That didn't last long and he headed back to Morris, where he met Marietta. Using its sonar equipment, the ship fired depth charges and eventually sank the enemy submarine. The six men stared straight ahead, almost as if they were back in line, at attention. It took Ray Jr. years, decades to piece together his father's story. The studios needed tough men who could handle dangerous situations. Coast watchers were military intelligence operatives who gathered information about enemy activities on islands across the South Pacific. Finally, the Navy gave him a medical discharge. A pistol sits on top of his television at home. As anniversaries of the attack passed, Ray Jr. would asked his dad if he wanted to visit the USS Arizona memorial at Pearl Harbor. In 2006, Hetrick returned to Pearl Harbor for the 65thanniversary of the Japanese attack. He met up with some of the guys from the turret crew and they hopped a boat to shore, where there was a call for volunteers to join the Navy's destroyers. "I just got discharged. Langdell is one of the last nine survivors from the Arizona. Debris from the Arizona showered the Tennessee's stern and started fires, but the vessel stayed afloat. After he returned from Korea, Haerry was promoted to master chief petty officer, signifying his experience and level of service. Joe proposed and Libby accepted. Anything you choose is fine. "One day our boat was stacked with two dollar bills," he said. His wife, Libby, who died two years ago. niagara this week flyer delivery. But he became restless. LaRocque asked. Late in the year, after an overhaul in San Francisco, the Coghlan returned to patrol duty off the Aleutians with a half dozen other U.S. vessels. It is respectful. It turned out most of the regular stuntmen were still in the military. Bruner laughs as he remembers the conversation. The ship was dead in the water. No sharks did not eat Titanic passengers. Joe had met Elizabeth McGauhy in Chicago half a decade earlier. poil bulbe noir ou blanc; juego de ollas royal prestige 7 piezas; ano ang kahalagahan ng agrikultura sa industriya; nashville hotels with ev charging During construction of the memorial, the Navy sliced off pieces of the Arizona's wreckage to make room for the structure that sits above the sunken ship today. The ones that gave him nightmares, the stories from the day he nearly burned to death, he kept to himself. No one knew much about Bruner's years in the Navy, not the early years anyway. A lot of people agree that what George did was heroic, but the Navy balks at every step, in part because George disobeyed a direct order. For over an hour, in two waves, some 350 Japanese aircrafthaving taken off from six . "I'd already sent word, even before the first one got there," he says. Aviators most often arose from left-arm rates. Afterward, Langdell sought out other survivors who had formed reunion organizations. "This shows where all the ships were," he says, pointing at a map depicting Pearl Harbor on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941. Tensions between Japan and the U.S. simmered throughout the early 20th century and came to a boil in the 1930s as Japan attempted to conquer China, even . "What houses they built!" The parties sometimes dragged into the early morning hours. Las Vegas seems to like Hetrick. "Are you out of the Navy, Andy?" 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. Interesting Facts About Wai Momi (Pearl Harbor) - Pearl Harbor Bruner was put in charge of the gun batteries. Cook has returned to Pearl Harbor three times and he likes the Arizona memorial. As the war with Japan intensified, the Navy was building new warships as fast as it could. Inside the Quest to Name Pearl Harbor's Unknown Victims | Time He weighed 92 pounds by the time he was sent to rehabilitation in Corona, Calif. "It is only by the grace of God that I stand here today," he said. He asked what the fellow did. I think that's what kept me living to this day.". He was cut loose in San Francisco and returned to Los Angeles, where he had married a girl back in late 1942. Doctors treated him and he recovered, but the his fingers never healed properly. On a recent fall afternoon, Stratton ambles down the driveway and fires up the engine. The six-year Pentagon project identified nearly 400 who died on the USS Oklahoma in 1941. We'd go out and blow them up.". We carefully wrapped them in sheets. The survivors' group that found him was right, he has concluded: The stories of the Arizona should not die with the men who lived them. He was on Ford Island when the Japanese attacked, training for new assignment. Yet in a place where you couldn't cross the street without running into a war vet, Bruner was not just another ex-sailor who made it home. He climbed aboard the ship, ducking to avoid bullets from the gunner planes. "So they knew.". 