USS Indianapolis was a Portland class heavy cruiser of the United States Navy. Three years later, Ray Haerry Jr. holds the cross in his hand, fighting back tears. The day after the attack, President Franklin D . Schenkelberg was no stranger to hardships . 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 . By winter, temperatures plunged below zero. Most sharks are carnivores, meaning their diets consist of live prey, including fish, crustaceans, and mollusks. "I told another kid if they come back again tonight, I'm leaving.". Fire had blackened much of the structure still visible. The body parts we put in pillow cases. Chile. From the shore, he helped wounded men from the water, men whose bodies had been torn apart by bombs and bullets and fire. The offshore diving business could leave its own kind of scars. All rights reserved. "Well, I'd brushed enough paint on that damn ship, I figured I could do it," he says. 5 Jun. He refused to cut the line no matter what. They danced. 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". Japanese torpedo bombers hit the Lexington and crippled the big ship. They generally prefer the shallows in temperate, tropical regions, which is usually where divers and surfers come into contact with them and potentially become the victims of shark trauma. I don't think sharks go that far. By the time they were back, the icicles were forming again and two more guys would go out.". A framed painting of the Arizona, the repair ship Vestal next to it. Be immersed in the details of the infamous attack on Pearl Harbor and . The United States was a neutral country at the time; the attack led to its formal entry into World War II the next day. On the morning of May 8, the fighting intensified as American aircraft tried to turn back the enemy planes. Framed medals. When the fourth bomb detonated in the powder magazine, anyone left was blown over the side. Lots of men brought home scars from World War II and Korea. The men, their charred skin peeling away, climbed hand-over-hand across the line to safety. The song, "Hound Dog" and the singer, Elvis Presley, both went over pretty well, the way Cactus Jack remembers it. Yet in a place where you couldn't cross the street without running into a war vet, Bruner was not just another ex-sailor who made it home. "It didn't take me that long. He struggles to speak at times (though when he's feeling good, he likes to flirt with the nurses). It was the first time Randy, his son, had seen his father cry. USS Indianapolis at Mare Island. . Cook and the other men stayed below deck until the smoke from a fire forced them to leave. "He was very military by then, very disciplined.". queensland figure skating. He tries to abbreviate it: "We went to California and got married.". "You can't get a guy hungry in three or four days," Conter says. He was nervous about volunteering for anything, but he raised his hand. "Three months later, I was in Korea.". 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. "In the Army you were crawling around in the mud and everything else and I didn't want to do that.". "I cleaned up my language," he says, admitting he deployed a salty vocabulary, even after leaving active duty. Bruner started as a painter, trained as a carpenter, then helped start a new sheet-metal department. Too many strategic decisions come down from Washington instead of from the commanders on the ground. Stratton told her why: He had been aboard the USS Arizona when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec 7, 1941. "You," the fellow said. It was as if he had none. He stopped in the small town of Payson, Utah. "It's easier if you come see it," the sailor said. Anderson has returned to the Arizona memorial often and has taken his family there. 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. He then spent 14 months recovering in Great . Pearl Harbor centres on a cloverleaf-shaped, artificially . he met his contact and not long after, he was standing in for Orson Welles in a scene from the movie "The Stranger.". 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. He liked the idea of working as an aircraft mechanic, so he volunteered. I heard the general say, 'You're a remarkable guy.' And he was allowed to visit a part of the Arizona few people ever see. A pistol sits on top of his television at home. Some of 'em made it, some of 'em landed on the deck. He could see the band was sincere. They trade stories. 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. The Navy captain who lived on Waikiki Beach gave a lot of parties and invited these guys. On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The inscription reads "Spirit of Aloha Award, Timpview High School Marching Band.". Trains run close enough to hear the horns during the day, but not close enough to make them a nuisance. The river wound through dense vegetation, leaving 15 or 20 feet of clearance on each side of the plane. Haerry says he wants lunch delivered to his room, but the nurse says no. We had survival training on the job. Around 2005, he and Jeanne moved to Bullhead City. They were having trouble reading his prints, she told Stratton. At the time, sailors wore patches designating their rates, the enlisted expression of rank, on the right or left sleeve, depending on their assignment. "We would go in with a landing party or we furnished artillery for the landing force. I asked the boss, 'how many hours is in a day for you?' Survivors' groups wanted to find all of them so their stories would not be lost. They were dead in the water.". Cook was discharged in 1948 in San Diego and stuck around California, where he worked as a metal finisher at Van Nuys manufacturing plant. "You know, you can see where I came out of, the hatchway. The exhausted crew dragged ashore an hour later and hid in the jungle, fearful they would be captured by Japanese soldiers. They respected a guy who survived such a horrific attack. His dad operated a livery stable and a small dairy and later earned money as an auctioneer. As soon as he turned 18, he enlisted in the Navy. The day when they assigned him and a crew of divers to a motor launch and sent them to the Arizona to remove bodies of dead sailors. They went out for coffee afterward. Anderson grew up in the Red River Valley of northern Minnesota, the son of a prominent local judge. No one among the groups knew where he was or what he was doing, but the woman persisted. And there's a trophy in the corner the paneled room that means as much as anything else there. Kitchen patrol. 