projects. 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. 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. His oldest son had joined the Navy and his first posting was aboard the USS Ouellet, a frigate. His younger son believes the experience changed his dad forever. But Hetrick couldn't find work, so inside of six months, he signed up for the Navy Reserve. His job was to put the primer in the big 14-inch gun. "When we got up into the Aleutians, we started banging on the Japanese that had already landed," Bruner said. Sentiment ran high against the Japanese, he said, but also against U.S. leaders whose decisions many questioned in the aftermath. He started on a small station, playing organ music. The crew unloaded anything they could do without, to keep the damaged hull above the water line. 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. "I came back to the pier one morning and my name was on the list to do KP work," he says. Sailors found food and shelter wherever they could. "I said, 'sure, I'll take it.' The ship was to turn around and steam toward Alaska. He finished his training and was discharged in December 1945. The fireball from the explosion engulfed the six men in the box and trapped them. Stratton grew up in the tiny prairie town of Red Cloud, Neb., about as far away from an ocean as any place in the country. "I decided I'd do whatever they told me to. Today, the population can almost reach 1,500 when everyone is home. Joe had met Elizabeth McGauhy in Chicago half a decade earlier. This all changed when the United States declared war on Japan, bringing the country into World War II. 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. Military Casualties. The tender didn't want to be tied to the larger ship when the worst of the storm blew through. "It never gets easy to go back," he says. The Coghlan turned back, almost spent. did sharks eat pearl harbor victimshavelock wool australia. Langdell returned to Pearl Harbor in 1976. The first couple of trips back to Hawaii were difficult. popeyes vs chicken express; do venmo requests expire He wanted to part of it. world war ii. How could he say no? Their backs are gray, blue, or brown in color and covered with regularly arranged light spots. He stepped off the deck into a motor launch as the ship was sinking. did sharks attack titanic survivors. Haerry says he wants lunch delivered to his room, but the nurse says no. No one among the groups knew where he was or what he was doing, but the woman persisted. "It didn't take me that long. Haerry ran away from home to join the Navy. "Andy, you had 12 years of the damnedest fighting I ever saw. @webtv.net wrote in message. 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. We had survival training on the job. The Macdonough stayed until September, then sailed back on patrol in the Pacific. Bruner toured Nagasaki in a Jeep with other Navy officers and chief mates. "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. "Are you in the Navy? I had to take them to the parties and sit there until it was over.". Before the attack, many Americans were reluctant to become involved in the war in Europe. He signed up for a Navy program that allowed college graduates to attend officer candidate school and emerge as ensigns within three months. "To see the people I knew back in those days," he says. "I've gotten letters from some of the officer candidates who had my father as an instructor," Ray Jr. says. They listened for their names and their service branch. All those sailors from all those places and here was a guy who was practically a neighbor. war. Almost three decades later, he was the plant manager, second-in-command. Japanese torpedo bombers hit the Lexington and crippled the big ship. He gazes at the picture. Cook was the gun captain on the Pringle at the battle of Iwo Jima in 1945. Yes, a lot of brave men died. High winds could slam one ship into the other and sink one or both of the vessels. "Here's the one that told my mother I was missing in action on the Arizona," he says. Conter told the admiral he was interested in flight school, but doubted he would earn admission. The cities were in ruins. The Japanese military had established strategic outposts in the Aleutian Islands and had its eye on Alaska. "You can't get a guy hungry in three or four days," Conter says. "Some of the ships I was on had guys who liked to play the guitar, so I knew something about it. on the Arizonawhen the battleship sankon Dec. 7. the final survivor to be interred in the ship. At 93, he is one of the last survivors ofthe attack on the Arizona. Haerry accepted the medal, but found he could not speak. The mast and towers near the bow tilted at a sickening angle. a director yelled. Sea turtles. It is dated Dec. 21, 1941. He would work in the port director's office, delivering sealed packets to the captains of Navy ships. It turned out little was the right word. "OK," Bruner said. Were there sharks Pearl Harbor? The trophy sits on a small white base that raises it above other items on a shelf. All but one of the Pacific fleet's battleships were in port that morning, most of them moored to quays flanking Ford Island. The planes could fly at low altitudes, then buzz upward for a bombing run, confounding enemy gunners trying to calculate speed and distance. The Saratoga was attacked by six Japanese suicide bombers within about 24 hours. It wasn't, but the flash was a reminder, as if he needed anything more. We cut the torpedoes loose.". They were married in an Episcopal Church on Van Ness Avenue. The crews learned the routines of the Japanese ships. They were having trouble reading his prints, she told Stratton. "But it was a lot better than being shot at.". medge. They spoil their granddaughters and can now move on to a new great-granddaughter. 