Center for Pacific War Studies Fredericksburg, Texas an Interview
THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE PACIFIC WAR (ADMIRAL NIMITZ MUSEUM)
Center for Pacific War Studies
Fredericksburg, Texas
An Interview with.
Gilbert H. Clark Oroville, California December 22, 2005 Pearl Harbor Survivor USS Helena CL-SO Supported Guadalcanal Landing 08/0711942 With Juneau when sunk Assigned to USS Franklin CV-13 Ten Battle Stan on Helena Several on Franklin My name is Richard Misenhimer and today is December 22, 2005. I am interviewing Mr.
Gilbert H. Clark by telephone. His address is: 6307 Woodman Drive, Oroville, California
95906. His phone number is area code 530-589-2716. This interview is in support of the
National Museum of Pacific Wars, Center for Pacific War Studies, for the preservation of historical information related to World War II.
Mr. Misenhimer
Gilbert I want to thank you for taking time to do this interview today and I want to thank you for your service to our country during World War II.
Mr. Clark
I wasn't alone though.
Mr. Misenhimer
No there were about 16 million altogether; but all of you; I have the greatest respect for all of you that were there. Now the first thing I need to do is read to you this agreement with the Nimitz Museum.
"Agreement read." Is that okay with you?
Mr. Clark
Yes, that sounds good.
Mr. Misenhimer
My first question is what is your birth date?
Mr. Clark
July 15, 1923.
Mr. Misenhimer
Where were you born? Mr. Clark
Detroit, Michigan.
Mr. Misenhimer
Did you have brothers and sisters?
Mr. Clark
I had one brother.
Mr. Misenhimer
Was he in World War Il?
Mr. Clark
No he wasn't able to get in, he had medical probJems.
Mr. Misenhimer
Where did you go to high school?
Mr. Clark
There in Chicago.
Mr. Misenhimer
You were born in Detroit?
Mr. Clark
Yes but then I was kicked around a little bit and went to San Diego and lived there for a while. My mother and father had separated and my mother took me back to Chicago and dumped me out of the car and said~ "Live with your dad" and then we went from there.
Mr. Misenhimer
So you went with your father then?
2 Mr. Clark
Yes. I was nine years old then.
Mr. Misenhimer
Then you went to high school in Chicago; when did you finish there?
Mr. Clark
Last part of 1940. I went into the CC's. The part of the CCts that I was in, we didn't plant any trees. They had us building reservoirs out in the desert up there in Idaho and in the
Forest Service they had a camp and we were in for fighting forest fires.
Mr. Misenhimer
Now that was the Civilian Conservation Corps they called it I believe.
Mr. Clark
Yes.
Mr. Misenhimer
Yes, as I mentioned last night in certain places they did plant trees.
Mr. Clark
Oh yes, they had projects for us. For a bunch of kids they sure kept us busy.
Mr. Misenhimer
When did you go into that?
Mr. Clark
Right after I got out of high school; it was July of 1940.
Mr. Misenhimer
How long were you in that?
3 Mr. Clark
Six months. Then I got out of that and then right into the Navy.
Mr. Misenhimer
What date did you join the Navy.
Mr. Clark
July the 23rd I think it was of 1941.
Mr. Misenhimer
How did you choose the Navy?
Mr. Clark
I got out of the CC's or was coming back from the CC's and the Anny recruiters were up and down the train all the time going from Idaho to Chicago. I don't know I just didn't care for it and I kind of leaned toward the Navy. Nobody else in my family was ever in it but it was just a preference I had.
Mr.Misenhimer
Where did you join, there in Chicago?
Mr. Clark
Yes. I went to Great Lakes Naval Training Station and went through it.
Mr. Misenhimer
Tell me about your boot camp there at Great Lakes.
Mr. Clark
It was like all the rest of the boot camps you know. When you first go in you went into what they called the detention area, where you didn't have any liberties or anything. Then after three weeks of that they put you into what they called the paradise area. You could
4 get off on weekends and stuff if you behaved yourself and didn't get into any trouble. It was a good training. My thoughts when I was riding the train in the CC's and all of this was going on I thought, "I'm going to get some place and get in and get trained before we get into the war." I was just sure we were going to get in it. Then I did and of course I was aboard ship and trained and knew what I was supposed to be doing.
Mr. Misenhimer
In your boot camp, your drilJ instructors, were they Marines or were they Navy?
Mr. Clark
They were Navy Chiefs. The Chief we had for our company commander, his name was
Duncan and he bad spent one full cruise in the China station. He was quite a guy.
Mr. Misenhimer
How strict were they on you?
Mr. Clark
Pretty strict; not like the Marines but we were close to it We adhered to all the rules and regulations. They get you trained that way so you start behaving and listening to them.
Mr. Misenhimer
Did you have any kind of weapons training?
Mr. Clark
Ob yes. We had the old 30.06 Springfield rifle that was assigned to us while we were in boot camp. Then we did firing range twice I think it was. Then one time they took us to, well Lake Michigan was right there and they had a set up there and had a 5 inch gun there mounted on a platform type thing, floating, and we would fire that thing at a target.
5 Mr. Misenhimer
Did you have knot tying?
Mr. Clark
Oh yes. they went through al) that knot stuff; all the regular classroom stuff. They had swimming and diving down in the pool and picking up a rubber brick and bringing it to the top and stuff like that
Mr. Misenhimer
How long was that boot camp?
Mr. Clark
Three months.
Mr. Misenhimer
What was your pay when you first went in, do you recall?
Mr. CJark
$21 once a month.
Mr. Misenhimer
Big pay (laughing). Of course back in those days you bad all your room and board and everything else.
Mr. CJark
Oh yes we made out pretty good.
Mr. Misenhimer
But they had certain deductions I think from it didn' t they?
Mr. Clark
Yes. The Navy never did give; you had had to pay for your clothes.
6 Mr. Misenhimer
Oh did you, okay.
Mr. Clark
After we got sunk and lost all our clothes there, they did issue us a credit in clothing and we could go ahead and buy it and it was charged off.
Mr. Misenhimer
When you first went in, your initial issue, was that charged to you or did you have to pay for that?
Mr. Clark
No. lbat one wasn't but after that if you needed new shoes you paid for them, or socks or anything.
Mr. Misenhimer
When I was in the Anny it was the same thing. I think we got a small clothing allowance,
I'm not sure.
Mr. Clark
Later on, I think it was after the war started, we got a clothing allowance. It wasn't very much, but it did help.
Mr. Misenhimer
Anything else that you recall from your time in boot camp?
Mr. Clark
No. It was awful strict. You didn't do anything on your own. When I moved, well the company moved out of detention over into what they called paradise, there was a soda fountain in that area. Another fellow and I went to it to have an ice cream cone and the
7 Chief, our company commander seen us there and because we didn't get permission he told us to give our names to the company clerk when we got back. So we did and by God at 11 :30 they shook us out of our bunks and we had to make up our sea bags seagoing style and carry it from the Administration Building to the main gate for four hours.
(laughing) We behaved ourselves after that; we got permission for everything.
J'vfr. fviisenhimer
Yes, they were teaching you to follow orders. fvir. Clark
Yes that was the main thing. Of course, then you weren't picking it up, but a little Jater you picked it up. f\.1r. Misenhimer
Then when you finished boot camp, where did you go, or what happened?
Mr. Clark
I went to San Diego and I was assigned to the Helena and went up to Mare Island and got aboard her. fvir. Misenhimer
Did you have any special schooling along the way?
Mr. Clark
They sent me to an optical school at f\.1are Island because I was in the firecontrol gang and a rangefmder operator so they sent me to optical school
Mr. Misenhimer
Okay, back to when you were in boot camp, could you go home at any time?
8 Mr. Clark
No, not for three tn?nths. Not until you got into what they called the paradise area and then if everything went well you couJd get a weekend off once in a while. I think I only got to Chicago once.
Mr. Misenhimer
Yes, it's not that far, what 40 or 50 miles?
Mr. Clark
~~~~~~~train~~~~~~oo~
Mr. Misenhimer
How did you travel to San Diego?
Mr. Clark
By train.
Mr. Misenhimer
How was that train trip?
Mr. CJark
This was before the war and we had pretty good trains. We had sleeping compartments and ate in a regular dining room car. I couldn't complain about that. We kind of traveled in first class. It wasn't like just getting in a boxcar and going; it was pretty decent.
Mr. Misenhimer
And the food was pretty good on the train, right?
Mr. Clark
Yes, they fed us good. Of coW"Se you know the Navy had that thing about Wednesday having beans and Saturday mornings for breakfast. The train tried it and the guy running
9 the show he raised helf and we didn't get any more beans. (laugh)
Mr. Misenhimer
When you got to San Diego what did you do there?