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. It had been shortly after midnight when their ship, the USS Indianapolis, was torpedoed and sunk by a Japanese submarine in the deepest part of the Pacific Ocean, some 500 miles east of the . Not long after he returned to Pearl Harbor near the end of the war, Anderson searched out some of the battle reports from Dec. 7, 1941. "Can you tell me what ship did he go on after the Arizona?" 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.". Within a day or two, someone came into the ward and said a few of the wounded would be sent to California. Langdell's ship, the USS Arizona, lay dead in the water where she sank 14 minutes into the attack. But he clutches the cap and puts it on as he sits in an easy chair by the window. His dad has never sought recognition for his service on the Arizona and barely talks about the day of the attack. He started on a small station, playing organ music. He sits in his wheelchair as his son recites the narrative, keeping his father's story alive. Hetrick turns a rusted chunk of metal over in his hands, running his fingers along the curves and edges. There was a tradition at the end of training that the graduates would give the chief a silver dollar. His younger son believes the experience changed his dad forever. But John Anderson, the Navy chief petty officer who called himself Cactus Jack on the air, had a good head start already. The ship accompanied General Douglas MacArthur to the Philippines and was anchored in the harbor off Nagasaki, Japan, when the second atomic bomb exploded. Potts was touched. "Cut!" 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. Bruner's neighbor, who has become a close friend and a source of transportation, picks the fruit to keep it from rotting on the ground. No one knew much about Bruner's years in the Navy, not the early years anyway. The attack was devastating for the Americans, though the Japanese . Now, Bruner prepares for his next trip in the Captain's Quarters. The smell of burned skin filled the air. He returns his attention to the cranes and the catapults that flung the seaplanes into flight. I guess he'd do anything he could for me. But he kept most of it to himself until he started meeting up with other survivors, years after he retired from the military. How could he say no? "Some of the ships I was on had guys who liked to play the guitar, so I knew something about it. He was cut loose in San Francisco and returned to Los Angeles, where he had married a girl back in late 1942. Fish, in general, are the most common prey for sharks. "When I got back home, my doctors here wanted to know about my medical background," Bruner said. The mangled bodies such as J.J. Astor was probably caused by the 1st smokestack falling into the water and. When the regular stuntmen returned and the studio cut loose the subs, Ladd hired some of them to work on his house in the Holmby Hills above Los Angeles. Haerry would come home on those days with cigar boxes full of the coins. The sea turned rough, tossing the ship with 40-foot swells, bouncing the vessel like a rubber ball in a washing machine. 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. As the 50thanniversary of the attack neared, Langdell got a call from a documentary filmmaker. "I don't think we'll ever be able to swim to shore. He was still active, so would report to the Navy Pier each morning to check a list for the names of sailors who had been given duties for the day. They listened for their names and their service branch. He would sail to San Francisco on one of the cruise ships refitted to move troops, the Lurline, or maybe the Matsonia. "We didn't hear much from the outside at first," Hetrick said. He went out to the floating memorial. "Are you out of the Navy, Andy?" When was the shark attack on the Jersey Shore? "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. 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. He joined the Navy because it seemed like a better environment. 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. Finally, after a few weeks on the tanker, Potts was handed a new assignment. He wanted to part of it. His new employer manufactured industrial refrigeration units. Conter told him about the lost orders. "It's hard to explain." The family sold maple syrup distilled from the trees on their farm. "OK," Bruner said. Stratton's eyes brighten. During the conference, the Pringle sailed into the Mediterranean Sea and anchored in a river. A moment passes. Keeping the memories alive. "This went on for four straight hours. They continued to see each other and, when Langdell left for Hawaii, they corresponded, often. "There was a huge oil fire on the surface of the water fueled by the ships' tanks, so it created these giant fires all over the water," Nelson said. About a year after he boarded the ship, he ran into a young recruit named Clyde Williams, a fellow from Okmulgee, Okla., a few miles down the road from Morris. When, on July 30, 1945, USS Indianapolis was sunk by a Japanese submarine, the Navy didn't realize the ship had been lost until four days later - after which hundreds of men floating in the ocean for days had been eaten by sharks.. Toward the end of July 1945, the Portland-class heavy cruiser USS . By 1941, he worked the cranes on the ship, a job that entailed retrieving the Arizona's small seaplanes after they landed on the water. The Macdonough had