He was able to visit the national cemetery at an area called the Punch Bowl. "Are you out of the Navy, Andy?" He's not sure he'd have learned that lesson if he hadn't enlisted in the Navy. There were: Cook and another crewman. The Frazier patrolled the South Pacific at first, but in early 1943, steamed northward toward Alaska, where Japan was trying to secure positions in the Aleutian Islands. He keeps a folder of newspaper clippings, magazine stories and copies of a telegram. "We picked up a couple of girls and made the rounds. He bought another gun in the states and he is never far from it. "I went back and told my mother I wasn't going up there anymore," he said. Tensions between Japan and the U.S. simmered throughout the early 20th century and came to a boil in the 1930s as Japan attempted to conquer China, even . Langdell is one of the last nine survivors from the Arizona. We all have to remember that they did not die in vain.". When they sent me my discharge, I just stayed here.". Updated: Dec 8, 2021 / 05:46 AM CST. They stayed composed as their stories were told, stories of bravery, of quick thinking. Explosions rocked the vessel and fires burned into the evening. An impressive collection of restaurant menus from 30 years of cross-country searches for used cars. "We had to have two crews, a regular crew and a stand-by crew lined up waiting," Bruner said. Part of his shoulder was blown off. "Are there any officers from the Arizona here?" During construction of the memorial, the Navy sliced off pieces of the Arizona's wreckage to make room for the structure that sits above the sunken ship today. He was 20 when he escaped the burning wreckage ofthe USS Arizonain Pearl Harbor. Hetrick was sent to the USS Lexington, an aircraft carrier. "I motioned to crane operator what we needed, what tools to send down." "I do as much as I can to keep his story alive," his son says. Stratton could not. She nods and smiles. Only 335 men survived the bombing of the USS Arizona, the mighty battleship whose loss at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, inspired a nation to go to war. He . Her sister knew Jack Warner, the film studio mogul, and invited Valerie to a movie premiere party Warner was hosting in Palm Springs for his latest project, "Camelot". Afterward, Langdell sought out other survivors who had formed reunion organizations. Bruner was the second-to-last man to leave the sinking ship. "If you can stand up and stay up while we change the linen on this bed, we'll see about it.". After that, he started teaching U.S. troops the skills of survival, evasion, resistance and escape. His kids and grandkids. Inside, he found broken bottles scattered in a soggy soup of booze and cardboard. After that, he steamed north to Kodiak, Alaska, where other Navy ships were trying to turn back Japanese inroads throughout the strategically important Aleutian Islands. A few years ago, the Cooks attended a fund-raising dinner at a local American Legion post. That fateful day led the United States . Long a bachelor again, Bruner has also entertained lady friends from time to time. "They tried to jump off. The Pearl Harbour . Cook was discharged in 1948 in San Diego and stuck around California, where he worked as a metal finisher at Van Nuys manufacturing plant. He remembers when the order was given to abandon ship. Joe proposed and Libby accepted. During his voyage to Alaska, Cook remembers the flying fish, which stirred up the water like a torpedo wake. He jumped into the harbor, even though he had never passed his swimming test. They catch up. In Alaska, he helped set up platforms that could keep up with tides that rose and fell as much as 32 feet. It scared him a little. "Sometimes they'd get shooting at you and you'd look at the shells and they looked like they were going to hit you. However, larger shark species like to eat large marine mammals and large fish species, including dolphins, sea lions, tuna, mackerel, and seals. 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. Jack shrugged. Inside the packets were the captains' new orders, military secrets, classified information that required clearance to handle. popeyes vs chicken express; do venmo requests expire He won't talk much about the escape, or about the men who didn't make it across. Before the trip, Langdell hadn't talked much about his years in the war, about his time on the Arizona. 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. 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. "Mr. Langdell," he said, "when you're done with your breakfast, you'll report to the pier and you'll be met by a motor whale boat and a party of 20 enlisted men with sheets and pillow cases. The men followed orders in a fog of wonderment and confusion. I even had a couple of dates with girls.". Never would've found it.". During the conference, the Pringle sailed into the Mediterranean Sea and anchored in a river. He joined the USS Arizona Reunion Association and stays in touch with a few of the remaining survivors. Within a day or two, someone came into the ward and said a few of the wounded would be sent to California. Pearl Harbor is a U.S. naval base near Honolulu, Hawaii, that was the scene of a devastating surprise attack by Japanese forces on December 7, 1941. If the shark feels like a dead fish isn't worth its time, it will leave without wasting more energy. The war's over.". How could he say no? Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. One day, he stopped for coffee at the Brown Derby restaurant in Hollywood. ", He stops in front of a newspaper, the front page of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin with the headline: "WAR! Whale sharks can grow to 65 feet in length and weigh up to 75,000 pounds. The mast and towers near the bow tilted at a sickening angle. A sailor on the deck of the repair ship Vestal spotted the men and threw a line across. Ray Jr. seems surprised. 3 gun turret. He and a buddy had been talking about their future in the Navy. He watched the band perform and stood as a survivor of the Arizona, one of the sailors who lived. Finally, after a few weeks on the tanker, Potts was handed a new assignment. He tried to keep his thoughts on the work in the office. Before the end of the war, he went to San Diego for gunner's mate school. The telegram, which misspelled Conter's last name, promises further information and asks his family not to divulge Conter's posting. Lonnie had taken up trap shooting and hoped to do a little hunting back home. Williams was on deck, tuning up to play for colors, an early call after the previous day's fleet Battle of the Bands on shore. Conter served on the San Pablo and Half Moon. Las Vegas seems to like Hetrick. Joe Langdell found a table in the wardroom of one of the ships moored in Pearl Harbor and sat down with his breakfast. Doctors treated him and he recovered, but the his fingers never healed properly. The day after, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared it "a date which will live in infamy," and Congress . The face plate is glass and around the bottom are screws that would secure it to the diving suit. Hetrick saw a new opportunity and joined. McBride reached the last man, Raymond Haerry, a 20-year-old coxswain on the day of the assault. Finally, the four U.S. destroyers were ordered to mount a torpedo run. "Listen, all those men down there on that ship, a thousand of them, they wouldn't do it and I don't think they'd want me to do it," he says. He gazes at the picture. He was promoted to Lieutenant Commander in February 1954, the rank he held until he retired. Langdell had borrowed a car, a Dusenburg, for the honeymoon. Conter had made friends with a young lady in Honolulu. "Not Navy ships, other ships. "The Arizona was a fighting battleship," Joe says. The Japanese military had established strategic outposts in the Aleutian Islands and had its eye on Alaska. elephant tail jewelry did sharks eat pearl harbor victims. Ke awa lau o Puuloa, the bay and lochs that make up the complex most people know simply as Pearl Harbor, was once the home of the guardian sharks, Kaahupahau and her brother Kahiuka. A pistol sits on top of his television at home. He wanted to interview Langdell for his project. "You either had a nice place aboard a ship and were high and dry or you didn't have anything," he reasoned. It turned out most of the regular stuntmen were still in the military. "They paid me by the day," he said. Cook is invited to such events occasionally and sometimes introduced as an Arizona survivor. The Navy loaded 5,000 bunks on board, along with a row of portable latrines, and the Saratoga sailed to San Francisco, passing under the Golden Gate Bridge with toilet paper streamers and thousands of sailors who needed something to do. Pearl Harbor, naval base and headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, Honolulu county, southern Oahu Island, Hawaii, U.S. After so many years of travel, the Cooks have settled into a more tranquil pace. Japanese torpedo bombers hit the Lexington and crippled the big ship. Today, Lou and Valerie Conter live in a two-level house at the end of a winding road on a golf course in Grass Valley, a mountain town about 60 miles outside Sacramento. "He was very military by then, very disciplined.". On Oct. 12, Langdell celebrated his 100th birthday with with his older son, John, who flew in from Spearfish, S.D. As far he was concerned he was saving lives.". With his experience running cranes on the Arizona, Potts figures he could have landed a decent job at the Geneva Steel operation, but he didn't want to work shifts, so he worked as a carpenter again and eventually went into the used car business with a friend. From Virginia, he went to Utah, to France and then to Albuquerque, where he retired in November 1961. Anderson always talks about his brother, Delbert "Jake" Anderson, when he tells the story of his own escape from the burning ship. The Saratoga sailed across the South Pacific, to Guam, the Philippines, around New Guinea. As they talked, Ray mentioned that his dad had been aboard the Arizona. "We got halfway there and I told them to turn around," Conter said. They listened for their names and their service branch. He had five brothers, including Jake, and four sisters, all grouped so close in age that paying for college wasn't practical for their folks. At Kulangsu, an international settlement on an island off the southern Chinese coast, Anderson's unit ran into the French Foreign Legion, who had been cornered by Japanese soldiers on a high ridge. "He'd always have to be prompted.". In World War II, he fought at Guadalcanal, in the battle of the Coral Sea, at Okinawa and Iwo Jima. He was soon flying one of the Navy's Black Cats, a squadron of long-range patrol bombers painted black for night missions. Haerry straightened in his seat as his story was told. "I ain't seen 'em since.". All those sailors from all those places and here was a guy who was