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. "Well, I'd brushed enough paint on that damn ship, I figured I could do it," he says. In late 1943, Conter flew a mission to rescue more than 200 coast watchers in New Guinea. Pearl Harbor | Holocaust Encyclopedia ", "It's a brand new destroyer, the Coghlan, DD-606," he said, "built right here in 'Frisco.". He saw Gene LaRocque, a man he'd served with aboard the Macdonough. They still had to climb onto the dock and then into a truck for a short ride to a Navy hospital. A moment passes. A platform marked the wreckage of the USS Arizona. The Langdells ended up honeymooning in Monterey and Carmel on the central California coast. In 1887 the harbor's military history began when the US Navy set up coaling stations in the harbor. "We won't get in," Conter said. Photographs. Stratton falls easily into the memories of his years on diving boats. He's not so fond of the crowds around Honolulu and doesn't plan to go back. 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. ", He stops in front of a newspaper, the front page of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin with the headline: "WAR! He sits in his wheelchair as his son recites the narrative, keeping his father's story alive. You don't fire guns in port, so I ran out real quick to see what was happening. The ship provided fire support for the Marines going ashore. As they talked, Ray mentioned that his dad had been aboard the Arizona. "To go through that to me is incomprehensible. When he dies, his remains will be interred under the No. A second telegram, dated Jan. 6 reported that Conter was alive and would contact his family. They respected a guy who survived such a horrific attack. He wasn't ready to see it all again, to sharpen the memories he'd tried to dull. He felt a tap on his shoulder. 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. Anderson's road to the radio booth started in Hollywood, with a screen test at a studio where he had worked. "I put on two life jackets," Hetrick said. After an initial run-in with the guard at the gate ("Three weeks ago, I was shooting at people and killing them and I didn't even know who they were," he growled at the guard. The man walked over and looked at Langdell's name tag. did sharks eat pearl harbor victims. Only a few hundred people lived there then. mailchimp archive contacts Controle dos clientes e convnios; fatal car accident loveland colorado Abertura e fechamento de caixa, Sangria e despesas; He started chatting up a regular customer, a contractor, and got a job building houses. One of our cruisers, the heavy cruiser, got hit and water got into the oil. He had held on to it through the war. 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. For years, Stratton wore the scars from the Arizona without talking about them much. They bought a small ranch and, while Lonnie continued to work welding jobs, they grew walnuts, almonds, peaches, apples, nectarines, cherries and grapes. It sits a little higher than most items, but not necessarily on a platform. 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. He didn't have to pay for dinner. 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. He will tell his story if he's asked and he will remember details along the way. Pearl Harbor was a United States Naval base on the island of Oahu, located west of Honolulu. did sharks eat pearl harbor victims - daytuigiay.vn "I canned 500 quarts of fruit one year," Marietta says. The smell of burned skin filled the air. Too many strategic decisions come down from Washington instead of from the commanders on the ground. In his dining room in Colorado Springs, he keeps a replica of a hard diving helmet, the kind his divers used. And he still likes to talk about that other young fellow from Oklahoma, the one who didn't make it home. That caught the lieutenant colonel's interest. "I didn't have any speaking parts, but I was working for the studio and they paid me.". They spoil their granddaughters and can now move on to a new great-granddaughter. He still will not talk about it. As the 50thanniversary of the attack neared, Langdell got a call from a documentary filmmaker. "The hat represents the Arizona. He knew he was near release the day an officer came by and launched into a pep talk about the war and the Navy's role in it. He then spent 14 months recovering in Great . But he is proud of his service, of the other sailors on the Arizona. The planes could fly at low altitudes, then buzz upward for a bombing run, confounding enemy gunners trying to calculate speed and distance. He had chased Japanese soldiers along the coast of China three years before America declared war on Japan. 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. 