Mr. Clark
We just got the transfer up to Mare Island up to the Helena.
Mr. Misenhimer
Okay, so you didn't stay there for any length of time?
Mr. Clark
No. Then it was called a destroyer base and then finally it went to a repair base and all that. No, it was just a short time. Of course I did wind up in the hospital for a while. I got rheumatic fever and went to San Diego Naval Hospital and then up to the Helena. I went aboard the Helena in July of 1941.
Mr. Misenhimer
When did you go into the Navy, July of 1940?
Mr. Clark
Yes.
Mr. Misenhimer
You said 1941 earlier but it was 1940?
Mr. Clark
No, it was February of 1941 .
Mr. Misenhimer
Oh, it February of 1941 that you went into the Navy.
10 Mr. Clark
Yes.
Mr. Misenhimer
Okay, you had mentioned July earlier but it was February.
Mr. Clark
July came up I think because of the CCC's.
Mr. Misenhimer
So you had to spend how long in the hospital there then?
Mr. Clark
Just a little over two months.
Mr. Misenhimer
So you were in San Diego that length of time before you went to Mare Island?
Mr. Clark
Yes. I went aboard ship, again that July seems to work on everything but that's when I went aboard the Helena there at Mare Island.
Mr. Misenhimer
July of 1941 on the Helena?
Mr. Clark
Yes. I left there right after I got out and she was in for an overhaul and stuff and we went right out to Hawaii.
Mr. Misenhimer
When did you go to the optical school?
11 Mr. Clark
Just as soon as I got up there. The optical school was right there at Mare Island.
Mr. Misenhimer
How long was it?
Mr. Clark
Maybe a month.
Mr. Misenhimer
So then you got on it in July and then about a month later you left for Hawaii then?
Mr. Clark
Yes.
Mr. Misenhimer
When you went to Hawaii were you with other ships or by yourself?
Mr. Clark
No, we were cruising along by ourselves.
Mr. Misenhimer
What was your position on the Helena?
Mr. Clark
When I first went aboard of course Seaman Second Class, I did all of the routine stuff from messenger watches and stuff like that but I was in the firecontrol gang. So I got to be a rangefinder operator in it. When I was standing messenger watches on the bridge you have to do at sea and port and I manned the range five they called it on the bridge to keep our positions if we were with our ships or if we were going into the harbor why the officer of the deck would say, "Range on such and such." So they would get the ship in
12 position to get in and out. And then if we did work with a task force or anything you had a position to hold and you would range on certain ships to make sure you didn't creep up on them or lag back.
:rvfr. Jvlisenhllner
Anything in particular happen on the trip over to Pearl Harbor?
Mr. Clark
No, just I was surprised how far it was with no land. Everybody was that way; but we had a good crew.
:rvfr. Misenhimer
About when did you arrive in Pearl Harbor?
Mr. Clark
Probably about the first of August. We were in Cruiser Division Nine when we got there with the Boise and the Honolulu and the St. Louis. The St. Louis was a sister ship to the
Helena and the Phoenix. But after the 71h there was no more Cruiser Division Nine; we were busted all up and went in different directions.
Mr. Misenhimer
When you first got to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii what did you do then?
Mr. Clark
Just wherever the ship took us. We were doing all kinds of training and stuff within our small task force. We did take one to Vladivostok, Russia. We made a trip there with a couple of ships that later we were convoying them but during that you were just with them to be sure they got there I guess.
13 Mr. Misenhimer
This was before Decembet' 7~
Mr. Clark
Oh yes.
Mr. Misenhimer
Would you all go out on various practice type things around the islands there?
Mr. Clark
Yes. They were always doing target practice. We would go down towards American
Samoa to do the 6 inch practice and stuff like that; but for antiaircraft and stuff like that we would be out around Hawaii.
Mr. Misenhimer
The Helena was a heavy cruiser, right?
Mr. Clark
No, a light cruiser; fifteen 6 inch and eight 5 inch.
Mr. Misenhimer
What was the CL number?
Mr. Clark
CL-50.
Mr. Misenhimer
Anything else happen before December 7th?
Mr. Clark
No that was just our routine schedule of ins and outs. We would form up a task force and do a certain practice running around but nothing ofany problems or anything.
14 :rvtr. ?vf isenhiIDer
Did you have a chance to go into Honolulu?
Mr. Clark
Oh yes, we went in. AnytiIDe you had liberty that was the only place to go. We spent most of the time at the Pineapple Place that was kind of on the way from Pearl Harbor into Honolulu. Everything was free when you went there.
:rvtr. ?vfisenhiIDer
Honolulu was a pretty small town then wasn't it?
Mr. Clark
Yes it was and the streets were narrow and all that. I didn't care for it too much. We did go to Waikiki Beach because that wasn't too far away and it was a better beach. It had sand instead of the lava.
Mr. Misenhimer
Have you been back to Hawaii since the war?
Mr. Clark
No. I've been back through there; just before I got discharged I was in the hospital in
Hawaii up at Aiea Heights for about a month. One other time I was just passing through is all. I never went after I got out of the service. I had enough of it.
Mr. Misenhimer
I guess the next thing is December T1', is that right?
:rvtr. Clark
Yes.
15 Mr. Misenhimer
Ten me about that.
Mr. Clark
111 On the 7 , my battle station was on the computer in the forward fire control station. That was my regular battle station so I was going up to it and the officer in the director, sky forward, he knew I could operate that stereoscopic rangefinder and he hollered at me to get up there and get on the rangcfinder. That put me on the rangefinder for the rest of the war. (laugh) Then when radar came on I would do both because it was right there in the director with you. Sometimes I would be on the rangefinder in the turret. There at Pearl that was my first time. We did get credit for a couple aircraft not that I shot them down9 but I was rangjng on them anyway.
Mr. Misenhimer
So that was your first notice that the Japs had attacked or what?
Mr. Clark
Yes.
Mr. Misenhimer
You were heading for your battle station anyway before this?
Mr. Clark
Yes. Like I said my battle station was up in the superstructme in the forward fire control station. The old time computers they had in there took about six men to run them. I was on the side angle sight deflection side of the computer where you had to crank them in and stuff like that.
16 Mr. Misenhimer
When did you first find out that the Japanese were attacking?
Mr. Clark
I was standing at my locker getting dressed getting ready to go to Nanakuli Beach, I don't know if you've ever heard about that. It was a Navy recreational place. Every once in a while they would let a few of us go over there for three days. It was my tum and I was getting ready to go to Nanakuli Beach when they blew general quarters. That stopped all of that stuff.
Mr. Misenhimer
Did you have any idea why they were blowing general quarters?
Mr. Clark
Yes. The Boatswain Mate got on and said, "The Japanese are now bombing Ford Island."
Everybody down below decks thought at first that it was just more drills they were pulling. Because they did pull an abandon ship drill one time when we were at sea, they said, "Abandon ship and provide." A whole bunch of us didn't know what they meant,
''provide". They hauled us off in those motor launches again and you had to jump over and get in the ocean and wait unti1 they got all of the crew they wanted off the ship. You floated around in your lifejacket until they came and picked you up. That was it and then they picked us up and took us back to the ship. Their training was pretty good and it worked out. Our gunnery crew on the Helena and the loaders and what have you, lots of times we fired long bombardment and different things, 1,000 rounds of that 6 inch in nine minutes. Our gunnery officer, as soon as that was done the night before, or whenever we got into it, he would have practice at the loading machines. We would go back out and
17 they would have to get on them and we would practice some more. The projectile on the
6 inch was about 135 pounds and the loader on that would come up the tube and he would get it in his arms and then he had to make a half turn and drop it in the breech.
Then to be able to fire 1,000 rounds of 6 inch out of fifteen guns in nine minutes; that's doing a good job.
Mr. Misenhimer
Man, that's really putting them through there. Where was the Helena anchored at?
Mr. Clark
She was at the machine shop docks, the 10-10 docks. I was ranging on the second wave and he was coming down and he dropped his bombs at his. I had him on the rangefinder and ranged it and I felt sure that we were going to be done for with him but they straddled us. One went into the water on the starboard side and the other one hit the dock but there were big transformers there for our dock power. It hit them and blew them all apart. Then later during the war we got some captured film and I saw from his guns, or however they took their pictures, him diving down on the Helena and you talk about being surprised when you it see from that angle, him dropping the bombs at us; it really shocked us seeing it. They were good pictures. Those Japs knew how to take pictures.
Mr. Misenhimer
Were these still pictures or moving pictures?
Mr. Clark
This was movies.
Mr. Misenhimer
Then when did your ship get hit there?