practically a neighbor. He settled in Palm Springs and built a career as a real estate developer, buying up land for commercial and residential projects. "It's hard to explain." Put in eight years at least and you'll have a pension, he promised. What he heard wasn't quite country music, but he liked it and he told the kid. "Randy, come and turn on the music box." Hetrick earned a Purple Heart for wounds during one of the bombing raids. The shock of jumping into a harbor knowing he couldn't swim. Among his responsibilities was overseeing the naval officers' clubs in the area. His name never appeared and he would leave for the day. He has been telling his story to an author, Ed McGrath, who is working on a book and a film about Bruner's escape from a collapsing tower on the ship. Or both. The body parts we put in pillow cases. Many have since died. June 12, 2022 . a director yelled. Only a few hundred people lived there then. Jobs were few, so he set off for Warner, Okla, with the idea of playing football at Connors State Agricultural College. The ones after that were, too. The crews were based on tender ships moored in secluded harbors. The studios needed tough men who could handle dangerous situations. "The hat represents the Arizona. One morning, he was at his desk, catching up on paperwork, when he heard a vehicle screech to a halt outside. In March, the crew turned back Japanese forces in the Battle of Komandorski. He wasn't ready to see it all again, to sharpen the memories he'd tried to dull. "I'd do it a hundred times more," he says. In 2006, Hetrick returned to Pearl Harbor for the 65thanniversary of the Japanese attack. "One day our boat was stacked with two dollar bills," he said. He describes the store of booze they pulled out of safe and the money. The license plate reads USS ARIZ. A mural on a white bed cover depicts the USS Arizona and the memorial that floats above it in Pearl Harbor. Friends told them when the left the church, keep the water on their left. The Navy captain who lived on Waikiki Beach gave a lot of parties and invited these guys. They were having trouble reading his prints, she told Stratton. The exhausted crew dragged ashore an hour later and hid in the jungle, fearful they would be captured by Japanese soldiers. She likes the story of how they tied the knot. It is a piece of rigging used to secure a mooring line from a ship. Minutes later, the Japanese attacked and the Arizona was on fire, sinking beneath the surface. "When we got up into the Aleutians, we started banging on the Japanese that had already landed," Bruner said. Another five minutes, Bruner figured, and they'd have run out of ammunition. Coast watchers were military intelligence operatives who gathered information about enemy activities on islands across the South Pacific. It was constructed to comply with the 1922 Washington Naval . Langdell was an ensign, an entry-level officer, not yet a year in the Navy. A sailor on the repair ship Vestal, tied up nearby, spotted them and threw them a line. They had voted. "I don't think I'll ever forget what I saw that day.". Conter attended the same event and was seated next to Valerie. "No one knew where the hell I was," Bruner says. He wanted one last unforgettable day. Potts says, shaking his head. In order to produce enough energy to hunt and keep their body temperatures up, they have to feed on high-fat animals like seals and large tuna.The sharks have good eyesight, and they have electromagnetic sensors on their snout where they can tell the difference between a seal and a human from over 100 yards away. Most sharks are carnivores, meaning their diets consist of live prey, including fish, crustaceans, and mollusks. By Christmas, he was in a hospital at Mare Island near San Francisco. "I said, 'sure, I'll take it.' "We'd leave at 5:30 in the evening and stay out 12 or 14 hours, then return in the morning," Conter said. "He remembers body parts in the water, charred burned bodies that he swam by," his son Ray, Jr., says. Ken Potts eases around the side of the pool table, waving toward items like a museum tour guide in a back room. He would answer questions, but in short bursts of description, with no emotion. What they didn't count on was the side-street parking. LaRocque took Anderson to San Pedro, where his current ship was anchored. In 1966, 25 years after the attack, Stratton returned to Pearl Harbor with his family. He had stopped at Pearl Harbor more than a decade earlier, on his way to a posting in Korea. He displayed no pictures, kept no mementos that his family knew about. 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. I heard the general say, 'You're a remarkable guy.' "But it was a lot better than being shot at.". "They said, 'If you re-enlist, we'll send her over.' 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. Conter fought on through World War II, scraped past a lot of close calls, then went to Korea. He owns a chunk of the ship's burned deck, a reminder he keeps in a box with a few other items. And that's what he told every soldier and airman who took his courses.