Before the trip, Langdell hadn't talked much about his years in the war, about his time on the Arizona. They still had to climb onto the dock and then into a truck for a short ride to a Navy hospital. Answer (1 of 23): Before I begin this answer I must confess to a surprising degree of ignorance, I once thought myself pretty well versed in maritime history and sea lore, until I began research for this answer. "They said, 'If you re-enlist, we'll send her over.' The guns hit the periscope. As he prepared for his new posting on the Frazier, Langdell decided to make a move. When they sent me my discharge, I just stayed here.". For 30 years, Lauren Bruner punched a clock at a manufacturing plant south of Los Angeles, a World War II veteran in a landscape crawling with them. Pearl Harbor (2001) - IMDb McBride reached the last man, Raymond Haerry, a 20-year-old coxswain on the day of the assault. At his request, he was assigned to the officer candidate school in Newport, R.I. did sharks eat pearl harbor victimshavelock wool australia. Hetrick was still just 21 by then, but a seasoned sailor who shared little in common with the 17-year-old kid who left high school and joined the Navy on his parents' signature. A young sailor ran in, out of breath. The Macdonough stayed until September, then sailed back on patrol in the Pacific. The Americans stopped the Japanese ships and wiped out some of the top officers. "We took all the bodies we could find.". The California was way down here. Pentagon ends program to identify Pearl Harbor victims - The Washington The flare exploded and started a fire, which forced the plane into the water. Langdell knew Libby was friends with a skater in the Ice Follies, which was summering in San Francisco. Survivors' groups wanted to find all of them so their stories would not be lost. "When I got back home, my doctors here wanted to know about my medical background," Bruner said. His old co-pilot in the New Guinea days was asked once if he'd had survival training for the war. We got into a run-and-gun battle. "I ain't seen 'em since.". 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. popeyes vs chicken express; do venmo requests expire He has trouble remembering the past. He had chased Japanese soldiers along the coast of China three years before America declared war on Japan. Kuwait. He and a buddy had been talking about their future in the Navy. The survivors' group that found him was right, he has concluded: The stories of the Arizona should not die with the men who lived them. Cook stood on a shelf in the gun mount with his big binoculars and watched the Marines raise the flag to mark the U.S. victory. In 1940, Anderson reported to the Arizona once more, joining his brother for the first time since they had enlisted. did sharks eat pearl harbor victims. He bought another gun in the states and he is never far from it. He and his father chat a little. "He saved six people's lives. For an hour or so, the two men talk. This all changed when the United States declared war on Japan, bringing the country into World War II. The exhausted crew dragged ashore an hour later and hid in the jungle, fearful they would be captured by Japanese soldiers. "Sometimes, we'd come back, eat, then sleep on the beach.". A few weeks later, Conter and his buddy passed a flight test at sea and on Nov. 1, they got their orders: Report to Navy flight school in Pensacola, Fla. Two weeks later, the Arizona's captain called the two sailors in and told them the ship was headed back to Long Beach in early December. Or both. He wants to secure a proper medal for Joe George, the sailor from the Vestal who helped rescue the six men from the gunner's control tower. In the waters off Honolulu, he confronted his memories. Bruner toured Nagasaki in a Jeep with other Navy officers and chief mates. Nightmares invade his sleep when he remembers those final moments. "He'd always have to be prompted.". On the other end of the line is an old shipmate from the USS Saratoga, the aircraft carrier where Hetrick worked as a mechanic through most of World War II. UPDATE:Joe Langdell diedin February 2015, months after this report. Around 2005, he and Jeanne moved to Bullhead City. Almost imperceptibly, he sways. He joined the USS Arizona Reunion Association and stays in touch with a few of the remaining survivors. Medals. The Macdonough had collided with another destroyer, the Sicard. The crews were based on tender ships moored in secluded harbors. After his second discharge, he knocked around Nebraska again, working in his dad's tavern, then on a beer truck, but he grew bored. Attack on Pearl Harbor - Wikipedia He had turned down a promotion to ensign, preferring the camaraderie of the enlisted ranks. Island Stories: The Guardian Sharks of Puuloa on Oahu The man walked over and looked at Langdell's name tag. Discipline seems less important than it was in his day. He was attending midshipman's school at Northwestern University. He is one of nine living survivors of the Arizona and, at 97, he has amassed a lifetime of unforgettable days. He likes to wear a cap that identifies him as a veteran of the Arizona. For some reason I had always thought that the titanic had gone down way farther North. There are a few personal photos on the table, but nothing from his years in the Navy. In late 1943, Conter flew a mission to rescue more than 200 coast watchers in New Guinea. But he became restless. 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 . 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 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. Dec 12 2014. He hired on with a farm labor contractor and within a year, he and a guy he worked with started their own business, contracting with the orchard owners to harvest crops. The Saratoga sailed across the South Pacific, to Guam, the Philippines, around New Guinea. On the actual night of the Titanic, were there actually sharks The sky began to darken and the wind grew. Cook and the other men stayed below deck until the smoke from a fire forced them to leave. "Once after we crossed the equator, one of the planes came back," he says. They spoil their granddaughters and can now move on to a new great-granddaughter. "It hadn't really sunk in what had happened.". Except the cap. You're the bravest man I ever know. He would answer questions, but in short bursts of description, with no emotion. Conter's crews flew missions across the South Pacific: New Guinea, Borneo, New Britain, the coast off Perth, Australia. did sharks eat pearl harbor victims - daytuigiay.vn Someone had stacked the boxes too high and in the humid environment of the island, the cardboard had grown damp and weak. He had visited before, but this trip meant more. He could see the band was sincere. 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. At the time, sailors wore patches designating their rates, the enlisted expression of rank, on the right or left sleeve, depending on their assignment. It identifies Stratton as a survivor of the attack that sank the ship. A smile spreads across his face as Dean Martin's voice fills the cab. He finished his stint in the Navy in Shanghai, working shore patrol the way he did back in Honolulu. Haerry accepts the chocolate bars his son has brought him. "Are there any officers from the Arizona here?" World War II veterans are a special breed, Lt. Col. Denis Riel said as the men accepted the medals. We can't let it happen again.". Seabirds. Until his partner ran off with all the money. did sharks attack titanic survivors - befalcon.com Pearl Harbor attack | Date, History, Map, Casualties - Britannica He remembers all the details and most of what happened later. The river wound through dense vegetation, leaving 15 or 20 feet of clearance on each side of the plane. A sailor on the deck of the repair ship Vestal spotted the men and threw a line across. His work turned toward survival training in a new military program called SERE, for Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape. "There's the battleships there's the Nevada, the Arizona, the Tennessee, the West Virginia, Maryland, the Oklahoma. "It's just not going to happen. The pieces the largest is about as long as a bus sit in a salvage yard on the Waipi'o Peninsula on Oahu. It was the first time Randy, his son, had seen his father cry. He finally found people who understood his experience. The ship provided fire support for the Marines going ashore. Attack on Pearl Harbor in rare pictures, 1941 And there's a trophy in the corner the paneled room that means as much as anything else there. Three days later, he and his buddy were on a ship to San Francisco and then a train to Pensacola. They stayed composed as their stories were told, stories of bravery, of quick thinking. It took more courage on your part to present this wreath than it did for me to accept it.". "It just didn't appeal to me to bring it up," he says. He finished his training and was discharged in December 1945. His name was Cactus Jack and to his fans in southeastern New Mexico, he was the dulcet-voiced host of Sagebrush Serenade, a program of country music on KSWS radio. Helpless, I watched your bomb sink the Arizona in nine minutes.". Lonnie had taken up trap shooting and hoped to do a little