collided with another destroyer, the Sicard. He fought with other sailors in the Battle of Midway and watched the Marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima. 1. elephant tail jewelry did sharks eat pearl harbor victims. His ships steamed across the Pacific, through the Panama Canal to Africa. He and a buddy would sneak off campus and hop freight trains to see how far they could get. On the Arizona, he worked on the deck crew. Colombia. By Michael E. Ruane. They offered to perform at a gathering of Utah survivors. DES MOINES, Iowa - A World War II veteran thought to be the oldest survivor of the Pearl Harbor attack died last month at 103. In March, the crew turned back Japanese forces in the Battle of Komandorski. He finished his training and was discharged in December 1945. He doesn't want to answer questions about his war service, shrugging them off or insisting he can't remember the details anymore. He finally found people who understood his experience. A few years ago, the Cooks attended a fund-raising dinner at a local American Legion post. The parties sometimes dragged into the early morning hours. This day, which marks the attack on Pearl Harbor, has come to be known as the "Day of Infamy" (derived from President Franklin D. Roosevelt's speech the day after the attack). 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. The Black Cats flew surveillance, search and rescue, sea patrol, but they proved especially valuable for nighttime assaults and nuisance raids on Japanese submarines and ships. "If somebody in authority said do something back then, you didn't question it. Cook is invited to such events occasionally and sometimes introduced as an Arizona survivor. The band would cover all expenses for him and Doris. And he keeps it loaded. Sometimes we never landed, but we kept the line, always watching out for kamikazes.". Only 35 dead were . Lou Conter is telling the story of the night his patrol bomber was shot down seven miles off the coast of New Guinea, dumping the seaplane's 10-man crew into the Pacific Ocean. Once a week, they motor on into Tulsa, where Marietta takes a china painting class and Lonnie wanders the aisles of sporting-goods stores. "It's always a great thing for me to see them," he says. 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. Hetrick still likes to talk about the new shoes he bought the day before the attack in Honolulu. Joe saved six lives and he didn't get crap. Pearl Harbor Warbirds offers the best Hawai'i flight adventure tours available. Jack shrugged. 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. The buddy wasn't home, but his son-in-law answered. "We had 10 or 12 sharks around us all the time," Conter says. Soon, he became one of the earliest TV weathermen and an evening fixture in Roswell homes, or at least those with televisions. An avocado tree grows in the backyard. Occasionally, they would close the store and hook a 33-foot trailer to a pick-up truck. One of the men started yelling. He's never been back. "Randy, come and turn on the music box." 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. As they talked, Ray mentioned that his dad had been aboard the Arizona. Redfish. medge. He settled in Palm Springs and built a career as a real estate developer, buying up land for commercial and residential projects. Squid. If the shark feels like a dead fish isn't worth its time, it will leave without wasting more energy. "That's what I want to remember. Then we had to go back.". Seven decades later, he is one of nine living survivors from the Arizona. Hetrick saw a new opportunity and joined. Bruner was at his battle station in an anti-aircraft gun director, a metal box on the forward mast of the Arizona, when an armor-piercing bomb ignited the ship's powder magazine. McBride reached the last man, Raymond Haerry, a 20-year-old coxswain on the day of the assault. He was at a restaurant last summer and someone noticed his USS Arizona cap. "I never talked about it much then," he says. The gun took away some of the terror he had felt from the moment he saw the first bomber, the panic he felt when he found the armories on board the ship locked. In the waters off Honolulu, he confronted his memories. The ship remained anchored outside Pearl Harbor for most of a month as U.S. commanders planned their next move against the Japanese in the South Pacific. He agreed to play it on his show. "I'd never seen so many guys with so much guts," he said. And it holds deep meaning for Potts, even though he did nothing to win it. Usually, sharks will prioritize eating: Smaller fish. His service on the Arizona also seemed to give him added credibility among the young sailors. The fireball from the explosion engulfed the six men in the box and trapped them. He was treated there for four months. Marietta shakes her head. The planes could fly at low altitudes, then buzz upward for a bombing run, confounding enemy gunners trying to calculate speed and distance. They traveled around the country, meeting up with other USS Arizona survivors, with shipmates from the Frazier. "The Arizona was a fighting battleship," Joe says. Servicemembers stationed in Hawaii took care of the memorial during the 2013 government shutdown: Servicemembers stationed in Hawaii treat Pearl Harbor as a living . The Saratoga sailed across the South Pacific, to Guam, the Philippines, around New Guinea. Some even extend their consumption to seabirds. An aerial view of "Battleship Row" at Pearl Harbor, photographed from a Japanese aircraft during the the bombing. He didn't have to pay for dinner. "I was on a date on that Saturday night with a gal I'd been running around with," he says. He had held on to it through the war. Wherever he goes on the pickup, people ask him about his experience. Conter was talking about survival, about coming back alive. He was active in those groups for many years, serving as president of one devoted to the Arizona.
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