*. on the Arizonawhen the battleship sankon Dec. 7. the final survivor to be interred in the ship. The primer went in last, before the end of the gun was sealed shut. That was the end of it.". We had survival training on the job. A storm was approaching, a big one by the looks of it. I think it was one of the proudest days of my father's life.". Civilian Casualties. The story follows two lifelong friends and a beautiful nurse who are caught up in the horror of an infamous Sunday morning in 1941. "I just didn't want to. He had visited before, but this trip meant more. Were there sharks Pearl Harbor? The band members had decided they wanted to honor survivors from that day. The only question was how Langdell would send Libby word about his arrival from Pearl Harbor. Hetrick thought about it. 1914-1941:The mightiest ship at sea | Dec. 7, 1941: The attack that changed the world| Documentary: 'Witness to Infamy' | 2014: The final toast. They called the Marines out with rifles to protect the plane and the guys while we hauled it in.". "The Japanese were only a mile away. Born in 1914, seven months after the first bolts were tightened on a new battleship in Brooklyn, Langdell grew up wooded agricultural area along the Souhegan River in southern New Hampshire. Conter told the admiral he was interested in flight school, but doubted he would earn admission. The parties sometimes dragged into the early morning hours. "We'd patrol at night. He was still adjusting to his new life in Colorado, hundreds of miles inland from his old home in coastal California and more than a mile higher in elevation. If a plane crashed, crocodiles awaited in the river. Three days had passed since Japanese bombers had punched a fiery hole in the Navy's Pacific fleet. The sky began to darken and the wind grew. On the Arizona, he worked on the deck crew. "We were told to watch out for them, these guys were assassins," Anderson said. Using its sonar equipment, the ship fired depth charges and eventually sank the enemy submarine. World War II veterans are a special breed, Lt. Col. Denis Riel said as the men accepted the medals. USS Indianapolis was a Portland class heavy cruiser of the United States Navy. did sharks attack titanic survivors. "This went on for four straight hours. Sailors jumped into fires to escape sinking vessels. by Pia Peterson. 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. "The kids coming up now have never heard of it," he says, his voice tinged with sadness and dismay. Sailors found food and shelter wherever they could. Rays. For some reason I had always thought that the titanic had gone down way farther North. They respected a guy who survived such a horrific attack. Conter helped establish training bases in Florida and California and in 1965, he returned to Pearl Harbor to write training materials for troops headed to Vietnam. They are the marks of a survivor, 73 years on. So you see how that works."). On the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, Harold, 24, was on deck of the Oklahoma while William, 23, was working below, according to their family. They moved to Santa Maria, not far from Santa Barbara, to be near their oldest son, then to Colorado Springs to be near Randy. At dawn on December 7, 1941, more than half of the United States Pacific Fleet, approximately 150 vessels and service craft, lay at anchor or alongside piers in Pearl Harbor. "They were holed up behind sandbags, but they never got hit.". He liked teaching and liked the chance to instill discipline. He asked for volunteers. By early 1941, Langdell was one of the "90-day wonders" and drew his first assignment: The USS Arizona. did sharks eat pearl harbor victims. Why Did Pearl Harbor Happen? It's the same place where the oil is leaking" oil stores aboard the ship that, even today, still seep to the surface "that's where I got out from below.". "That's what I'm catching up now. Among those killed were over 1,700 aboard the USS Arizona, 103 . One of the men started yelling. "It was rough weather, foggy, raining cold," Anderson said. The Navy censors would never allow such information in a letter. He was thrown into the ocean and waited 57 hours to be rescued while shipmates around him were eaten by sharks. The Navy began assigning sailors to new postings. One day, a Navy officer came on board and asked if anyone wanted to volunteer for an assignment in the aviation section. The offshore diving business could leave its own kind of scars. A smile spreads across his face as Dean Martin's voice fills the cab. He endured what he did, he says, because that was his job. He climbed aboard the ship, ducking to avoid bullets from the gunner planes. His service on the Arizona also seemed to give him added credibility among the young sailors. That caught the lieutenant colonel's interest. Some even like to dine on smaller shark species! "I hadn't told him he was going to be individually honored that day," he says. We cut the torpedoes loose.". pearl harbor 1941. uss arizona. An electro-mechanical computer would aim the guns. "Some of the ships I was on had guys who liked to play the guitar, so I knew something about it. As anniversaries of the attack passed, Ray Jr. would asked his dad if he wanted to visit the USS Arizona memorial at Pearl Harbor. "We would go in with a landing party or we furnished artillery for the landing force. They danced. He keeps up with what the military does, and some of it irritates him. The new shoes he left on the deck of the sinking ship, the ones he intended to retrieve later. In early January, Conter visited his young lady friend again and again, Admiral Calhoun was there. OAHU BOMBED BY JAPANESE PLANES", "That's one of the first extras that was put out that day," Potts says. Conter's doctor has sidelined him for now for health reasons, but he is certain he will return soon. It identifies Stratton as a survivor of the attack that sank the ship. Sight-setters and pointers would locate targets visually and determine their distance and range. Enemy patrol planes spotted the ships and the raid was canceled. Their backs are gray, blue, or brown in color and covered with regularly arranged light spots. He kept the truck, held on to it through repairs, engine overhauls, new paint jobs. He pushes his shirtsleeves up to show his arms. Still traveling at 17 knots, the Indianapolis began taking on massive amounts of water; the ship sank in just 12 minutes. A few days later, the drove through the crumbling streets of Hiroshima. 