18 Mr. Clark
We took a torpedo in the forward engine and boiler rooms. Then the Oglala which was a mine layer was tied up abreast of us and the concussion from our taking that explosion, because she was an old wooden ship, kind of opened her up some and she started listing towards us. The tug boat came and pushed her astern of us so she wouldn't tangle up on our decks. The crew of the Oglala were a pretty good bunch. They came over to the
Helena for a few days there. They said they were the only ship that died of fright; it was from the concussion of that darned torpedo. They did a good job; I don't know how much
TNT they carried in them things but it sure blew a hole in us, the forward engine room, the boiler room and blew them all to heck.
Mr. Misenhimer
Is that where your friend McClelland was blown into the air?
Mr. Clark
Yes when we took that torpedo yes.
Mr. Misenhimer
Tell me that story again.
Mr. Clark
Well the messengers, and that's he and I were Second Class you know, and you would do three month's duty and we were doing court messenger watch at that time, take care of what all the Officer of the Deck, whoever he is, chasing around different things going on.
But at 8:00, when the colors go up, the duty of the messenger of the watch is to raise the
Union Jack on the bow and he was going up to raise the Union Jack when we took that torpedo and it threw him up and he came down. But that poor guy, can you imagine? All
19 day he couldn't get around. Finally some guy asked him why he was laying there and he
said, "I can't walk." He took him to the dock. You can get a hold of Charles and he'll tell l you about it. He had quite an experience. I Mr. Misenhimer You said that his leg was broken and his hip was broken?
Mr. Clark
Yes.
Mr. Misenhimer
That's where his brother was burned also? I Mr. Clark I Yes. In our living compartment, to go topside you had a companionway that ran down and it was kind of open, well everything was open on the ship then. But the hatchways l from the forward boiler room and engine room were all open and from that explosion I everybody that was in that companionway got burnt I mean when you get burned with a blast it just takes the bide right off of you. It took ears off and everything else. I was
surprised. I have a picture of James McClelland, that's the one that got burnt so bad, but
you would never know that he was like he was when I saw him last. But I don't know,
they had some good doctors and they did a good job on him.
Mr. Misenhimer
I'm looking at a map of Pearl Harbor and it shows the Oglala but it doesn't show the
Helena, but you were right next to the Oglala then, right?
Mr. Clark
Yes, we were tied up right at the dock at 10-10. Ten Dock it is called, or it was then.
20 Right ahead of us was a submarine tied up and ahead of that was into the dry dock where
the Pennsylvania and then the Cassin and then the Downes were there. We were right \ behind them.
\ Mr. Misenhimer And the California was just across the way from you?
Mr. Clark
Yes she was across the way and then of course the Pennsylvania was trying to get out and
she got hit bad and was almost ready to plug up the channel going out when the tug boats \ pushed her out of the way. l Mr. Misenhimer The Nevada also tried to get out and had to get pushed over. \ Mr. Clark I Yes. I Mr. Misenhimer Did you see many of the other ships get hit?
Mr. Clark
Yes, being up on that rangefinder, right up in the director you could see the whole Pearl
Harbor and we were not too far away from battleship row and the fires over there. And of
course Ford Island, we could see.
Mr. Misenhimer
Did you see the Arizona when it exploded?
Mr. Clark
Yes. Like I say we were just across the street from them really. We were just a little bit
21 south of them. It was pretty close quarters in there. Then the sub base was right across
from battleship row. We were right there. Then the Shaw, it was a destroyer, it was in
floating dry dock off to the starboard side of us, not too far.
\ Mr. Misenhimer How many airplanes did you all shoot at that day? \ Mr. Clark
t Gee I don't know. We were just picking up targets of anything we could. When we first
started out we were firing some of the practice ones because they couldn't get to the \ regular projectiles, but the drill loading projectiles, they fired all them out and then finally
got opened up. The rules were when you got into a working area like the 10-10 dock, our
anchor windlass went out was why we were there, but all your ammunition and
magazines and everything is locked up and secured. It was just harder to get to them. We
\ didn't get to our regular projectiles and the time fused ones until we fired all the practice I stuff. Mr. Misenhimer
So you were at your battle station then the entire attack?
Mr. Clark
Yes; all that day and danm near all that night. They did bring sandwiches to us once in a
while.
Mr. 1'.1isenh.irner
How badly was the Helena damaged?
Mr. Clark
Real bad. They moved us into dry dock and then just welded plates over the hole. We lost
22 I think, I'm not sure about the amount killed but I think it was 54 and then of course the
ones that were burnt so bad. In nonnal conditions, afterwards everything is closed up and
locked tight on the ship and if you get hit it is kind of contained in a certain area, but the
\ ship was wide open; nothing was closed off. The explosion when it went through caught everybody in the passageway there; it was loaded. I saw the passage way was full and
I they were trying to get through so I went straight up through officer's country to the next
deck above us. Running messenger watches I knew that ship inside and out and I went up
through the escape hatch that way and up to the main deck and then up to the sky forward
to my battle station up there.
Mr. Misenhimer I I understand there were two attacks that day, is that right? Mr. Clark
\ Yes, the first attack came in right there about 8:00 and nobody was looking at watches or
anything, but we had a little lull. We were gathering up and getting things straightened up
and here they came again. The second one was mostly the dive bombers and sru.ff.
Mr. Misenhimer
I hear them talking about high level bombers there; but these were all single engine is that
right?
Mr. Clark
Everything I saw was a single engine. There were no bombers with twin engines or four
engine or anything. When they came in; have you ever been to Hawaii, to Pearl? Mr. IVlisenhirner
Yes.
23 I Mr. Clark You know to the north of you that big mountain up there is always covered with clouds,
\ they came in through that and down into Pearl.
Mr. Misenhimer
You didn't see them coming, right.
Mr. Clark
Yes. I watched that area and watched them come in and we set up a barrage up there for
them to run into I guess. They had a good crew on her. (The Og/ala.). They said she died
of fright (laugh). She was tied right abreast of our starboard side. When the tugboat I pushed her back because she was coming over on us, they pushed her back, that's when she finally coughed up and went the rest ofthe way down. \ Mr. Misenhimer
Did your ship sink?
Mr. Clark
We were sitting on the bottom.
Mr. Misenhimer
You were in pretty shallow water?
Mr. Clark
Yes, we were right there. Then after they got the metal welded to plug up the hole and
pumped out why we could get up enough and go into the dry dock and then they finished
up and jwtlced out what they could in the forward engine room and boiler room. But I'll
tell you the ride back home to the States, that was touch and go. Boy being out of balance
and losing those engines; you only had the two screws, four screws really but they wiped
24 out two. We were doing 30 degree rolls, 30 and 32 degree rolls and boy you couldn't even sit on deck because you would skid across it. They kept saying the 32 shouldn't roll over. We made it all the way in. Even though when we got back to Mare Island for repairs our whole engine and boiler room, a brand new one was sitting on the dock. Boy it didn't take no time, all they had to clean up the junk and garbage sitting in there you know and put the new stuff in.
Mr. Misenhimer
Back to December 7th, you said something last night about the tug boats.
Mr. Clark
Yes. You know it just bothers me because those guys are running around there and their officers did have .45's but that's about the only gun they had onboard, in our case they came in there and got the Og/ala and they were all over Pearl. Where the big fire was going on over at the Arizona, they were over there when they didn't have ships to move around, to push out of the way. They had their fire hoses going. Nobody ever gives them any credit like we didn't even have any there. It just kind of bothers me that they didn't even mention at least how well those tugboats handled things. If that Pennsylvania would've swung and closed off the harbor there, none of the ships would have been able to get out It just didn't seem fair to me that they didn't at least mention that they had them and they were working.
Mr. Misenhimer
That's right. I haven't heard much about them at all.
Mr. Clark
Yes.
25 Mr. Misenhimer ' You spent that day and that night at your battle station; then what happened the next day? \ Mr. Clark
\ We were just kind of cleaning up the ship and talcing care of the wounded You still stood your watches. I think we were four on, four off. But when you were off the four you were t doing the clean up and seeing that the wounded were taken care of. We had a mess of
\ them burnt, it was really bad. The Naval hospital at Pearl before the war was just a few cottages along the way when you came in. It wasn't much of a hospital; not like it is now
I at Aiea.
Mr. Misenhimer
Did you help to pull any of the wounded out of the water or anything like that?
Mr. Clark
If they saw you not doing something, I don't know, I think it was the next day, we were
taking four or five of our burnt guys to the Relief, it was a hospital ship that was there.
When we were going over there we picked up maybe two or three bodies, something like
that. But then the Boatswain Mate, this was a 50 foot motor launch, when we were
scrambling around, kicked the grappling hook thing off and when we were trying to get
to the hospital ship something was pulling us away and it was one of those damn two
man subs. They got word to one of the little sub chasers there and they came and dropped
a depth bomb on it.
