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Home , Gun turret, USS Nevada (BB-36), USS Nevada (BM-8)

A 50-YEAR OLD NEWSLETTER WRITTEN BY CHARLES T. SEHE TO HIS FAMILY MEMBERS HONORING NATIONAL DAY, DECEMBER 7, 1941

I enlisted in the U.S. Navy, November, 1940, during the Depression Era, at the age of seventeen in Geneva, Illinois, where I had lived with my parents, Mr. William and Mrs. Frances Sehe, at 116 Nebraska Street. After completing my recruiting duties at the Great Lakes Naval Station, North Chicago, Illinois, I was sent to the Puget Sound Naval Yard in Bremerton, Washington, where I was assigned to the USS , which later returned to Hawaii to rejoin units of the Pacific Fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor. At the time of the Japanese aerial attack, December 7, 1941, the Nevada was moored to quay Fox 8, just astern to the battleship USS Arizona. Friday afternoon before that fateful Sunday, I went aboard the Arizona to visit Charles L. Thompson, a friend from St. Charles, Illinois, a town near Geneva. He requested a dollar loan for his liberty to Honolulu and promised payment on Monday, December 8, which I gave him. (Tragically, Charles Thompson was among the almost 1,100 shipmates who perished in the fiery explosion aboard the Arizona.)

At 0755 most of the Nevada crew had finished eating breakfast and the band members and the Marine Color Guard were assembling on the main in preparation for raising the U.S. flag. I left the dining area to use the enlisted men’s head and, moments later, the concussions of the first bombs which hit the Nevada literally blew me from my seat. As General Quarters sounded, I ran to my battle station which was #4 after searchlight located high up on the mainmast. Already, incoming Japanese planes were strafing the exposed deck areas with bullets and the Color Guard and band members were scattering for safety. Since the searchlights obviously were not utilized during daylight hours, all I could do was to watch this terrible, alarming, unbelievable nightmare unfold before my very eyes. An aerial launched from one of the Japanese planes soon struck the Nevada on the port side near frame 40, causing the to lurch violently upward and shudder. A shipmate and friend, Roy H. Kirby, S1C, of Halls, Tennessee, who was severely burned and hospitalized from the fiery explosions of the bombs hitting the , told me years later that he also saw the torpedo drop and watched its wake as it approached the Nevada towards his #4 gun .

The Nevada, with some of its already lit on standby, got up enough steam pressure to get underway. As the ship slowly eased its way into the channel, passing the Arizona, a tremendous fiery explosion ripped the Arizona apart, showering the open deck crews of the Nevada with hot, searing metallic debris, burning many of them to their death. I watched a second wave of high level and dive bombers now concentrating their efforts on the Nevada as we slowly proceeded up the channel and heard cheers coming from the crews of other encouraging us onward. Although there were many near misses indicated by numerous water spouts, numerous bombs made their mark and severely damaged the forecastle, and the boat deck area. The Nevada was given orders to beach itself so as to avoid blocking the channel to prevent other ships from entering or leaving. As the Nevada passed by a dry dock, the Shaw, moored

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Charles Sehe Newsletter, cont. nearby, blew up by a direct hit, showering the decks of the Nevada with flaming metallic fragments.

Our ship finally came to rest, assisted by two tugs, at Waipio Point. The Nevada now lay low aground and all her decks, except for the water-tight compartments below the 2nd level, were filled with floating debris in foul-smelling water admixed with heavy sludge fuel oil. After most of the major fires were put out, we turned our attention to removing the wounded and dead, who were then transferred to motor launches which came alongside.

Later we were given clean, new, galvanized buckets to pick up the numerous isolated body parts strewn around the 5”51 gun casements within my division area. I recall finding severed knee joints as well as shoulder fragments and torn, burned body torsos, all unidentifiable because of their burned condition. The tremendous force of the numerous explosions seemed to have literally strained some of the bodies through the chain-linked fencing making up some of the bulkheads in the vicinity of the huge casing for the smokestack. (Division shipmates whom I spoke with just an hour earlier.)

I, being a 2nd Class seaman, was among the 300 skeleton cleaning crew that remained aboard the Nevada, whereas the more experienced and rated crew members were transferred to other ships for immediate sea duty. From December through February we worked during the daylight hours removing debris and by using gasoline powered pumps soon drained the water and oil from the lower decks. In the evenings hot meals awaited us and the hot soapy showers were joyously taken to remove the dirty grime and oil from our bodies, when we left the ship to go ashore to the mess halls and our berths in the Arena.

That fateful day there was seen among the many officers and men of all military personnel a distinguished conduct of uncommon valor. Two Congressional Medals of Honor and 13 Navy Crosses were awarded to individuals of the USS Nevada by Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz.

On February 12, 1942, the Nevada was raised and taken to dry dock in Pearl Harbor where temporary repairs were made. In May, 1942, the Nevada sailed under its own power to the Puget Sound Naval Yard, Bremerton, Washington. Here, the ship underwent extensive repairs, remodeling, and became fitted with the latest modern weaponry. I remained aboard the USS Nevada all this time and I became a radar operator for one of the 5” gun directors and a 20mm gun captain. The Nevada later participated in the invasions of Attu and Kiska (Aleutian Islands) during the battle of Midway, and supported landings in Normandy, France, at Utah Beach, where the crew remained at their battle stations for over 80 hours. The ship was straddled 27 times from enemy gunfire but never hit. Later, the Nevada supported landing in Southern France in August, 1944; then entering the Pacific Ocean again, the Nevada supported troop landings at and Okinawa by firing its 14” and 5” gun batteries. At Okinawa, March 27, 1945, a plane carrying a 500 kg bomb crashed into the Nevada amidships (just 40 some feet from my 20mm gun position which was located on the opposite side of the explosion), killing 11 and wounding 65, including me.

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Charles Sehe Newsletter, cont.

The explosions of the atom bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki quickly ended the war with Japan, and I returned to the after an absence of over five years. I took advantage of the G.I. Bill of Education, attended college at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois, and obtained the Ph.D. degree in Zoology from the State University of Iowa at Iowa City. After teaching and doing research I left Iowa in 1957 for a position at the University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois. Following several teaching and research positions at the University of Cincinnati, Ohio, North Central College, Naperville, Illinois, and at Stanford Medical Center in Palo Alto, California, I accepted an academic position at Mankato State University in Minnesota where my family and I now reside. Throughout my teaching career I have always been involved in the biological areas of Human Anatomy, Human Embryology, General Zoology and Endocrinology. I retired from Mankato State University in June, 1990, though I teach part time as an adjunct faculty member at MSU.

I’m fairly appreciative of my life so far, however, I often wonder if there might be some things I might have enjoyed if I could have experienced life in the 40’s era without the advent of WW II.

/S/ Charles T. Sehe

CHARLES T. SEHE December 7, 1991

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