did sharks eat pearl harbor victims

"The hat represents the Arizona. "We had 10 or 12 sharks around us all the time," Conter says. He sits in his wheelchair as his son recites the narrative, keeping his father's story alive. "These guys were the first heroes of the war, even though the war hasn't been declared," Ray Jr. says. Seventy-three years later, he is one of just nine survivors of the attack on the Arizona. Anderson always talks about his brother, Delbert "Jake" Anderson, when he tells the story of his own escape from the burning ship. "She went to California and I followed her," Lonnie says. A few days later, the drove through the crumbling streets of Hiroshima. "Here's the one that told my mother I was missing in action on the Arizona," he says. "Iremember hearing explosions at first," he says. he said. Only 35 dead were . On a fall day in 1945, John Anderson teetered on the base of a church steeple 110 feet above the ground. He finished his stint in the Navy in Shanghai, working shore patrol the way he did back in Honolulu. Over the course of nearly two hours during the morning of December 7th, 1941, a fleet of Japanese fighters and bombers assaulted the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in hopes of crippling the US Navy for the duration of World War II. He returns his attention to the cranes and the catapults that flung the seaplanes into flight. Sea turtles. This time the objective was clear. The band had won a trophy in one of the competitions during their stay in Honolulu. It was the first time Randy, his son, had seen his father cry. Among his responsibilities was overseeing the naval officers' clubs in the area. Some common species of fish sharks hunt include: Tuna. "The station wagon was for the captains of some of the ships that would come in," he said. He had a record, a new song he was trying out. Potts was touched. She was attending an art academy to learn dress designing. I said, 'You send her over, I'll re-enlist.' He said he wanted Anderson to join the on-air staff. "The sea was real rough when it came in and the sharks started gathering around. They continued to see each other and, when Langdell left for Hawaii, they corresponded, often. In 1971, Stratton was working long hours with a diving outfit on a nuclear power plant project not far from Santa Barbara. The parties sometimes dragged into the early morning hours. ", "You will go to the Arizona and you will take off all the bodies and body parts above the water line," the man said. "I don't think I'll ever forget what I saw that day.". Hetrick took a motor launch to the receiving station on shore, where he and other survivors were allowed to shower and given a change of clothes. "We were told to watch out for them, these guys were assassins," Anderson said. Three years later, Ray Haerry Jr. holds the cross in his hand, fighting back tears. Would Ken be willing to go as a guest of honor? As the USS Arizona burned and sunk into the harbor, Stratton and five other men had been trapped on an anti-aircraft gun control platform on the ship's foremast, burned in a fireball when below-deck ammunition exploded. Early in the morning on Dec. 7, 1941, Japan's Imperial Navy launched a surprise airstrike on the US military base at Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu . Potts picked up the Colt 45 he'd found on Ford Island on Dec. 7, 1941. The Langdells ended up honeymooning in Monterey and Carmel on the central California coast. Stratton hesitated, then confirmed her suspicion. Only a few hundred people lived there then. A sign over the arched door marks the room as "Captain's Quarters.". The mangled bodies such as J.J. Astor was probably caused by the 1st smokestack falling into the water and. Stratton told her why: He had been aboard the USS Arizona when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec 7, 1941. How could he say no? Bruner looked each recruit in the eyes to determine the right job, but he wasn't testing their mettle, not yet. He returned to Oklahoma again and started his own business, outfitting a one-ton Ford pickup with a winch and other equipment that let him work the oil fields. Chile. "The worst shark attack in history" - Epic Diving "I was on a date on that Saturday night with a gal I'd been running around with," he says. He tries to abbreviate it: "We went to California and got married.". He was on his own once again, he and his young family. Never would've found it.". He was the opening act for country superstar Hank Snow that night at the North High School auditorium. Stratton grew up in the tiny prairie town of Red Cloud, Neb., about as far away from an ocean as any place in the country. "We took all the bodies we could find.". The Saratoga was attacked by six Japanese suicide bombers within about 24 hours. A year