Mr. Misenhimer
So your grappling hook caught onto that sub?
26 I Mr. Clark Yes. Things were pretty hectic there. l Mr. Misenhimer I This was the second day, December 8th? Mr. Clark
I Yes. On the Helena we carried two SOC airplanes for observations. We sent them out to
check and see where the Japs were. I mean we didn'~ but whoever was controlling
everything. But when they came back in everybody was trying to shoot them down. But
they made it.
Mr. Misenhimer
I understand on the night of December 7dt that several planes from the carriers came in
and were shot down?
Mr. Clark
I don't know who started that but they were clear in San Diego, the Saratoga and the
Lexington.
Mr. Misenhimer
One of them was on the way to Midway and one was on the way to Wake.
Mr. Clark
But they hadn't left San Diego yet. Like I say being a firecontrolman up there I had
beautiful views of everything everyday. We didn't get to secure everything. It was either
stand at general quarters or condition two, 4 hours on, 4 hours off at our battle stations.
Mr. Misenhimer
When did the carriers come back into Pearl Harbor then?
27 Mr. Clark
The Lexington was about three days later. I'm sure that if we had our own planes coming in from someplace they would have notified us. But anything that flew, like our little
SOC's, you shot at them. The Anny had set up guns around Pearl too. They were helping out firing too.
Mr. Misenhimer
When did you all finally leave Pearl Harbor to come back to the States?
Mr. Clark
I couldn't tell you. It was probably better than a month because it took quite a while for them to get the ship closed up and welded up the place on the side and the junk from the boiler room.
Mr. Misenhimer
So probably after the first of the year then?
Mr. Clark
Oh yes. But it was a surprise. We thought when we got to Mare Island it was going to be something; but right at the dry dock. When we got to Mare Island the first thing we did was go into dry dock and everything was sitting on the dock. We went in there and they had everything ready.
Mr. Misenhimer
During that month then you just basically stood watches on your ship is that right?
Mr. Clark
Yes.
28 I Mr. Misenhimer Did you get liberty at all to go into town or anything>
I Mr. Clark I No. There was no liberty at all off the ship that I recall. Because of everything there was even in Honolulu they had a few problems in there. We had plenty to take care of
ourselves you know.
Mr. Misenhimer
Anything else that you recall from that attac~ or that month you were there?
Mr. Clark
No, I think everything was covered pretty much on the 7lh. It was just afterwards you
know, you've got to clean up everything and get going you know. We had to get our ship
in shape just to even come home. (tape side ended)
Mr. Misenhimer
Okay you said that when they opened the compartments up the bodies were still there and
the stink was bad, so what did they put down?
Mr. Clark
What they called a sulfur blanket to absorb the smell. Then we couldn't eat aboard ship
because of the bad fumes and stuff. They had a ferryboat, I can't remember the name of
it, but it was from San Francisco, and in fact we slept on that for a while when they were
getting everything cleaned up and shipshape again. Then the heating was off for a good
two weeks on this little ferryboat. We like to have frozen to death on that ferryboat.
Because it was all wide open.
29 Mr. Misenhimer
About how long were you there at Mare Island then?
Mr. Clark
Maybe two months. They were working around the clock on it; three shifts were going all the time. That's why they took us off because they were using chipping hammers and with everything else going on you couldn't sleep anyway. They got that ferryboat there and put us aboard it.
Mr.Misenhimer
Anything else you recall from your time there at Mare Island?
Mr. Clark
No. It was just that everybody was working there, there was nobody goofing around there or anything; it was strictly business. One time I drew the watch on the back of the ship while it was in dry dock. Nobody was supposed to cross the back of the ship there. It was at night and one of the yard workmen did, and if I would have been a jumpy guy, I would have probably shot him, but anyway, it scared the hell out of me. He said, "I want to get through here." Because everything was supposed to be secured here. They had workmen, that as far as I was concerned, they really turned to and work.
Mr. Misenhimer
Then when you left there where did you go?
Mr. Clark
Noumea, New Caledonia. We stopped at Pearl to refuel again and then went to Noumea. I have to back off on that. Espiritu Santo was close to Guadalcanal and that was kind of our port we would go into to refuel and take on supplies and ammunition. It wasn't too far
30 from there to Guadalcanal.
Mr. Misenhimer
So did you go to Noumea or did you go to Espiritu Santo?
Mr. Clark
Espiritu Santo. Noumea in November sometime. November 13th and 14th we had a battle with the Japs. After that they did let us go down to Noumea and really get some supplies and some food and stuff.
Mr. Misenhimer
When you left Mare Islan~ you went down to the New Hebrides to Espiritu Santo?
Mr. Clark
Yes. That was kind of our in and out port all the time. When we would get a call, when the Japs were coming down to Guadalcanal, we would slip up there to meet them.
Mr. Misenhimer
How long did it take you to go from Mare Island down to Espiritu Santo?
Mr. Clark
Well we stopped at Pearl again, but we were only in there maybe a day, a day and a half.
Then about five days, maybe six days and we got down into that part of the world. Then we knew we were in dangerous waters and we were standing condition two watches, you know four on, four off.
Mr. Misenhimer
When you went down there, were you by yourself or were you with some other ships?
Mr. Clark
No, we were all alone. There weren't many ships around at the first part of that war. In
31 I I fact one time, after one battle, that November battle, the Helena and two destroyers were the only ones runnins around there. They really kept us busy. That was the one that the
San Francisco got shot up so bad. This was her and then the Juneau that was sunk. There
' was one thing that I could not believe. When the sub attack started they said a torpedo
wake was on our port side. I was in sky aft on watch. We had been watching the
I signalman on the ship and they had got hit a few times and needed some medical I assistance and stuff. We were watching him and he was standing on what I would call Mount Three and doing the wig wag signaling of what they could send over and stuff and
the torpedo hit that ship and everybody in the director, even our control officer couldn't
believe it, when that smoke cleared from that explosion of that ship, there was nothing
there. Our Skipper was senior officer afloat then because the San Francisco lost their
Captain and the Admiral and everything else and he did, which everybody thought was
right, be made a tum to put our stem towards the sub attack. That ship just disappeared; it
was hard to believe.
Mr. Misenhimer
What ship was that?
Mr. Clark
The Juneau. It really makes you think a little bit then. A ship like the Juneau, they had
everything; depth charges, torpedoes and 5 inch gWls and everything else; they were just
armed to the teeth. The torpedo that hit her just went across our stem, just missed us by
300 or 400 feet and hit the Juneau. Even the control officer, he said, "Keep on it, keep on
it." We were looking for survivors after the explosion. I thought maybe that signalman
would make it being he was standing on top of that moWlt. It was about the same
32 elevation as their bridge. Bu_t boy, we couldn't see nothing. That was really hard to believe.
Mr. Misenhimer
I understand there were some survivors but the commander of yotir task force wouldn't let you stop to pick them up. Is that right?
Mr. Clark
The San Francisco was really out of commission and then we had the Helena and two destroyers. The destroyers didn't have any sounding gear for the subs at all, or sonar.
That was about the only ships. When we came out of that three day battle down there north of Guadalcanal we had lost three or four of the heavy cruisers because it was quite a battle. That battle I was in turret four on the range finder there and we took a hit on the face plate of the turret. Boy you talk about ringing your bell. But it didn't penetrate because it was six inches of class A armor on that turret. But if it had been on the backside it would probably have hit me right in the butt.
Mr. Misenhimer
You must have gotten down to Espiritu Santo somewhere like April?
Mr. Clarie
I couldn't say for sure. We would be in and out of there. We would just go in to get fuel and get supplies or if there were some repairs to be made. We didn't get to dilly-dally when we would go in. We were in and out. Sometimes we would meet other ships other places. In the first Invasion of Guadalcanal we covered the landing on it but then we went back down to get some more ammunition and then the heavy cruisers finally showed up but they didn't last too long.
33 Mr. Misenhimer
Tell me about going up for the Guadalcanal Invasion.
Mr. Clark
We just did the bombarding like we were told to. Our gunnery officer aboard the Helena, of course you were always in contact with them with your headphones on, when I would range on the target area I would always crank in about a 100 feet more because every once in a while you would fire one that wouldn't quite travel like it should, so I would crank in a little extra. One time I cranked in some extra and they hit a magazine dump or something. You talk about explosions over there. For a while there we did have a lot of problems; if we were firing 2,000 yards we may get 1,500, but that got straightened out.
The thing that surprised me most, of course this was after I got on the Franklin, those proximity fuses they came out with for the 5 inch, instead if they happened to set the timing on the 5 inch it would go off at a certain elevation, the proximity fuse would go off on the vibration of the plane shooting. That really made a difference.
Mr. l\.1isenhimer
Were you up there for August 7, 1942 when they made the initial invasion on
Guadalcanal?