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. He took up golf seriously in Palm Springs and played in the Bob Hope Classic six times, once on a team with crooner Johnny Mathis. "They told me the team was already picked," he said. Anderson spoke to one of the tanker's crew about towing the Macdonough. Since the 1920s . Uncle Ray was nearing the end of his career in 1937 when John and Jake both decided to enlist. "Remember Pearl Harbor!" became a rallying cry for the U.S. during World War II. I don't think sharks go that far. He won't talk much about the escape, or about the men who didn't make it across. He will tell his story to people he knows well and trusts, but he is 93 and the details are fading from his memory. Three days later, he and his buddy were on a ship to San Francisco and then a train to Pensacola. "It gets your breath when you first see 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. A few days later, the drove through the crumbling streets of Hiroshima. They generally prefer the shallows in temperate, tropical regions, which is usually where divers and surfers come into contact with them and potentially become the victims of shark trauma. "He was out to sea nine months out of the year, only home for three months," Ray Jr. says. They danced. By the time they were back, the icicles were forming again and two more guys would go out.". The flare exploded and started a fire, which forced the plane into the water. did sharks eat pearl harbor victims. 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. "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. He doesn't like to talk about the attack. We can't see our own ships. One of the survivors would receive the Rhode Island Cross. Around 2005, he and Jeanne moved to Bullhead City. Photographs hang on the walls of his room. Except the cap. Whale sharks are found in warm waters in the Pacific . "It's just not going to happen. Here is a story he will tell, a memory he will keep. Doctors treated him and he recovered, but the his fingers never healed properly. They said, 'You should have been dead a long time ago.'". Maybe next time. One day, he stopped for coffee at the Brown Derby restaurant in Hollywood. "I went back and told my mother I wasn't going up there anymore," he said. The ships sent up their own planes and turned back the assault. While this is a genuine threat to safety, it continues to remain statistically unlikely. In 2011, he was one of six Rhode Islanders who had lived through the attack on Pearl Harbor, the only one from the Arizona. He said, 'whatever I can get out of you.' "I was on a date on that Saturday night with a gal I'd been running around with," he says. "I had to help my father out of his seat. He moved to Provo and sold cars until 1990. 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. He ran to the anti-aircraft battery, his battle station, but there was no ammunition ready. "He was very military by then, very disciplined.". "It was a big ship with a lot of metal, I'll tell you." Three years later, Ray Haerry Jr. holds the cross in his hand, fighting back tears. The report: Oh, yes, she can cook. Naming Pearl Harbor. 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. 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. Bruner was one of them. Seven decades later, he is one of nine living survivors from the Arizona. The United States was a neutral country at the time; the attack led to its formal entry into World War II the next day. Hetrick was sent to the USS Lexington, an aircraft carrier. A clerk tried to complete the process, normally a routine, if messy, step to secure the permit. Pearl Harbor was the most important American . A smile spreads across his face as Dean Martin's voice fills the cab. Rays. He wrote a training manual whose precepts the Navy still follows. Helpless, I watched your bomb sink the Arizona in nine minutes.". I said, 'You send her over, I'll re-enlist.' Sailors jumped into fires to escape sinking vessels. The band members had decided they wanted to honor survivors from that day. If a shark comes too close, hit it in the nose with your fist as hard as you can.". Occasionally, they would close the store and hook a 33-foot trailer to a pick-up truck. At the time, sailors wore patches designating their rates, the enlisted expression of rank, on the right or left sleeve, depending on their assignment. June 12, 2022 June 12, 2022 0 Comments June 12, 2022 0 Comments Nicaragua. Someone from the bureau had been asking questions. The venture was working out well. He gave Anderson the name of a contact there. 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. From the Vestal, Bruner was taken to the USS Solace, a hospital ship in the harbor. When he dies, his remains will be interred under the No. Langdell says only this: "It took two days to take all the bodies. Among those killed were over 1,700 aboard the USS Arizona, 103 . pearl harbor 1941. uss arizona. The band had won a trophy in one of the competitions during their stay in Honolulu. In late 1943, Conter flew a mission to rescue more than 200 coast watchers in New Guinea. Finally, the Navy gave him a medical discharge. The attack was devastating for the Americans, though the Japanese . sinastria di coppia karmica calcolo; quincy homeless shelter; plastic bags for cleaning oven racks; claudia procula death; farm jobs in vermont with housing A sailor on the deck of the repair ship Vestal spotted the men and threw a line across. Keeping the memories alive. Without them, Riel said, who knows where we'd be today. Did he ever. It sits a little higher than most items, but not necessarily on a platform. He has told her about his escape from the Arizona. Kitchen patrol. "I didn't have the slightest idea what would happen when I signed up," he said. He is one of nine living survivors of the Arizona and, at 97, he has amassed a lifetime of unforgettable days.