after World War II ended, Haerry went home for a while and married a girl he'd met not long before. For a long time, he didn't think he would ever return to Pearl Harbor. One of our cruisers, the heavy cruiser, got hit and water got into the oil. Almost imperceptibly, he sways. Military Casualties. Just stories, the kind buddies tell each other. "No one knew where the hell I was," Bruner says. The two men not only met, they took a boat to the USS Arizona memorial and laid a wreath in front of the wall with the names of the crewmen who died on the ship. They moved to Modesto, Calif., where he got a job driving a produce truck in the fruit orchards. Conter and others in his group boarded a boat to go out to the platform and see his old ship. CARNIVOROUS SHARKS. They were trying to replenish submarines or send smaller ships in. The crew unloaded anything they could do without, to keep the damaged hull above the water line. A total of 2,403 Americans died in the tragic attack 80 years ago and for many families there was never closure as bodies remained unidentified or left amongst the wreckage. Anderson went aboard the USS Edsall, a destroyer that supported various military action at sea and ashore. 9 Things You Might Not Know About the Attack on Pearl Harbor "They said what a wonderful place it was to live, with jobs and everything, so I bought a little place up in Spanish Fork," he says, "I'm still looking for that easy money.". "I didn't have the slightest idea what would happen when I signed up," he said. By April 1940, the Navy seemed like a good idea and by summer, he was on board the Arizona, stationed at Pearl Harbor on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. The tanker towed them to Adak, Alaska, and from there, another ship took the crippled destroyer to San Francisco for repairs. did sharks eat pearl harbor victims. His dad has never sought recognition for his service on the Arizona and barely talks about the day of the attack. Japan and China were at war again and America was trying to protect its interests without getting involved in the conflict. Back on land, Cook followed welding jobs from Kentucky and Pennsylvania to New Jersey and Long Island, west to North Dakota and Wisconsin and finally to a ranch house in Salinas, Calif., where he raised a family and stayed put for almost 30 years. "You either had a nice place aboard a ship and were high and dry or you didn't have anything," he reasoned. She returned, puzzled. If a shark comes too close, hit it in the nose with your fist as hard as you can.". The Edsall sailed farther north, then headed to the Philippines, where they played baseball with a group of indigenous Moros, who had fought the United States more than 20 years earlier. The job wasn't what he expected in September, when he was discharged from the Navy. There are a few personal photos on the table, but nothing from his years in the Navy. Stratton climbed to his feet and, biting back the pain, he stood and when his bed was ready, he collapsed back into it. His kids and grandkids. "I do as much as I can to keep his story alive," his son says. north but again I'm not a shark expert. He stepped off the deck into a motor launch as the ship was sinking. Potts had not returned to Honolulu in the decades since he left for San Francisco in 1945. Williams was in the Arizona's band. "They said, 'If you re-enlist, we'll send her over.' And that's what he told every soldier and airman who took his courses.*. "I'm a painter," he said. Langdell lives now in a skilled nursing center. He has told her about his escape from the Arizona. Today, he tries to pass on what he knows to students of history. "Sometimes they'd get shooting at you and you'd look at the shells and they looked like they were going to hit you. Repair crews were already at work on the battleships that had survived. The trophy sits on a small white base that raises it above other items on a shelf. The woman helped connect Bruner with other survivors from the Arizona and Pearl Harbor. June 12, 2022 . They would serve together for a little over a year. The guns used the same type of control mechanisms Bruner had mastered on the Arizona. Knives. "To see the people I knew back in those days," he says. A woman from Illinois drew Bruner's name. "Say your prayers, men, we're seven miles off shore and we're in 10, 15-foot swells," one of the officers said as the crew abandoned the plane. He saw action across the South Pacific, patrolled areas where suicide bombers were attacking American destroyers. Hetrick, who is 91, has outlived most of the men he knew on the Saratoga. He gazes at the picture. And he still likes to talk about that other young fellow from Oklahoma, the one who didn't make it home. "He should have the Navy Cross," Stratton says. I saw one airplane, with