Mr. Clark
Yes, we covered the bombardment I don't know, maybe two or three days at different places where they would have us, not only the Helena but the group that we were with.
The Boise was with us and the St. Louis part time. The St. Louis they would send her off by herself a lot of times. But no they could cover all of it. When the Japs would come, at night they would kind of come down the slot, we called it, delivering more troops.
34 Having radar meant we could catch them and raise heck with them that way. That radar really helped. I understood that we were the first ship to be equipped with it. In our main battery director,-in.·. it there was a receiver right there. You operated at night time with radar and then pretty soon we got receivers and antiaircraft directors and everything. But
I was always told that the rangefinder operator could check back and forth with it. If you couldn't see, you could go on that and check the radar. We had to all be checked out. The
FBI went to Chicago to check me out to see that I could be trusted with that radar when they first put it aboard ship. The Franklin was something else. After being on a light cruiser and everything kind of balanced out and then you get aboard an aircraft carrier and it's kind of one sided with the island and everything on one side; it was hard to get used to. The ship's company, I don't know about all of the carriers, but the ship's company on the Franklin were second cJass citizens. The Airdales and I don't begrudge them a thing. Those guys in those airplanes and stuff they earned their extra pay and their extra treatment and stuff but I just didn't like all of your ship's company and that kind of stuff. But we had to keep that ship there so they could come back to it. Those guys flying those airplanes on carriers and off of carriers, that was something else. There was one thing that still sticks with me. When we bad airplanes coming back and especially if they had crews like our dive bombers and the torpedo bombers you know, we had pilots come and make an excellent landing on the ship, catch the tail hook and the guy would run out there underneath the tail hook and motion the pilot to move ahead and he would be dead.
They had come in and this wasn't just one time. Tiris happened three or four times. The pilot would make it on that ship; a good landing and get his crew off and when they would go to get him out he would be dead. Another thing, when the airplanes would
35 come back they would have to make a fly by if they had damage and they would tell them, "You can make a parachute jump or a water landing." Because we had four destroyers that skirted us on the Franlclin at all times for these accidents. I never seen any of them make a parachute jump; they all took water landings and they were good at it. I don't know bow they trained them but they would come in; I saw one guy in a fighter plane and when he hit the water and then of course, right when he slid his hatch back, he would pull a handle and pull out the life raft. He got in that life right and never got wet; be didn't even get his feet wet. It was something else I thought. They would give them a choice, fly in or bail out but I never did see one bail out.
Mr. Misenhimer
Back on the Helena, you were talking about the battle in November of 1942, tell me about that.
Mr. Clark
That was just north of Guadalcanal.
Mr. Misenhimer
The Battle of Savo Island was it?
Mr. Clark
Yes. I think they called it the Savo Island Battle. We chased each other there for about three days. Most of the time when we would get into battles, maybe one time we had a daylight battle, but most of the times because of the radar we would try to get to them at night. One battle, I forget the date of it, it was when the Boise got shot up so bad. We were in a night battle and she turned on her search lights and man I guess just about every gun the Japs had opened up and the Boise did get hit bad that time. She had to come back
36 to the States to get fixed up. Thank God that we never had that. The searchlights, the arcs
would be on and ready if you had to use them, then all you had to do was open shutters
but we never did; we just relied on that radar. We had the search radar that would sweep
around and we had the rangefinder radar. So when they got within a certain range we
would pick them up. Of course they tried different things but once you got to operating
that radar you could figure out what was a friendly ship and what was a Jap.
Mr. Misenhimer
On that November battle, the Battle of Savo Island, was your ship hit there at all?
Mr. Clark
Yes. We took about 13 hits and one was right on the faceplate of the turret island. Then
we had to go down to Sidney, Australia and they welded us up and put us back together
and gave us a bottom job. That was one thing we knew we were going to have was a I bottom job to get the moss off and stuff. Here in the States all hands got in old clothes and scraped that bottom and painted it. In Australia when your ship went in their I shipyard, the crews there took care of it; you didn't touch your ship. It was all up to their I guys working; which tickled us to death. I Mr. Misenhimer I think in that battle you were tallcing about we lost two Admirals there. We lost Callahan
I and Scott is that right? I Mr. Clark Right. One was the Captain of the San Francisco and the other one was the Admiral. I Because on the San Francisco; they just damned near blew the bridge off of her. She took
a lot of hits. In fact I've got a San Francisco ship's paper that was printed thanking the \
37 Helena for standing by and covering; that was real nice.
Mr. Misenhimer
I think we lost the Atlanta there at that battle didn't we?
Mr. Clark
Yes. Then there were two others, the Chicago (heavy cruisers). Every time, I don't know
what it was but when we met the Japs they outgunned us. One time, even us cruisers, the
only thing, 6 inch against their battleships. Like again I say we would catch them at night.
Then we had our fighting lights. But one night we got in a battle with those Japs and they \ had the same fighting lights that we did for that night, like a yellow, yellow green. But on I our radar if they had their IFF on you would get an extra spike in there to know that it was :friendly. I Mr. Misenhimer
What other battles were you all in there in the Guadalcanal I Solomon Islands?
Mr. Clark
We had so damn many. We got credited with ten all total all up and down that slot there.
Of course then you have your daylight raids from airplanes every once in a while. We
had ten gun fighting battles. That one in November was the worst. We survived it okay.
The Helena, we were just busy people on that Helena.
Mr. Misenhimer
When you got down to Sydney did you get liberty to go into town there?
Mr. Clark
Yes. We were there ten days and we got to go ashore five days. We hit it lucky. We got
in and we anchored in the Sydney Harbor and about noon or a little after they told us we
38 had to move. So we pulled up anchor and moved away and here the Queen Mary came in
and brought the troops back from North Africa. They had been over there about four
years. But you know. those guys when we came back, they let us come back and tie up
abreast of the Queen Mary; I felt like I was in a canoe. I would be up in the director too
and I still couldn't see their main deck. You could see the deck but you weren't level with
it. Those guys that came back from over there, they had spent some tough times there in
North Africa. As soon as they would find out that you were off of a fighting ship like the I Helena and others that were in there they were real friends, but if you were off of a repair ship they called it the Didee Dee, the Dobbins; they didn't have much use for them guys. l It was something else. I figured, "Well I guess we got treated the same way when we got sunk." I didn't think they treated us too good. Even those Australians, they had this camp
at their horse track I think it was called out there in Sydney and that's where they would
put them out there and lived for a while. Then they sent them up to New Guinea. When
we got sunk on the Helena I was surprised at the treatment. From Espiritu when they
finally got us there it was one of those ships that carried the copra and we called it the
banana barge. It made about 5 or 6 knots and took us down to Espiritu Santo and the
compound there and the Japanese prisoners of war were having a better time than we
were. They were right next to us. But that got straightened out and then they shipped us
home on that ship; of course we were heading in the right direction then. It would do 6 to
8 knots maybe if it was feeling good, but two meals a day and no fresh water showers and
all that kind of stuff, but at least it was heading east.
Mr. Misenhimer
Tell me about when the Helena got sunk; tell me about that battle.
39 Mr. Clark
That was in Kula Gulf, July 7. There again July shows up. It was the 61h or 7th, it was right at midnight. We went in there. The first thing we had to do was a bombardment. A bunch of Army, the 132nd Infantry I think, got tied up on the beach and couldn't get off the beach, they got some bum infonnation or something. We bombarded so they could pull off the beach. The Japs were coming in that evening with other ships so that's when we met them. We had got two destroyers. The Helena was credited with two but then there was a cruiser there and a destroyer slipped around the side of her and launched three torpedoes. The first torpedo took the bow off and turret one and then the next two torpedoes hit us right amidships and that was it for the Helena. But that bow floated and being the turret was on it, the number one on the point of the bow, it floated for about three days. Tokyo Rose knew the next day and boy we heard she was advertising that they finally got the Helena.
Mr. Misenhimer
Were you at your battle station when that happened?
Mr. Clark
Yes. I was in turret two at that time. They rotated you arowid every quarter so you wouldn't get too familiar. When they took off the bow with that first torpedo we lost a lot of people in the lower part of the turret. But right in the turret itself, probably half of us got out of it. The funny thing about it, every time you went into the turret or out of the turret it was always fore and aft, it was pointed that way you know. Well when we got hit and we came out of there it was trained around to the port side and you thought you were running to get over the side, because they had already passed the word to abandon ship,
40 we ran right off the end where they blew off the bow. But it worked out okay. I guess that' s why they move you around so you don't get too familiar. It was touch and go there for a while.
Mr. Misenhimer
Right off the end of the bow; did you have your life jacket on?
