WORLD WAR II Heroes of Pearl Harbor While Japanese forces rained death and destruction on Pearl Harbor, American personnel acted with uncommon valor and 15 heroic servicemen earned the .

by Robert W. Lee F\or personnel stationed at the U.S. naval base at Pearl Har bor, Sunday mornings were usually uneventful, devoted most ly to church services, rest, and such routine jobs as cleaning, painting, and othervfise keeping the ships of the U.S. Pacific Fleet in top shape. Such was the agenda at the break of dawn on December 7, 1941. Henry A. Lachenmayer, a 22-year- old band musician on the USS Pennsylvania, kept a diary written on a Royal portable typewriter se questered in his berth aboard the dry-docked battleship. His entry for that fateful day began:

It was Sunday again, you might say just another Sunday, but to us in the fleet it meant more than that, it meant the one day of the week that granted us true relax ation, the one day apart from drills maneuvered and work of allsorts. Adayforchurch, anda Pearl Harbor, as seen from the air on October 30,1941. A little more than a month later, the harbor and day for play. the Pacific Fleet moored within it would be lefta smoking ruin bya Japanese attack. We, the band on the Pennsyl vania, had a strenuous day on Saturday. A landing force in vania was struck by a 500-pound bomb, Lachenmayer was sud spection in the morning and a dance band contest in the denly transformed from a musician into a rescue worker and evening which, incidentally, we won. We were still speak makeshift medic. Scampering to his battle station, he helped ing of this same contest the next morning as we heard band squelch a fire ignited by an explosion in the enclosure where anti call go at 10 minutes of 8 and we proceeded to the quarter aircraft shells were stored. Later, he attended as best he could to deck in preparation for morning colors. the wounded. "I wandered around the dressing station, my eyes not believing what they saw. I gave a drink here and loosened an On the way, someone looked toward the Naval Air Station on Ford article of clothing there; there was not much else I could do," he Island a few miles away and noticed planes descending gradual recalled. Later still, he "assisted in taking the dead off the ship ly from high altitude to perhaps 150 feet from the ground before and in bringing on board many rounds of ammunition." leveling off. "To our unsuspecting eyes," Lachenmayer contin While Henry Lachenmayerdid what he could aboard the Penn ued, "it was just another drill [by U.S. planes], though it was sylvania, 65,000 other men and women stationed at Pearl Harbor somewhat peculiar that they would pick Sunday morning for ma reeled under the Japanese onslaught. The devastating attack left neuvering. Not until we saw the flames shoot out of the large more than 2,400 persons dead and more than a thousand wounded. hangar at the head of the small island did we realize the signifi Yet among this carnage American servicemen performed incred cance of the situation." ible acts of courage and heroism. Fifteen received the Congres The Japanese "surprise" attack on the Pacific Fleet, and on air sional Medal of Honor for their feats of daring and bravery. Of craft at the Army's Hickam Field and other nearby military in those, only five lived to receive their medals personally. In the stallations, was underway. When the main deck of the Pennsyl- pages that follow, we remember these heroes of Pearl Harbor.