a big red meatball on the side. They bought a small ranch and, while Lonnie continued to work welding jobs, they grew walnuts, almonds, peaches, apples, nectarines, cherries and grapes. One morning, he was at his desk, catching up on paperwork, when he heard a vehicle screech to a halt outside. Seven decades later, he is one of nine living survivors from the Arizona. He would draw out snippets and stash them away, collecting them until he would weave the barest narrative. The lead-up to the Pearl Harbor attack. LaRocque took Anderson to San Pedro, where his current ship was anchored. For years, Stratton wore the scars from the Arizona without talking about them much. Lonnie and Marietta Cook met in Morris after the war, but the road to their home here today winds thousands of miles across the country. He and Evelyn had their first son, Ray, Jr., in 1947. He still will not talk about it. And he was allowed to visit a part of the Arizona few people ever see. The USS Shaw explodes after being hit by bombs during the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in this December 7, 1941 photo. The bomb that shattered the Arizona's bow exploded as Cook and the others climbed out of the turret. did sharks eat pearl harbor victimshavelock wool australia. Cook has returned to Pearl Harbor three times and he likes the Arizona memorial. Seabirds. He heard the same stories from his grandmother and his aunts. The buddy wasn't home, but his son-in-law answered. Military Ends Pearl Harbor Project to Identify the Dead "So that's what we did," he says, staring out at the harbor nearly seven decades later. I guess he'd do anything he could for me. Haerry would come home on those days with cigar boxes full of the coins. Before the end of the war, he went to San Diego for gunner's mate school. "The nights up there were already short, so I didn't get much sleep," Cook says. striking a number of people in the water. Their ordeal . He had stopped at Pearl Harbor more than a decade earlier, on his way to a posting in Korea. "From down inside, it wasn't too bad when they fired it," Cook said. The ship was to turn around and steam toward Alaska. Many veterans who survived the attack on Pearl Harbor have met over the years and become friends, particularly at the annual Dec. 7 gatherings at the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor. He doesn't want to answer questions about his war service, shrugging them off or insisting he can't remember the details anymore. did sharks eat pearl harbor victims. As he talks about Pearl Harbor again, other memories surface. They spoil their granddaughters and can now move on to a new great-granddaughter. "We took off," Bruner said, "firing just as fast as we could. Civilian Casualties - Pearl Harbor National Memorial (U.S. National He stayed there for months. "It's always a great thing for me to see them," he says. poil bulbe noir ou blanc; juego de ollas royal prestige 7 piezas; ano ang kahalagahan ng agrikultura sa industriya; nashville hotels with ev charging Usually, sharks will prioritize eating: Smaller fish. He was active in those groups for many years, serving as president of one devoted to the Arizona. Potts says, shaking his head. What do sharks eat in Hawaii? - 2023 In the documentary, "The Life and Death of a Lady," Langdell and Abe speak, side by side on the memorial. "They agreed.". The worst shark attack in recorded history also happened to be a disaster for the US Navy. A month after the Coral Sea battle, Cook's ship was part of the American forces in the critical Battle of Midway. "He saved six people's lives. The Macdonough had collided with another destroyer, the Sicard. Were there sharks Pearl Harbor? "Something had happened that no one could comprehend.". Part of his shoulder was blown off. "It was a big ship with a lot of metal, I'll tell you." He would sail to San Francisco on one of the cruise ships refitted to move troops, the Lurline, or maybe the Matsonia. In California, he earned his naval seaman's license and went to work on a drilling rig offshore near Santa Barbara. "I went and found the head guy and by the time I got through explaining things to him," Potts says, "my name was never on that list again.". He first visited the Arizona memorial in Pearl Harbor on the 50thanniversary of the attack and has returned since. We had survival training on the job. "The Navy Department deeply regrets to inform you that your son Louis Anthony Counter quartermaster third class US Navy is missing following action in the performance of his duty.". With eyes too close or two far apart, a crewman could deliver faulty readings. He gave Anderson the name of a contact there. They traveled around the country, meeting up with other USS Arizona survivors, with shipmates from the Frazier. Cook was the gun captain