Mr. Clark
Oh yes; you carried that thing all the time. Those kapok life jackets were wonderful. Our sail.maker aboard the Helena had put straps on them and instead ofeverything hanging up under your arms, he put straps on the bottom of the jacket and on the front, and you tied them on the front and held that life jacket down. You could actually sit in it, kind of; and that really made a difference because you were in the water for quite a few hours there.
Mr. Misenhimer
How did you get picked up there then?
Mr. Clark
Some of us got picked up by destroyers and then 150 of us got, I can't remember the name of the island there, but anyway, they never did tell any of us about the Coast Watch.
That's what kind of picked us up. They came out, those natives, and the Coast Watch
Chief was out of New Zealand. They got us ashore and then hid us out for about ten days.
Mr. Misenhimer
So you were in that group, were you?
Mr. Clark
Yes. Another time on the Helena we had a group of those~ I guess you would call them
Navy soldiers. They were trained by the French and they talked French. We had about 30
41 aboard that we were taking up north for a raid on an island that had a radio on it Those guys were real gentlemen but boy did they love that American white bread. They kept those bakers busy all the time trying to keep bread on the table for them. Those little
Frenchmen, those natives were head and shoulders taller than those Frenchmen, but boy those Frenchmen would bark orders at them and those guys would jump. They all had shoes but they were tied around their necks and they went barefooted. That was a good group. We dropped them off and a submarine picked them up after the raid. We didn't have to hang around.
Mr. Misenhimer
Did they have the big fuzzy hair?
Mr. Clark
No. I don't know exactly what island they came from. One of the parts was French; but none of them had the bushy hair. In fact I bad a sheath knife, when I took off my clothes I kept that belt and that knife just in case, but this one native would kind of watch for me and stuff. He had his eye on that knife and finally one day I gave it to him. Man he was tickled to death. Then I found out that if they killed a Jap and brought the uniform in they would get so much money, $5 or something like that. He made sure I bad little extra things. If he found a tree that had ripe papaya on it he would bring me one. He gave me goodies.
Mr. Misenhimer
What are some other things that happened on the Helena?
Mr. Clark
I don't know we were just kept so damn busy all the time. When they would send us back
42 into Espiritu Santo to refuel and resupply, we would only be in for a day or two and then we were out either patrolling or watching for those barges coming down with Japanese troops. Then the Flying Chiefs that flew those PBY's, they would kind of watch for them and if they saw some of them that looked like they were getting ready to come do'Ml they would let somebody know and then they would let us know and we would try to meet them and stop them, or turn them back, or sink them, or whatever.
Mr. Misenhimer
After the Helena was sunk and you were on that island with that Coast Watchers; you said you were on there about ten days?
Mr. Clark
Yes.
Mr. Misenhimer
How well did they take care of you there?
Mr. Clark
The best they could; it was alright They moved us a lot. What surprised me, two of the guys had a canoe and went paddling off they said they were going to go to Guadalcanal to report that we were on the island and how many there were. When they made arrangements to get us off the island, they came there at night and the ship that they used was from World War I, the Dent, it was a destroyer and the Detroit was the other one. All they had were their Higgins boats and one 3 inch gun on the bow. Those boats when they got us onboard and on account of the air coverage, they wanted to get down south far enough to get air coverage from our O'Ml forces. I was standing on the stem and I could hardly look over that wake; I asked one of the Chiefs coming up out of the boiler, "How
43 I
t fast are we going?" He said, "44 knots." Can you imagine? And in a World War I boat? Of course they were stripped and had four or six Higgins boats is all. They would take
Marines around for raids on different little islands and pick them. But to have that kind of
speed from a World War I ship.
Mr. Misenhimer
That's really going, right.
Mr. Clark
Yes. Our best was 32 but most of the time it would hanging under 30.
Mr. Misenhimer
How many of you all were on that island?
Mr. Clark
150.
Mr. Misenhimer
How did they feed you all?
Mr. Clark
Just what we could scrounge. One time they came, and I don't know what kind of meat it
was, but it was cooked. It was in like a barley sack and you would get a handful of that
But most of the time it was limes and papaya and things like that. You know it's
surprising but when you are in that condition, food doesn't seem to bother you too much.
You do get hungry but it doesn't gnaw at you. They did have a couple of streams of fresh
water and that was our water. So many times and I've heard over the years at different
times how they wasted guys lives, our experience at least in every place I worked, the
Navy and the Army did everything they could to pick up their survivors. Look at the rest
44 of those guys that were picked up by those two destroyers that night. The Japs knew we
were around; they were hunting us. They got us off and got us down to where they could
get some air coverage. Look at President Bush, he got picked up by a submarine on
Chichi Jima. When I was on the Fran/clin and every place we went had destroyers and I
didn't know it but those destroyers, and we had four because were a big aircraft carrier,
their orders were that they were to take a torpedo if it was coming at us. They would be ~ right astern of us or ahead of us and if a plane went off the flight deck or they couldn't I make it back to the flight deck they would go pick up the pilot. To take and stop dead in the water to pick somebody up when there were submarines out there is kind of scary. I I think the guys that ran the thing did everything just right, as far as I was concerned I anyway. There may have been exceptions at some places and of course you can't satisfy everybody. I Mr. Misenhimer After you were picked up there, you went back to Guadalcanal?
Mr. Clark
No, they took us down to Noumea, New Caledonia; I know we were a week or two. They
had us in this one compound and then Admiral Halsey found out and the guy running the
area he was going to put us to work as stevedores in Nomnea and our Captain finally got
out of the hospital and they moved us back into the general rest camp, they called it. You
slept in tents and they had cots there but there was no military at all. If you wanted to eat
you just went to the mess hall and ate at any time of the day. Then finally they found this
little dashing wave and put us aboard it and sent us to San Diego. We all already had our
orders. Right in my orders, I was carrying around my orders; I was to go to Newport
45 News and go aboard and be assigned to a light cruiser by order of W. F. Halsey, Admiral of the Pacific Forces. When I got there I went aboard the new Houston. Boy you talk about, I don't know, I didn't fit on that ship at all the way it was laid out and all, so they transferred me over to the Franklin. I should have kept my mouth shut (laughing). We had tough duty on the Franklin.
Mr. Misenhimer
When did you go aboard the Franklin?
Mr. Clark
They put her in commission there at Newport News, in fact I got a chunk of the, you know the old Navy stuff where you become a plank owner? Well when they decommissioned her and scrapped her ou~ I got a hunk ofthe flight deck. They shipped it to me here. We saw a lot of duty down to the Philippines, up to Okinawa and Iwo Jima and Haha Jima. Our planes would go and attack and stuff. We would get under air attack a lot of times, and then we did get wiped out by a kamikaze. We went back to the States but we were too badly damaged and they took her to New York and scrapped her out.
Mr. Misenhimer
Was it hit once or twice by kamikazes?
Mr. Clark
Twice.
Mr. Misenhimer
Once in the Philippines I think wasn't it?
Mr. Clark
Yes.
46 Mr. Misenhimer
And you were aboard then were you?
Mr. Clark
Yes.
Mr. Misenhimer
I What was your position on the Franklin? ~ Mr. Clark l I was a Firecontrolman Third Class. I qualified as a rangefinder operator and radar. Mr. Misenhimer I What type of gun were you on there? Mr. Clark
I was in the director. They had me on the 20mm's. I had a group of them. But when they
found out that I was a range:finder operator they moved me back up to the main director.
Mr. Misenhimer
What were the largest guns on the Franklin?
Mr. Clark
5 inch. We had four 5 inch mounts and then a 5 inch on the stem and over on the bow.
Then of course 20's and 40's wherever they could find a place to stack them.
Mr. Misenhimer
These were mainly antiaircraft, right?
Mr. Clark
Yes, it was all antiaircraft.
47 Mr. Misenhimer
Tell about when they got hit down in the Philippines with a kamikaze. How did that happen?
Mr. Clark
Our skipper wanted to put our fighter group up for air coverage and he was told by the people running the show down there that we would get air coverage out of Clark Field in the Philippines. Our pilots told him that Clark Field couldn't land or take off because it was too muddy because it had been raining. Anyway he did launch four fighter aircraft and the Enterprise put up four fighters and I think the San Jacinto or the Belleau Woods put up a couple; they were smaller aircraft carriers. That's all we bad up and when the
Japs came out they bad nobody to fight them off. Then when people just dive at you and come in. I was on the rangefinder on one of them and we were hitting the~ I could see parts of that airplane flying off, but he came right on in.
Mr. Misenhimer
Where did they hit on the Franklin?
Mr. Clark
It hit on the stern. Then ofcourse there was a mix-up there, in the aviation gas, there were still two bottle in there, you could open up and kill the fire. They had vents you bad to open up first and the guy got excited I guess and just opened the C02 and that burst the seams of the thing and it went wild from there. It burned for about three days.