THE NEW AMERICAN • JULY 2. 2001 iWORLDWARII

USS Arizona suffered the most devastating blow de livered by the Japanese atPearl Harbor. At about 8; 10 a.m. a 1,760-pound bomb (one ofeight tostrike the battleship) penetrated the deck of the big ship, igniting the forward ammunition magazine diat contained around 1.5 million pounds ofgunpowder. According to survivors and eye witnesses on otherships, the huge vessel, which had re cently returned from fleet maneuvers and was moored along , seemed to lift out of the water mo- mentarily before crashing down and sinking within nine Hj* minutes. The entire forward part of the ship virtually dis- integrated from the explosion, and most ofitscrewmem- bers were either killed by KS the blast and the ensuing fires, or by suffocation when ^ USS Arizona was launched June 19,1915. Displacing 31,400 tons, she theybecame trapped. Nowa was 608 feet in length and carried a main armament of twelve 14-inch national shrine at Pearl Har- guns. Moored off Ford Island on the morning of December 7,1941, bor, 945 sailors are still en- Arizona took eight bombs from attacking Japanese warplanes. One of tombed in the sunken ship. | the bombs ignited her magazines, causing a devastating explosion. All Marine private Russell J. \ | told, 1,177 of the ship's crew were killed in the attack, Arizona earned McCurdy, one of the sur- o one battle star for World War II service. vivors, recalls how he and 1 others watched helplessly as - from magazine explosions and a direct bomb hit on the bridge bomb fragments and ship ^ | which resulted in the loss of his life." debris flew hundreds offeet ^ With Captain Van Valken- into the air. "The ship's mid- ,— , _•—•••'• ' =• ^ ^ burgh and Admiral Kidd now secdon opened like abloom- paptainCaptain j iJ'IS among the casualties, Samuel Franklin Van Valkenburgh I , Glenn Fuqua, the ship's dam- ing flower, burning white iFrankl'ii) Van Valkenburgti age control officer, became the hot. Our entire magazine ^ senior surviving officer. It was and forward oil storage exploded, sending tons ofTNT and fuel now his responsibility to oil into the water where it caught fire, sending huge, billowing as many of his crew as possi- clouds ofblack smoke intotheair." In all, 1,177 of theships crew ble. Fuqua had been knocked were lost —nearly half ofthe U.S. military personnel killed that ^ down and stunned by a bomb day and more sailors than died in the Spanish-American War and j that hit the ship's stem early in combined. f the attack and prior to die hor- The commanding officer ofthe Arizona, Captain Franklin Van rendous explosion, but he re- Valkenburgh, was awarded the Medal ofHonor posthumously. 3 gained consciousness intime to The medal, presented by the president inthe name ofCongress, Commander direct fire-fighting and rescue isour country's highest award for outstanding bravery in the pres ence ofan enemy. When the Japanese attack began he was urged S

THE NEW AMERICAN • JULY 2. 2001 Thebattleship USS California lost 98ofhercrew when she was sunk in Pearl Harbor by the Japanese attack. Refloated on March 25,1942, California underwent a lengthy reconstruction at the Puget Sound Navy Yard after wiiich she returned tosea on hershakedown cruise onJanuary 31,1944. On October 25th ofthat year, California avenged her sinking at Pearl Harbor by firing more than 60rounds with her main armament at a Japanese battleship and cruiser force during theAmerican victory in the Battle ofSurigao Strait, California earned seven battle stars for World War 11 service.

'' • dered unconscious by the nauseous fumes and handi- capped by his painful in- juries,he persistedinhis des- perateeffortsto speed up the supplyof ammunition and at USS California was also bombed, toqjedoed, and set afire, 5 the same time repeatedly causing it to listheavily to portside. Four members of its crew / risked his life to enter flood- earned Medalsof Honorfor their attempts to both repel the Japan- ' . i ing compartments and drag to ese and save fellow crewmembers. ^"•i J .I safety unconscious shipmates Herbert Charpiot Jones was commissioned in the rank of En 1^^ •; 1z whosubmergedwere ingraduallyoil. By hisbeing in- sign in November 1940. By December of 1941, he was serving as an officer on boardthe California. When the ship's mechani ^ispiring leadership, his valiant cal ammunition hoists, which lift ammunition to the ship's anti Ensign effons andhis extreme loyal- aircraft battery, became dis- ^ tierbert Charpiot Jones ty tohis ship and hercrew, he abled, Ensign Jones helped or- ^ - - saved many of his shipmates ganizeand leada partythat be- from death and was largely responsible for keeping the Califor gan hand-transferringthe am- nia in action during the attack." munition. He was mortally M Thomas James Reeves originally enlisted in the Navy in July wounded by abomb explosion. b|bk 1917 as an electrician, third class. He eventually rose to the rank When two of his comrades of ChiefRadioman. By the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl sought toremove him from the . / Harbor, ChiefPetty Officer Reeves was serving on the Califor flame-engulfed area as he lay | nia. During the attack, Reeves helped maintain the ammunition dying, herefused toletthem do ^ flow by hand after the mechanical hoists were damaged. Accord so, saying in effect, "leave me = ing to his Medal ofHonor citation, "on his own initiative" and "in alone I am done for. Get out of i a burning passageway" hestayed atthejob until hewasovercome here before the magazines go | by the smoke andfirethat tookhis life. off." Ensign Jones received the ^ Machinist's Mate First Class Robert R. Scott had enlisted in die Medal ofHonor for "conspicu- Navyduring the 1930s.By the ous devotion to duty, extraordi- jChiefC"*®* RadiomannadlOmail time of the Pearl Harbor attack, nary courage, and complete fThOITiaSThomas JamesJaniBS ReevesR66V6S he was servingaboard the Cal disregard of his own life, above ifornia. Duringthe attack,a tor and beyond the call ofduty, during the attack onthe Fleet inPearl pedo strike caused flooding in Harbor, by Japanese Forces on 7 December 1941." thecompartment thathousedan Lieutenant Jackson Charles Pharris was in charge of the ord air compressor that Scott was nance repair party on the third deck of the California when the S assignedto maintain.Other per- first Japanese torpedo struck underneath his station. Stunned and 0 sonnel evacuated the compart- severely injured by the concussion, he promptly recovered and 1 ment,but according to his Medal assisted inorganizing the makeshift hand-supply ammunition pro I ofHonor citation, "Scott refused cedure for the antiaircraft guns.According to his Medalof Hon I toleave, saying words to the ef- or citation: "With water and oil rushing in where the port bulk ^ feet 'this ismy station and I will head had been tornup from the deck, with many of the remain 3 stay and givethem air as long as ing crewmembers overcome by oil fumes, and the ship without Machinist's Mate the gunsare going.'" RobertR. power and listing heavily to port as a result of a second torpedo First Class Scottwasposthumously award hit, Lt. Pharrisorderedthe shipfitters tocounterflood. Twice ren- Robert R. Scott ed the Medal of Honor.