on the Pringle at the battle of Iwo Jima in 1945. It took more courage on your part to present this wreath than it did for me to accept it.". He will answer questions about that December day when he escaped the burning wreckage of the Arizona, reciting as many of the details as he can remember. Almost three decades later, he was the plant manager, second-in-command. He left home at 5 every morning and took a ferry from Jamestown to the Navy base. The man in the boat was from Muskogee, a town about 40 miles east of Morris. The sea turned rough, tossing the ship with 40-foot swells, bouncing the vessel like a rubber ball in a washing machine. Conter was stationed on the Arizona at Pearl Harbor in September 1941, when he turned 20. They respected a guy who survived such a horrific attack. He did not reach a hospital for several days, but doctors still saved his hand. The Coghlan supported Army landings and Navy bombing runs. The nurse who checks in on him regularly likes Haerry. It sits today in the carport outside his home. In 2011, he was one of six Rhode Islanders who had lived through the attack on Pearl Harbor, the only one from the Arizona. -Ryan Dutcher. He fought with other sailors in the Battle of Midway and watched the Marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima. It was carrying parts of the Little Boy atomic bomb as a top secret mission and the Navy learned about its sinking four days after ot was torpedoed. He took up golf seriously in Palm Springs and played in the Bob Hope Classic six times, once on a team with crooner Johnny Mathis. We can't let it happen again.". He went out to the floating memorial. He got the west coast and I got the east coast. Haerry straightened in his seat as his story was told. "What houses they built!" His fingers were almost smooth, lacking all but a few of the swirls that create an identity. 4. The Navy began assigning sailors to new postings. "It ain't worth a damn if it ain't loaded," he says. "He'd always have to be prompted.". "We would go in with a landing party or we furnished artillery for the landing force. '", "Some things," he says, "you don't know about what they'll mean until years later.". Answer: Yes- in 1945, after the USS Indianapolis was sunk by a Japanese torpedo. A few years ago, the Cooks attended a fund-raising dinner at a local American Legion post. He hasn't hunted in a while, though he still reloads his own ammunition on a garage workbench. 1. I asked the boss, 'how many hours is in a day for you?' They danced. "We'd send two guys out to knock the icicles off the guns, then they'd high-tail it back in. A platform marked the wreckage of the USS Arizona. Marietta shakes her head. "If somebody in authority said do something back then, you didn't question it. As he prepared for his new posting on the Frazier, Langdell decided to make a move. The United States declared war on Japan on December 8, 1941, the day following the attack on Pearl Harbor. Explosions rocked the vessel and fires burned into the evening. queensland figure skating. "I motioned to crane operator what we needed, what tools to send down." "Cut!" "Would you like to listen to it?" "Andy, you had 12 years of the damnedest fighting I ever saw. They stayed composed as their stories were told, stories of bravery, of quick thinking. A few years later, a new station owner showed Anderson his plans to start a TV station. did sharks eat pearl harbor victims Except the cap. Stratton falls easily into the memories of his years on diving boats. ("Two of us with the same rank were up for the same kind of job," he said. The planes flew up the Sepik River from the northern coast of New Guinea. In the chaotic days following the Dec. 7 ambush, the Navy wasn't letting ships into the harbor, fearful the Japanese might send in more bombers. "Not Navy ships, other ships. They met at a dance at the YWCA on North State Street. He's never been back. Put in eight years at least and you'll have a pension, he promised. Pictures of past parades. He visited the memorial and was relieved to see the builders got it right. Before the trip, Langdell hadn't talked much about his years in the war, about his time on the Arizona. Bruner toured Nagasaki in a Jeep with other Navy officers and chief mates. He squinted and thought about where he was. "There's the battleships there's the Nevada, the Arizona, the Tennessee, the West Virginia, Maryland, the Oklahoma. The men stayed afloat until another plane saw the burning wreckage and tossed out a life raft. In 1949, the newly created U.S. Air Force was trying to fill it out its ranks with experienced support crews, almost begging for mechanics who knew the aircraft. At this one, he was looking around the room and he saw a picture of a sailor way back in the back, in a setting arranged like a memorial. "It's just not going to happen. It was Sunday and some of the crewmen with liberty wanted an early start. He describes the store of booze they pulled out of safe and the money. One of the survivors would receive the Rhode Island Cross. 