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. "He's there for me. He started on a small station, playing organ music. A few days later, the drove through the crumbling streets of Hiroshima. Alcohol. did sharks eat pearl harbor victims - fittico.com These Photos Of The Pearl Harbor Attack Are Still Shocking Decades Later "A day that will live in infamy." By . "We had to have two crews, a regular crew and a stand-by crew lined up waiting," Bruner said. One of the men started yelling. "The station wagon was for the captains of some of the ships that would come in," he said. Langdell was discharged at the war's end and returned to Massachusetts, where his wife, Libby, waited. Stratton could not. did sharks eat pearl harbor victims - soapidea.com As a tender, he stayed on the surface, monitoring the divers working on rigs, piers, pipelines, any piece of seaside or seagoing equipment. He worked on board as a mechanic for a torpedo squadron and ended up in charge of the hydraulic shop. Conter's plane hadn't been out long in September 1943 when enemy bullets pierced one of their rear hatches and hit a parachute flare. After about six months of training in San Diego, Hetrick returned to Honolulu and joined the USS Saratoga, the sister ship of the Lexington. Just stay together, hold hands and kick slowly 'cause there'll be sharks around. The family sold maple syrup distilled from the trees on their farm. His oldest son had joined the Navy and his first posting was aboard the USS Ouellet, a frigate. With a total of 1,195 men aboard, about 300 went down with the ship. He first visited the Arizona memorial in Pearl Harbor on the 50thanniversary of the attack and has returned since. Did sharks eat Titanic passengers - Google Groups 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. 2023 www.azcentral.com. "Mr. Langdell, Mr. Langdell, you've got to come here quick," he said. "But I had a brother in Vietnam who didn't want to talk about it at all, so I guess I realized if they want to talk, they'll talk. "No one knew where the hell I was," Bruner says. "I think my dad was one of the first American heroes of World War II.". Photographing survivors of the battleship USS Arizona. They catch up. 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. 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. Langdell says only this: "It took two days to take all the bodies. "In the service, if you didn't use nasty words, you weren't a good sailor.". We got into a run-and-gun battle. They moved to Santa Maria, not far from Santa Barbara, to be near their oldest son, then to Colorado Springs to be near Randy. 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. USS Indianapolis at Mare Island. We were going to have a date the next day. He built a reputation as a guy who could bring in the harvest on time. He remembers the crewman trying to climb a ladder to escape through a hatchway on the deck. "If somebody in authority said do something back then, you didn't question it. Then we got hit.". He has trouble remembering the past. 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. 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. Nicaragua. At 100, he is the oldest. Anderson smiled. Helpless, I watched your bomb sink the Arizona in nine minutes.". Pearl Harbor, naval base and headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, Honolulu county, southern Oahu Island, Hawaii, U.S. Usually, sharks will prioritize eating: Smaller fish. 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. Lonnie and Marietta Cook met in Morris after the war, but the road to their home here today winds thousands of miles across the country. He was on his own once again, he and his young family. He had turned down a promotion to ensign, preferring the camaraderie of the enlisted ranks. "He told you the story?" did sharks eat pearl harbor victimsi miss you text art copy and paste. Three days later, he and his buddy were on a ship to San Francisco and then a train to Pensacola. They were married in an Episcopal Church on Van Ness Avenue. During WW2, did sailors get eaten by sharks? - Quora "They were holed up behind sandbags, but they never got hit.". He keeps a folder of newspaper clippings, magazine stories and copies of a telegram. Were there sharks Pearl Harbor? Bruner toured Nagasaki in a Jeep with other Navy officers and chief mates. The men helped one another, holding up anyone who weakened. "Cut!" person grazed by a shark), nor incidents classified by the International Shark Attack File as boat attacks, scavenge, or doubtful. Cook was a gunner's mate on the Arizona. He was eating breakfast when he heard the first pops of the attack planes strafing Battleship Row. The burn ward filled with the injured. If the shark feels like a dead fish isn't worth its time, it will leave without wasting more energy. he met his contact and not long after, he was standing in for Orson Welles in a scene from the movie "The Stranger.". He would become the final survivor to be interred in the ship. "They tried to jump off. Bruner, who turned 94 in November, is now one of nine living USS Arizona crewmen who survived the ship's sinking. Did he ever. "It's just not going to happen. They were dedicating it to Potts and wanted him to have it. Servicemembers stationed in Hawaii took care of the memorial during the 2013 government shutdown: Servicemembers stationed in Hawaii treat Pearl Harbor as a living . He got to know Alan Ladd, who had starred in a series of war movies. "Sometimes they'd get shooting at you and you'd look at the shells and they looked like they were going to hit you. Conter told the admiral he was interested in flight school, but doubted he would earn admission. 