Mr. Misenhimer
Were there quite a few casualties from that hit?
48 Mr. Clark
Yes, 900.
Mr. Misenhimer
Was that in the Philippines or was that the one in Okinawa?
Mr. Clark
I was thinking Okinawa; yes at Okinawa was where the big one was. In the Philippines there were some. That's one thing that bothers me to this day is our burials at sea. God, I just can't stand that. It seems to me like when we put them in that sack and tip them over the side, we were abandoning them (tape side ended)
Mr. Misenhimer
Okay, you said that when we put them over that you could see the white sacks all the way back to the horizon.
Mr. Clerk
Oh yes. Besides, you put in a 5 inch projectile at their feet to try to sink them down, but until all that air gets out. But to me personally it was just like you were abandoning your buddy.
Mr. Misenhimer
After you were hit there in the Philippines where did you go to then?
Mr. Clark
Up to Ulithi and then they sent her back to Pearl and then back to Bremerton,
Washington. They fixed her up and we went back out in a just a short time.
Mr. Misenhimer
And you stayed on the ship the whole time?
49 Mr. Clark
Yes, until there at Okinawa and I went haywire there. They put me on an airplane and
flew me to the Pearl Harbor hospital. They called it battle fatigue. I guess, the way they
explained it to me, I took all their tests they wanted to do, and it made sense to me, that it
was just too much time in the Pacific.
I Mr. Misenhimer l Tell me about when the plane hit there in Okinawa, how did that happen? I Mr. Clark He came diving in and he hit towards the stem. There again, you've got planes loaded
and ready to go and then like the Franklin our torpedo bombers and dive bombers would
be in the hangar deck usually. The fighters would be on the flight deck ready to go and
then the dive bombers, but the torpedo bombers would always be in the tail end They're
all loaded and ready to go and you would upset them when you catch them on fire.
Mr. Misenhimer
How many kamikazes hit you at Okinawa, one?
Mr. Clark
Just one. That's all it takes. I don't know what their explosive charge is they carry. I've
got souvenirs here fro~ I think it is the one in the Philippines. When we cleaned up after
him I got some stuff that he was carrying.
Mr. Misenhimer
What is it you have?
Mr. Clark
Some of their money, I don't know what they call it, but it was like a $2 bill. He wasn't
50 in too bad of shape. With those kinds of things, all hands have to clean up to do it I guess thafs the way it should be. Like I say, that burial at sea, I just don't know. It just seems like you are putting your buddies out there and you run off and leave them. But that's the way it went. I think they said if you were within three days of land someplace, of where you were going, you could hold them. Some of them on the Helena were put in the meat locker down there until we got to the base.
Mr. Misenhimer
I understand the Franklin was probably one of the most damaged ships that survived, is that right?
Mr. Clark
That's what we understand too. When they brought it back after Okinawa, they brought it back to Bremerton and Bremerton didn't want to do it there so they shipped her to New
York and then they decided to scrap her out
Mr. Misenhimer
Yes because the war got over about then or something.
Mr. Clark
Yes, it was pretty much over.
Mr. Misenhimer
But you didn't come back with her, is that right?
Mr. Clark
No I went to the hospital. They flew me to Pearl and then a hospital ship from Pearl to
Bremerton, Washington.
51 Mr. Misenhimer
Then did you get back on the Franklin?
Mr. Clark
No. After the hospital up there I went to limited duty in San Diego in the optical shop down there.
Mr. Misenhimer
Did you shoot at many planes in the Philippines or Okinawa either one?
Mr. Clark
Yes. At Okinawa that one just kind of snuck in. But down in the Philippines, they were calling it a turkey shoot, but I don't know who they meant was the turkey, us or them?
But there were a lot of planes down there. By that time in the war they didn't have near the pilots that they bad in the first part; they weren't trained too good. That business of committing suicide for somebody, I never did like the sound of that.
Mr. Misenhimer
So you left the ship after the kamikaze attacked in Okinawa then, right?
Mr. Clark
Yes. We went to Ulithi and then they flew me to Pearl.
Mr. Misenhimer
Do you know Robert Blanchard? He was on the Franklin.
Mr. Clark
I don't remember. Do you remember what division?
Mr. Misenhimer
No, but he was the one that the Chaplain gave the final rites to, but he lived.
52 I
I Mr. Clark Oh. Well we had so many. I remember one thing that kind of bothered me. Our weather
people, we used to work real close with them when they would be launching their
balloons. We would track them and give them the elevations that they went to and how
fast they were rising. After one, I guess it was down at the Philippines, I left the director
and went down to where the weather people were and opened up and there were three of
them on the bench up there and I hollered at them, "Get up and get to work." Hell, they
were all three dead. They had suffocated in there because of the fires and stuff.
Mr. Misenhimer
Tilis was after which one?
Mr. Clark
Tilis was down at the Philippines. When you work together and you kind of kid with
them when you are tracking their balloons and joke, but you are doing the business you
are supposed to be doing, but you just have to get along with people. I yelled at them two
or three times to get up off that bench and get to work. All gone.
Mr. Misenhimer
Not very pleasant.
Mr. Clark
No.
Mr. Misenhimer
What were some other things that happened?
Mr. Clark
It's been so long now and I tried to wipe a lot of that out. It's still kind of hard for me to
53 talk about some of it.
Mr. Misenhimer
Sure. Let me ask you some questions. Did you ever hear Tokyo Rose?
Mr. Clark
Oh boy, yes. One thing that is kind of comical, at the time when it happened it wasn't.
The night that we got sunk on the Helena and were in the water there, and the oil was 6 to
8 inches deep on the water, this one guy, we called him "Nails" but his name was
Leonard. He was coming around and he was looking for Commander Fryberger.
Commander Fryberger was our navigator. Finally someone asked, "What are you looking for him for?" He said, ''I've got a chance to go to the States and no navigator." Here you are with just a life jacket on in all that oil and water and joking; you know how we
Americans are. He went through Pearl Harbor. He lives up in northern Michigan.
Mr. Misenhimer
You said you heard Tokyo Rose, what did you think of her?
Mr. Clark
In the early part of the war down there every time she would come o~ a lot of the time they put her on the ship's radio; but she had us sunk. Stuff she would say and we knew better. Hell here we were floating around and shooting at her ships. She called us the
Gray Ghost for awhile because we would tum up at night mostly. We didn't believe her mostly, not at all. She knew where we were most of the time. I guess the submarines were reporting or something like that, what part of the world we were operating in down there.
Because none of the news media could put out anything; thank God for that. If the news media did then like they are doing now we would have never got that war done. I can't
54 believe these people.
Mr. Misenhimer
Did you ever see any USO shows?
:Mr. Clark
One time on the Franklin we had Eddie Peabody come aboard and that was the only one I ever saw. After I got married I found out he was a second cousin to my wife's side of the family.
Mr. IVlisenhimer
Now he had a band is that right?
Mr. Clark
Yes, he played the banjo. That was the only one I ever saw. One time down at Espiritu, we didn't get to see him, but there was some band down there and he made the Anny guys mad and they took him and his band and threw him in the ocean. I've forgotten what happened when that went on, but that was the only one that I ever heard of that got in trouble. I can't remember who it was but anyway, something was done or said that upset them. That Tokyo Rose, that was one, now, I'm not positive, but I understand through the
VFW or one of them, that she wound up in Chicago and was drawing social security.
Mr. Misenhimer
She was pardoned, that's right. She was convicted after the war and later on she was pardoned. Did you have any experience with the Red Cross?
Mr. Clark
Don't talk to me about them people.
55 Mr. Misenhimer
What happened?
Mr. Clark
I had personal experience. When we were sunk on the Helena and then they got us down there to Espiritu we were in our skivvies. The Red Cross came around; the Navy had already put out letters to our homes telling them that we were missing in action, so they wanted to send a radiogram home so that we could notify them right away that we were okay and everything. They wanted 85 cents and you wrote down your name and the address you were sending it to and then you picked out a number, like I am well and everything is fine or something like that. We didn't have a dime and they wanted us to pay. The Army guys on the island there took up a collection and they paid for it but then the VFW came around and gave us these little ditty bags that had envelopes and writing stuff in them so that men could write home. They got those v-mail before they ever got the radiogram. That I know personally. Then on the hospital ship from Hawaii to Seattle I went to buy some cigarettes. When you are at sea they sell them to you for a nickel a pack. Well they were a dime a pack on this hospital ship. That was alright and I paid that but when the tax stamp went across it sai~ "Donated by General Motors." Yet they were collecting for them. There were a couple of other things but these two I knew; I never give to them. . In fact I almost got in trouble on the Franklin when I got aboard it when the Red Cross Officer noticed I hadn't put any money in and I kept my voice down, he was going to put me on report and I said, "Okay. We can bring this out and let everybody know. This is personal experience, not hearsay." He didn't turn me in. Then on the
Franklin they said when you bear "The Bear Goes Over the Mountain" that's abandon
56 ship; that's just for the air group. Then there was another group that went to another part and then the engineering was the last group. I told my division officer, "Look when they say Abandon Ship I'm leaving you." He said, "Oh no, you don't do it that way." I said,
"I've already done it that way. When everybody left we were going together." In fact when they had those hurricanes down south, near Jack Surles, he was the one that gave you my name?