THE NEW AMERICAN • JULY 2. 2001 WORLD WAR II

ton on his phone.A sailor on the line could hear the stricken sailor still breathing. Rushing to the room, he pulled theunconscious Rossto safe ty. Bythen, though, Ross hadstopped breathing, but hewas revived withar tificial respiration.The resilientRoss then remembered that an exhaust Wsrrant OffiCCr needed to be turned off, so he re- Qonald Kirby ROSS turned to what was then a raging in- - femo and shut it down. He then went further below to inspect the generators, but when he attempted to move an unconscious sailor, Launched in1914, USS Nevada wasthe only battlewagon to geUp hehimself passed outonce again. Upon regaining consciousness, steam during the . Despite being struck by he again returned to his station and remained diere until ordered torpedoes and bombs, Nevada was able to get underway, but her by superiors to abandon it. valiant attempt to leave the harbor ended when she was hit yet again. Refloated and repaired, she returned to action in 1944 In time tohelp Happily, Ross' eyesight returned after 10 days oftreatment. He out with the Normandy Invasion. Returning to the Pacific in 1945, she eventually rose to the rank ofcaptain and participated in the 1944 unleashed her main armament on the Japanese insupportof U.S. D-Day invasion of Normandy. When he died in 1992, his ashes amphibious landings. Nevada ms awarded seven battle stars for World werescatteredoverthe Nevada which, after the war and following War II service. _ herparticipation inthe early atom bomb tests, was sunk off the coast of Hawaii in 1948. USS Nevada was the only battleship to get underway Chief Boatswain Edwin Joseph Hill was during the attack, but it had to be beached before leaving .• another member of the yVevflrfa's crew to re- the harbor rather than run the risk of blocking the harbor en ceive ournation's highest military award for trance should it be sunk. During the ordeal, Junior Warrant heroism at Pearl Harbor. During the height Officer Donald Kirby Ross was able tokeep the heavily dam strafing and bombing. Hill led the aged ship's dynamos and generators running. His actions ship's line-handling detail to the quays, arecredited withsavingthe livesof manyof his shipmates. 1^^^^I where they cast off the lines so that the ship Ross and his men were stationed in die ship's forward dy ^ I could get underway. He then swam back to namoroom.The lastof four 1,600-pound bombsthat struck the vessel and later, while attempting to the Nevada sent fire throughthe ship's ventilators and into ^ drop anchor after it was decided to beach the d j\!evada rather than risk blocking the harbor the room. Ross ordered his men to leave, then performed all Chiefef Boatswain entrance, he was blown overboard and killed of the duties himself until he was blinded by steam and be came unconscious.As he fell, his chest pressed the talk but EdwinVin Joseph Hill by a bomb explosion.

USS Oklahoma was struck bythree torpedoes during thefirst dures for making | fewminutes of theraid. Partof thebattleshipwasquickly flooded, causing it to list. There was no time to follow established proce- to flood it on the ^ ^ 9 opposite side to help keep it up- right. As it be- % came obvious that j ing to capsize (it | ? ' didsominutes),withinit was20 Ensignfrancis C. Flaherty^^^^^^^K/|^

more torpedoes. U.S. Naval Reserve Ensign Francis C. Flaherty and Seaman Seaman FifStFirst CiaSSClass First Class James Richard Ward were JamesJameS Richard WarWard assigned to theship's turretcrews.Both Aitferarfa-class ship, the 27,500-ton USS Oklahoma was moored In Battleship Row when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Five torpedo ignored an abandon-ship order, opting instead to remain at their hitsand20 minutes later, the Oklahoma capsized with the loss of 429 posts with flashlights to assist other crewmembers in finding their of her officers and crew. Oklahoma earned one battlestar for World way to safety. Flaherty and Ward were among the 429 men who War II service. died. Both received the Medal of Honor posthumously.