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. world war ii. ("Two of us with the same rank were up for the same kind of job," he said. He motions toward his gnarled ear. 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. "I ran the decompression chamber on jobs. Conter got his wings in November 1942. did sharks eat pearl harbor victims. "Cover the decks, anywhere you can find them up to the top of the masts.". The Children of Pearl Harbor | History| Smithsonian Magazine "The nights up there were already short, so I didn't get much sleep," Cook says. If a plane crashed, crocodiles awaited in the river. He visited the memorial and was relieved to see the builders got it right. He told his story as his son, Ted, recorded it on video. Many veterans who survived the attack on Pearl Harbor have met over the years and become friends, particularly at the annual Dec. 7 gatherings at the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor. It is dated Dec. 21, 1941. "We picked up a couple of girls and made the rounds. 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. "We had 10 or 12 sharks around us all the time," Conter says. Within a day or two, someone came into the ward and said a few of the wounded would be sent to California. They were trying to replenish submarines or send smaller ships in. You're on your own, every day.'". "That's what I want to remember. USS Indianapolis saw the worst shark attack in history It is about three feet tall, with a carved island figure on top and the silhouette of a Hawaiian warrior on a plaque. By 1991, the 50th . But he clutches the cap and puts it on as he sits in an easy chair by the window. By Michael E. Ruane. For Hetrick, the section of mooring line links him to those final moments of the Arizona. Ken Potts eases around the side of the pool table, waving toward items like a museum tour guide in a back room. 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. Finally, the tanker spotted the destroyer. "After 36 hours, I still hadn't put in a day. You're the bravest man I ever know. He fought with other sailors in the Battle of Midway and watched the Marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima. UPDATE:Joe Langdell diedin February 2015, months after this report. June 12, 2022 . 3 min read. Discipline seems less important than it was in his day. His job was to put the primer in the big 14-inch gun. In early January, Conter visited his young lady friend again and again, Admiral Calhoun was there. But one day and one place in Cook's 94 years seem to embody all the rest, the day in December 1941 when the young sailor from Oklahoma escaped the ship that sent America to war. Song's got some zip to it, he said. 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 sits today in the carport outside his home. He was thrown into the ocean and waited 57 hours to be rescued while shipmates around him were eaten by sharks. Nobody was expecting anything like that.". "That must be old Clyde Williams," he thought, the Arizona band member killed at Pearl Harbor. Stratton climbed to his feet and, biting back the pain, he stood and when his bed was ready, he collapsed back into it. Trains run close enough to hear the horns during the day, but not close enough to make them a nuisance. It was the first time Randy, his son, had seen his father cry. One day, a Navy officer came on board and asked if anyone wanted to volunteer for an assignment in the aviation section. Tall pines tower over the house. At Kulangsu, an international settlement on an island off the southern Chinese coast, Anderson's unit ran into the French Foreign Legion, who had been cornered by Japanese soldiers on a high ridge. I had one pair of dungarees and that was it, that and a towel and shaving gear.". "I decided I'd do whatever they told me to. "I cleaned up my language," he says, admitting he deployed a salty vocabulary, even after leaving active duty. 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. queensland figure skating. The clerks decided they could not send Stratton away without his permit. 2,614 Pearl Harbor Attack Premium High Res Photos 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. A few years ago, the Cooks attended a fund-raising dinner at a local American Legion post. The planes flew up the Sepik River from the northern coast of New Guinea. He doesn't want to answer questions about his war service, shrugging them off or insisting he can't remember the details anymore. 