Mr. 1\-fisenbimer
Yes.
Mr. Clark
I talked to him about the Red Cross just recently when there were doctors; he works with the Sheriff's department, there was a group of doctors that put a btmch of stuff together and came down and were going to help out with the injured and the Red Cross ran them back home. I don't know what the deal was. Then the wages that the President of the Red
Cross gets, that's ridiculous.
Mr. Misenhimer
Big money.
Mr. Clark
Oh boy. I'm sorry, but that's the way I am about the Red Cross. I just can't do it.
Mr. Misenhimer
What day was it that the Franlclin got hit? Do you remember what date?
Mr. Clark
No, that's too many years back.
57 Mr. Misenhimer
Was it in April some time?
Mr. Clark
That may have been, some time close in there. I won't swear to it.
Mr. Misenhimer
The reason I was asking is because on April 12, 1945 President Roosevelt died, did you all hear about that?
Mr. Clark
No.
Mr. Misenhimer
That may have been after you were hit, I don't know.
Mr. Clark
I don't recall it I'm sure there was an announcement.
Mr. Misenhimer
Where were you when Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945?
Mr. Clark
In San Diego
Mr. Misenhimer
Did you all have any kind of a celebration?
Mr. Clark
No. 'That was another thing. When we came back off that island from being sunk and came into San Diego on that old freighter, it was just like we were a bunch of trash coming aboard except Captain McCandless at the destroyer base when they finally got us
58 there. But we were just like a bunch of hobos coming off of that ship. Captain
McCandless had us in a group there and said, "The only orders I've got for you people is rest and recreation." We said something about going ashore and something was said, "All we've got is what we've got on." Some of us looked like part soldier, part Marine and part sailor with the borrowed clothes we had. He said, "You've lived in them this long.''
They made an identification tag for us with a big red "S" on it for survivor. The Shore
Patrol wasn't supposed to bother us. He was an excellent Captain I thought.
Mr. Misenhimer
You mentioned souvenirs, what other souvenirs did you get?
Mr. Clark
Including that stuff I got from that Jap, I guess it was just the money part. There was something else and I gave it to somebody a few years back.
Mr. Misenhimer
What all ribbons and medals did you get?
Mr. Clark
I got a hat full of them up there. The Helena, according to one of the letters; after I got out of the service here came a Lieutenant and two Shore Patrol up to the house and I thought, "Uh-oh, what the hell happened now?" It was a commendation that the Helena received. It was one of the first Navy ships that ever got a Naval Commendation. There were two more that they told me that I was entitled to but you've got to go buy them and that's the Philippine Liberation Ribbon and the Philippine Presidential Citation. But you've got to go buy them some place and I've never been around to a place that's got them. The Navy issues, I don't know how many.
59 Mr. Misenhimer
How many total battle stars did you get?
Mr. Clark
I guess, ten we had. The funny thing is nowadays, then in World War II things had to be happening pretty hot and heavy before you got a battle rating. If you were wider a slight air attack you never reported that or it wasn't recorded for your record. But now, I don't know, on the Helena I have over ten actual, firing back and forth, and then on the
Franklin we had, most of those were air stuff. Jack reminded me of this, I was running across the flight deck when the Japs where s1rafmg the ship at the time and he thought they were going to get me, but I made it to the island. I don't know; you just took things as they came and tried to live through it.
Mr. Misenhimer
When were you finally discharged then?
Mr. Clark
I was in the Naval Hospital in San Diego. I would have to look that up.
Mr. Misenhimer
Was it in 1945 or 1946?
Mr. Clark
I think it was in the latter part of 1945. It was all over. I was in the hospital in San Diego.
They tried me out on limited duty but I was just too nervous and shook up. They treated me for quite a while. Another thing that the Red Cross did to me was after I was recommended for disability then the Red Cross said "no". I couldn't figure out how they got into it. I don't talk too much to people about the Red Cross, but if they really pump
60 me and want to know then I'll tell them my personal experience. Not what I've heard but what happened to me and I'm sure to others. There is a fellow really interested in World
War Il. He is up in Montana He has a heating and air business. He's a real good kid.
Mr. Misenhimer
Here's another question. When you got home did you have any trouble adjusting to civilian life?
Mr. Clark
Really I did kind of. One thing that bothered me quite a bit was driving. I was doing some
30 to 35 mph driving for a while and stuff like that Then certain things. Of course I learned there were going to be people doing stuff that I didn't particularly like. When you are a veteran and have been in combat and know what it is when your life is on the line, it is different than being a veteran and living in a USO type place. These buddies of mine that are still in contact and are doing real good and have got their halfway health. There's one up in northern Michigan and Charles McClleland and Jack Surles. We stay in not real close contact but different things at different times. The one up there in northern
Michigan every December 7111 he will call me early in the morning and he'll say, "Boy I was out firing my shotgun this morning." That's the one that was hunting for our navigator Commander Fryberger. He is something else.
Mr. Misenhimer
Did you use your GI Bill when you got home?
Mr. Clark
No I didn't. I forget what it was when I first got home. I tried it but there were too many strings attached to it Just like right now the wife and I both can hardly get around; the
61 wife is worse than I am. We put in to get one of those motorized scooters and the doctor, we talked to him about it first, and he said, "You' re well qualified but boy then when they turned it over to Medicare they've just got so many things. If you can do this then you can't have one, so we went ahead and bought our own. At least we can do that.
Mr. Misenhimer
Anything else that you can think offrom your time in World War II?
Mr. Clark
No. There's lots of stuff that runs through your head but it's just, I don't know, like one of the officers that was there in the control, in sky aft when the Juneau got hit and it blew up like that. He did make the comment, "You know we're all out here and just cannon fodder." But you know just different things, so much. There were some guys that got so damned scared. When we were in the water, it was midnight, there were guys that you would talk to, like the one guy come to me and said to me, ..I'm going below" and he slipped out of his life jacket and never splashed around or anything. But there were several guys that went that way; just gave up. I just couldn't believe it. Other guys we were talking about it and other guys had the same experience. That damn oil and stuff it makes you sick, and we were blaming it on the guys getting so sick in that oil and stuff.
But there were guys that just took their life jackets off and sank down. l\fr• .rvt:isenhiiner
Have you had any reunions?
Mr. Clark
The Helena has reunions. It's now called the Helena Organization because there is a CA-
75, which is a heavy cruiser. But the CL-50 started years ago and we went to several.
62 They've had some up in Montana and down in San Diego. But the Frank/in now has one on the East Coast and I guess they make more money than I do because they meet on cruises and different stuff. The places that they meet at are $250 a night. Then like I say the Franklin is mostly East Coast stuff. All those which we called them Airedales aboard the Franklin, they earned everything they got; damned if I would have put up with that.
That talcing off and landing on that aircraft carrier, man. I only made one trip with them on a little compass calibration thing and that taught me. I guess those fellows got used to it. We did see quite a few crashes as they came aboard, especially since the landing itself was a crash. Just bang, you hit the deck and I've seen them jerk the back of the tail off and all that assembly and then come into Mount Four there just down below us. Then some of the planes taking off if they didn't get a good take off they would drop down there below the flight deck and you just waited to see if there was a splash and pretty soon, be was just barely touching the water and getting out of the way. Everything they got; they earned.
Mr. Misenhimer
That's right. I have a great respect for those people.
Mr. Clark
I do too. We would walk by their ready rooms and they were all air conditioned. After they would have a flight and come back, they got two beers; when you walked by one of those ready rooms with the air conditioning, right in front of the guy would be two beers about like a bar. I never did, none of my buddies ever talked against what they got. They earned everything they got
63 I I Mr. Misenhimer Gil, anything else you can think of!
Mr. Clark
No. Probably after I hang up I'll think of four or five different things. I think we've pretty
well covered it.
Mr. Misenhimer
I appreciate your time today and again I appreciate your service to our country.
Mr. Clark
Thank you very much.
(end ofinterview)
Transcribed by: Oral History by:
Les le W. Dial Richard Misenhimer
Beeville, Texas P.O. Box 3453
March 17, 2006 Alice, Texas 78333
Home: (361) 664-4071
Cell: (361) 701-5848
64