THE NEW AMERICAN • JULY2. 2001 USS Utah was knocked out just minutes after the Japanese attack be gan. At 8:01 a.m.. shortly after the Utah's crew had raised the colors, the ancientbattleship(whichnowserved as a training vessel onto which our own pilotswould drop sandbags to practice bombing) wasstruckby two torpedoes and began listing to port. It capsized with alossofsixofficers and58sailors. The oldest battlewagon aat Pearl Harbor, USS Utah served mainly asa practice target and asa Thirty officers and 431 enlistees sur- gunnery training ship. Shortly after the Japanese attack began, Utah took atorpedo hit forw/ard and • Jj -11 Karr^n m beQaHbegan to list. At 8:12Bi 12 thethg listli proved too much for her mooring lines; they parted and Wa/? capsized. viyed. Ironically, as the sh pbegan to The rusting hulk of the old ship lies partially submerged at Pearl Harbor, the remains of 58of her roll, the large timbers that had been sailors entombed inside., Utahms avi/arded one battle star for World War II service. placed on the deck to cushion the im pact of sandbag practice "bombs" .• began to shift, injuring some crew- • When theJapanesebombshit the Utah,waterflooded the en men and hampering efforts to aban- T- gineering compartments and rushed toward the boilers. As the ship beganto list,Tomich warnedhiscrewof the impending ca Chief Watertender PeterTomich tastrophe and relayed the order to evacuate. "Get topside, go," — a naturalized American citizen s he implored."[T]he ship is turning over ... you haveto escape bom in Prolog, a village in what | I now." was then Bosnia-Herzegovina — i 0 Tomich knew, however, that unless the boilers were secured, had enlisted in the U.S. Army dur- i 1 theywould explode. Soignoring theevacuation order, he stayed ing World War I. Ten days after gV I behind and moved from valve to valve, releasing steam when completing that commitment he 5 necessary, and otherwise stabilizing a situationthat could have enlisted in the Navy. As a water- killed scores of his fellow shipmates. tender on the Utah, Tomich was re- ' ^ == About 11 minutes after the initial attack, the mooring lines sponsible for the key task of keep- Chief Watertender holding the Utahin place snapped and theshipcapsized, taking ing the ship's huge boilers operat- Peter TomiCn Peter Tomich and more than 50 of his compatriots to a watery ing. The job entailed a thorough grave. Hewas awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously. It is understanding oftheengine room'spiping system, thegauges that the only such medal to remain unclaimed, as the Navy has been controlledpressure, and other relatedequipment. unable to locate a relative ofTomich to accept it.

USS West Virginia was struck by two •bombs and seven torpedoes during the attack. The first bomb penetrated the superstructure deck, destroying theport casemates and causing I that deck to collapse to the level of the galley H deck below. The torpedoes caused flooding that I required the battleship to be abandoned. In all. SI 106 men lost their lives. I The West Virginia's commandingofficer,Cap- c/j tain Mervyn S. Bennion, arrived on the bridge ^ moments after the attack began, only to be struck down by a bomb fragment. Despite suffering an Mervyn Sharp Bennion' eventually fatal abdominal wound. Captain Ben Considered a "super-dreadnought," USS West Virginia ^nion refused to be carried from the bridge. He also was launched on November 17,1921. On December?, 1941, IVes? Wrgw/atookseven insisted that the first aid men help others rather than torpedo hits in her port side in conjunction with hits from two armor piercing bombs, 'himself, and he continued to give orders until he died sinking her on an even keel in about 40feet of water Raised, she underwent rebuilding atthe Puget Sound Navy Yard and was back atsea for trials on July 6,1944. On Jmoments before the ship was abandoned. Captain October 25th of that year. West Virginia joined Caiifornia and other battleships as part Bennion received the Medal of Honor for "conspic ofthe taskforce commanded byAdmiral Jesse Oldendorf that achieved a decisive 'uous devotion to duty, extraordinary courage, and victory over Japanese surface combatants, including the battleship Yamashiro, atthe complete disregardof hisown life,aboveand beyond Battle of Surigao Strait. West Virginia earned five battle stars for World War II service. the call of duty."