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. The ship was moored in the shallows of Pearl Harbor's . Pearl Harbor Veteran Survived 57 Hours in Shark-Infested Waters They called the Marines out with rifles to protect the plane and the guys while we hauled it in.". Haerry straightened in his seat as his story was told. After so many years of travel, the Cooks have settled into a more tranquil pace. Pearl Harbor (2001) - IMDb did sharks eat pearl harbor victimshavelock wool australia. The Coghlan turned back, almost spent. We can't let it happen again.". "She went to California and I followed her," Lonnie says. Stratton's eyes brighten. "It was like a hard jolt.". He's never been back. If they found anything that belonged to the Navy or hadn't been approved, they'd take it. "We said we'd volunteer if they'd put two or three of us together on the same ship," he said. did sharks attack titanic survivors. "We made friends. The shock of jumping into a harbor knowing he couldn't swim. He joined the USS Arizona Reunion Association and stays in touch with a few of the remaining survivors. "Lou, let's go to flight school," Conter's buddy said one day. At 93, he is one of the last survivors ofthe attack on the Arizona. Until his partner ran off with all the money. Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. 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.". the young man asked. "I said, 'Well, come on, then,'" Marietta says, and in 1950, they wed. That's where the cross-country adventures begin. On the 70thanniversary of the attack, the men had been brought to the state capitol to receive new honors. By 1991, the 50thanniversary of the attack, the number of living Arizona crewmen had shrunk. He brought all of his family: his wife Jeanne, his three sons and their families. He catalogs the scars and their origin. But there are moments when he knows what he did meant something. striking a number of people in the water. And in the back corner, a real trophy. He is one of nine living survivors of the Arizona and, at 97, he has amassed a lifetime of unforgettable days. "We lit into them, started firing on them," Bruner said. With eyes too close or two far apart, a crewman could deliver faulty readings. "It was a big ship with a lot of metal, I'll tell you." Enemy patrol planes spotted the ships and the raid was canceled. He can't relive those images anymore. did sharks eat pearl harbor victims. Three days earlier, their 20-year-old son became the first Suffolk County casualty in World War II. Before the trip, Langdell hadn't talked much about his years in the war, about his time on the Arizona. As the ships turned around, a squadron of enemy bombers appeared. From the shore, he helped wounded men from the water, men whose bodies had been torn apart by bombs and bullets and fire. Conter and others in his group boarded a boat to go out to the platform and see his old ship. Hetrick shrugs, trying to get comfortable in the recliner. He is one of nine living survivors from the attack on the USS Arizona, the battleship he boarded in 1941 when he was 17. The trophy sits on a small white base that raises it above other items on a shelf. They ran Joe and Libby Langdell's Village Mart for more than 20 years until they retired. "Mr. Langdell," he said, "when you're done with your breakfast, you'll report to the pier and you'll be met by a motor whale boat and a party of 20 enlisted men with sheets and pillow cases. After the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom, the United States opted to construct a naval base in 1899. "They paid me by the day," he said. Anderson has returned to the Arizona memorial often and has taken his family there. "Something had happened that no one could comprehend.". Many have since died. USS Arizona: The men who survived the attack on Pearl Harbor "Can you tell me what ship did he go on after the Arizona?" It hastened the United States' entry . He tried not to remember the days after the attack. 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. The offshore diving business could leave its own kind of scars. We all have to remember that they did not die in vain.". "I came back to the pier one morning and my name was on the list to do KP work," he says. We had survival training on the job. The Hirasaki family suffered some of the worst losses that terrible morning. "I had to start training the new recruits on every machine," Bruner said. So he did. "The Arizona was a fighting battleship," Joe says. Octopus. By the time they were back, the icicles were forming again and two more guys would go out.". He saw action across the South Pacific, patrolled areas where suicide bombers were attacking American destroyers. "I didn't have the slightest idea what would happen when I signed up," he said. Nope. Pictures of past parades. Calhoun quizzed Conter about his posting, his job on the ship. Whale sharks can grow to 65 feet in length and weigh up to 75,000 pounds. She nods and smiles. "Not Navy ships, other ships. Haerry would come home on those days with cigar boxes full of the coins. He was at a restaurant last summer and someone noticed his USS Arizona cap. Deer and rabbits wander the hillside. Salvage work would begin soon on others.