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. Potts had not returned to Honolulu in the decades since he left for San Francisco in 1945. The Coghlan left San Francisco in September 1942 and sailed toward Pearl Harbor for an assignment. Handout . 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. Stories of survival. He then spent 14 months recovering in Great . For a while, the young family lived in Puerto Rico as Haerry, now a chief boatswain's mate, drew new assignments aboard his tender. Ray Jr. has arranged for his father's remains to be interred in the sunken Arizona, an honor accorded any of the sailors or Marines who survived the attack. Cook and the other men stayed below deck until the smoke from a fire forced them to leave. For years, Stratton wore the scars from the Arizona without talking about them much. The story of the USS Indianapolis has become legendary with regards to shark attacks, and is known as the worst shark attack in recorded history. Wherever he goes on the pickup, people ask him about his experience. Bruner was put in charge of the gun batteries. 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 . A bow. "Mr. Langdell, Mr. Langdell, you've got to come here quick," he said. He motions toward his gnarled ear. He doesn't like to talk about the attack. In February, the Aylwin was part of a U.S. task force preparing for a raid on a Japanese base at Raubal, on the island of New Britain near Australia. "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. Without them, Riel said, who knows where we'd be today. queensland figure skating. He and his father chat a little. Pearl Harbor was the most important American . He was soon aboard the USS Frazier, which left the shipyard at San Francisco in July 1942. And the ships needed experienced sailors. The Macdonough had collided with another destroyer, the Sicard. He spent the rest of the day retrieving bodies from the harbor. The smile widens. Maybe next time. alain picard wife / ap calculus bc multiple choice / did sharks eat pearl harbor victims. He still tools around town in the truck, but it's a classic now, so he drives it almost as often to car shows. He points out the cranes and the locations along the ship where he would tie up the motor boats he piloted to fetch supplies and ferry sailors to and from shore. In May 1942, the Aylwin joined a task force in the Coral Sea with the USS Lexington, one of the Navy's early aircraft carriers. He joined the Navy because it seemed like a better environment. The day after the attack, President Franklin D . He thinks back. He stayed on the 17thfloor of a hotel on Waikiki Beach. He says that decision was the best thing he could have done. For an hour or so, the two men talk. When she says anything, I tell her I'm catching up from the war.". Conter and others in his group boarded a boat to go out to the platform and see his old ship. He is one of nine living survivors of the Arizona and, at 97, he has amassed a lifetime of unforgettable days. Posted on December 7, 2021, 5:08 pm. "I put on two life jackets," Hetrick said. He sits in his wheelchair as his son recites the narrative, keeping his father's story alive. In Korea, Conter flew 29 missions, but his work in Naval intelligence left him vulnerable if the North Koreans captured him, so he was shipped to Washington, D.C. I had one pair of dungarees and that was it, that and a towel and shaving gear.". The planes took off and landed on the water; the pilots tied up to buoys near the ship. Haerry held the rope that connected the ships as another crewman swung an ax to cut it. In 1967, Conter retired from the Navy. Anderson has returned to the Arizona memorial often and has taken his family there. "I'm planning to marry your wife's sister, but I've got to have somebody take my place at work. Almost three decades later, he was the plant manager, second-in-command. Too many strategic decisions come down from Washington instead of from the commanders on the ground. "It just didn't appeal to me to bring it up," he says. Nope. He has told her about his escape from the Arizona. He asked his brother, Ted, to visit Libby and see if she could cook. Of the 1,196 men aboard, 900 made it into the water alive. He was attending midshipman's school at Northwestern University. He didn't know what to tell them. Knives. That didn't last long and he headed back to Morris, where he met Marietta. "The stuff he likes.". Marietta shakes her head. 11 Oldest Pearl Harbor Survivors (Updated 2021) December 7, 1941 is a date that everyone in America has committed to memory. He cleaned and painted day after day, but he also operated the motor boats used to ferry crew members to shore, a job that let him leave the ship periodically. "What's up with this one? The ships encountered a Japanese fleet, two big cruisers, six destroyers, some troop ships, and engaged. "They agreed.".