THE NEW AMERICAN • JULY 2. 2001 WORLD WAR II

USS Vestal, seenin her World War Icamouflage scheme while in New York Harbor in December 1918. USS Vestal, a repair ^ ^ During the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Vesta! Q^ and furthermooreddamagedalongsidebythetheArizona.explosionHitofbythetwoArizona,bombs tleship blew up, the „.,- - .,. , I Vestal ms nevertheless repaired. She served smaller vessel was se- ^£S:-- - ' . - 1 X throughout the war. verely damaged and set " . — - —. : - afire by blazing debris. It also suffered numerous " ' ~ " bomb hits. Moments earlier, Commander Cassin Young, Vestal's control and rescue anumber of sur- [ commanding officer, had taken personal control of the ship's anti vivors from the Arizona. He received aircraft gun to return fire at the Japanese planes, but when the Ari the Medal of Honor for exhibiting zona exploded he was blown overboard by the concussion. He "extreme coolness and calmness" un- managed to swim back, despite oil fires on the water between the der extraordinar>' pressure, and was BHk ' two ships. In the midst of relentless enemy bombing and strafing, subsequently promoted to captain. He he was able to move Vestal some distance from the Arizona, and died less than a year later during the eventually had it beached after determining that it was the only November 1942 naval battle of ••.-.,•^8 option to keep it from sinking. In the meantime, he was' able to Guadalcanal. .CoiTinisndBr Cassin Young

5^ Finnimmediately "ranlikeadeer"tothe armory to secure a .50-calibre machine gun kvaiBl; ii'i mounted on an instruction stand (no regu- lar mounts for the weapons were on hand), then carted it out to a ramp so he could see the enemy planes. He recalls that he "fired at everything I could see. Every time I'd J heara plane, I'd gooutthere andman that Kaneohe BayNaval AirStation was the first target of the Japanese attack on1 Pearl Harbor The On® plane wentdown afterthesecond attack left Hangar#2 (left) afireand destroyed 26 of the installation's 36 aircraft,raft, including the wave of attack, though it is not known for PBY Catalina flying boat pictured(right). Eighteensailors and one civilian werere killed by the sure who shot it down,as there wereothers Japanese attack at Kaneohe Bay. in addition to Firm who were also firing. Throughout the attack, bullets and Kaneohe Bay Naval Air Station was the first U.S. bombs were dropping all around him. installation in Hawaii to be targeted by the Japanese during ^ He suffered about 20 wounds, includ- the attack on Pearl Harbor. One civilian and 18 sailors lost • ing at least four shrapnel wounds to the their lives atthe air station during the attack, and 26 ofthe sta- K chest, but modestly describes most of tion's 36 planes were destroyed. them as "just scratches." His Medal of At the time of the attack, John William Finn, then 32 years 1^^^ s Honor citation states: "Although old (he is now in his 90s) was the ChiefAviation Ordnance of- ^ painfully wounded many times, he con- ficer stationed at the base. He and his wife were asleep at their I tinued to man this gun and to return the quarters about a mile from the air station when he was awak- I enemy's fire vigorously and with ened by machine gun fire. He remembers thinking at first, ^ I telling effect throughout the enemy "who the h*** is firing machine guns today? Hey, it's Sun- J1 ^ strafing andbombing attacks andwith day." Even when a plane flew past his window, he assumed ^ — ^^ complete disregard for his own person that the Navy was merely staging amock attack. But then the J*"'®'nel AViatlOnAViailOn ^ safety. Itwas only by specific orders wifeof oneof his men knocked at the doorto tellhim he was Oronancemandnanceman ^ that he was persuaded to leave his post needed at the air station pronto. Still unaware that an attack Johnhn William Finn to seek medical attention. Following was underway, he paused to give his neighbor a lift and " first aid treatment, although obviously stopped along the way to give a young hitchhiker a ride. suffering much painp and moving with great difficulty, he returned Approaching the base, however, he heard "a terrible roaring" to the squadron; area and actively supervised the rearming of re as a plane with the "dirty red ball" (Japan's Rising Sun insignia) turning planes." Finn spent more than two weeks in the hospital on its underside flew by. Arriving, he "saw all of our planes on recovering. BeliiBelieved to be the first Medal of Honor recipient of fire and our boys running around all helter skelter and that's when the war, he insists, insist "I just did my job like anyone would have. Just it hit me. This is the real deal by golly." like amason or a•< barber or a cook would." •

THE NEVi/AMERICAN • JULY 2. 2001