3 gun turret. That led to a job in Roswell, the Sagebrush Serenade and Elvis Presley. In the waters off Honolulu, he confronted his memories. That was enough to rattle nerves on board the ship, which was at general quarters every day an hour before sundown and an hour before sunrise. Kuwait. And there's a trophy in the corner the paneled room that means as much as anything else there. The man walked over and looked at Langdell's name tag. Military Casualties - Pearl Harbor National Memorial (U.S. National He was attending midshipman's school at Northwestern University. Late in the year, after an overhaul in San Francisco, the Coghlan returned to patrol duty off the Aleutians with a half dozen other U.S. vessels. "We saved people on commercial ships on the seas, we rescued missionaries in the interior of China, we shot up a bunch of pirates," Anderson said. In U.S. history the name recalls the surprise Japanese air attack on December 7, 1941, that temporarily crippled the U.S. Fleet and resulted in the United States' entry into World War II. One day, a young fellow knocked on his door. A framed painting of the Arizona, the repair ship Vestal next to it. Large species also consume marine mammals such as dolphins, seals, sea lions, and porpoises, as well as large fish species such as tuna, mackerel, and even smaller shark species. About halfway through the cruise, the Pringle was ordered to accompany the battleship Iowa to Africa, where President Roosevelt was to attend a conference with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in Morocco. "OK," Bruner said. They found a way to take prints from the edges of his fingers, enough to satisfy the law. He got to know Alan Ladd, who had starred in a series of war movies. On the same bookshelf sit mementos from his time on the Arizona. He helped rescue some of his shipmates. And as the victims' blood spread through the water, sharks - which can smell blood up to three miles away - were attracted to the defenceless sailors, creating a feeding frenzy. A painting of the Arizona hangs on the wall of a sitting room. Once he was awakened by a loud noise and a flash and thought his ship was under attack. He had a ticket home to Minnesota, but decided to find a place to stay and come up with a plan. And it holds deep meaning for Potts, even though he did nothing to win it. December 7, 1941: Pearl Harbor Casualties - Pearl Harbor "This went on for four straight hours. "We got into San Francisco," he says, "and they never even opened my bags. By early 1941, Langdell was one of the "90-day wonders" and drew his first assignment: The USS Arizona. The ships sent up their own planes and turned back the assault. Donald Stratton completed the paperwork for a concealed weapons permit at the El Paso County Sheriff's Office and approached the counter to submit fingerprints. On the 70thanniversary of the attack, the men had been brought to the state capitol to receive new honors. Photographs hang on the walls of his room. He missed enough of his classes that he was finally asked to leave. They will celebrate 65 years of marriage in April. He's not sure he'd have learned that lesson if he hadn't enlisted in the Navy. Cook enlisted in the Navy in 1940 and was assigned to the USS Arizona, one of the largest battleships in the fleet with a crew that, at full complement, numbered more than 1,500. He has met many of his old friends and shipmates. He thinks back. Bruner laughs as he remembers the conversation. A lot of people agree that what George did was heroic, but the Navy balks at every step, in part because George disobeyed a direct order. ages 2, 3 and 8, together with a 14-year-old cousin . As the ships turned around, a squadron of enemy bombers appeared. Langdell arrived at Pearl Harbor along a different path than many of the young sailors, who signed up for the service because they were unable to find work as civilians. On December 7, 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy bombed the Pearl Harbor Naval base in a surprise attack. For a while, the young family lived in Puerto Rico as Haerry, now a chief boatswain's mate, drew new assignments aboard his tender. "It sounded like someone shooting guns. Potts was based out of the port director's office there were two, one at the harbor, one on the ninth floor of the Aloha Tower in downtown Honolulu but he logged most of his hours at the controls of the motor boat, a Jeep or a station wagon. Not long after, a second plane dropped a life raft and all 10 of the crew made to shore and, the next night, back to the base.