hunting back home. Bruner looked each recruit in the eyes to determine the right job, but he wasn't testing their mettle, not yet. Song's got some zip to it, he said. Colombia. did sharks eat pearl harbor victims "It acknowledges to people that I'm a survivor," Joe replies, his voice soft. When was the shark attack on the Jersey Shore? Anderson smiled. John was sent from training camp in Illinois to Bremerton, Wash. The Navy censors would never allow such information in a letter. Bruner laughs as he remembers the conversation. The United States declared war on Japan on December 8, 1941, the day following the attack on Pearl Harbor. Haerry straightened in his seat as his story was told. He put the disc on a turntable and dropped the needle. We swept the decks and took the small bones. Libby had arranged stays north of the city. Now, some courses require less than a week of field time. They were dead in the water.". Whether they're a spiny dogfish all the way to great whites, sharks love eating fish. It was Sunday and some of the crewmen with liberty wanted an early start. This time the objective was clear. The Coghlan supported Army landings and Navy bombing runs. The Children of Pearl Harbor | History| Smithsonian Magazine The offshore diving business could leave its own kind of scars. As soon as he turned 18, he enlisted in the Navy. 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. "In the service, if you didn't use nasty words, you weren't a good sailor.". He settled in Palm Springs and built a career as a real estate developer, buying up land for commercial and residential projects. The man told him later he had broken both his hips in one of the explosions and had survived only because Hetrick was there to urge him on. "The hat represents the Arizona. "It was like a hard jolt.". He has told her about his escape from the Arizona. Enemy patrol planes spotted the ships and the raid was canceled. He was eating breakfast when he heard the first pops of the attack planes strafing Battleship Row. The face plate is glass and around the bottom are screws that would secure it to the diving suit. Hetrick turns a rusted chunk of metal over in his hands, running his fingers along the curves and edges. Long a bachelor again, Bruner has also entertained lady friends from time to time. He tried to save as many injured crewmen as he could, but when the sun set on Dec. 7, 1941, he was one of just 335 sailors who did not perish. USS Indianapolis saw the worst shark attack in history "When somebody says get out of here and you're on a hundred tons of ammunition, well, you don't question it," he says. You're on your own, every day.'". He asked if Jeanne could come with him. He was on Ford Island when the Japanese attacked, training for new assignment. As the boat heaved, the man with the ax missed and hit Haerry's hand, nearly severing it from his wrist. The family visited the Arizona memorial and toured other sites near the harbor. But the war was over. In 1971, Stratton was working long hours with a diving outfit on a nuclear power plant project not far from Santa Barbara. In Hawaiian custom, sharks were cared for by families who fed them and kept their bodies free of barnacles. In the years after, he became active in survivors' groups and started going back to Pearl Harbor more often. Did he ever. Inside deadliest shark attack EVER as 150 sailors from USS Indianapolis What do Sharks Eat? Do They Eat People & Dead Bodies? - Maritime Herald "He told you the story?" The ships sent up their own planes and turned back the assault. Anderson decided he had nothing to lose. The six-year Pentagon project identified nearly 400 who died on the USS Oklahoma in 1941. He started chatting up a regular customer, a contractor, and got a job building houses. 2022-06-16 Uncategorized Uncategorized For over an hour, in two waves, some 350 Japanese aircrafthaving taken off from six . They listened for their names and their service branch. When he left Morris the first time in 1939 after high school, Cook wasn't sure where he'd end up. "It's where the war started.". "Next thing you know, I'm in a movie with John Wayne," Anderson says years later. 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. "I'm a painter," he said. Were there sharks Pearl Harbor? "I don't think I'll ever forget what I saw that day.". Without them, Riel said, who knows where we'd be today. About a month later, Japanese suicide bombers sunk the Pringle near Okinawa. Potts was returning to the Arizona with fresh produce when the first Japanese bombers dove into Pearl Harbor. Nobody could debate what that was, no question about it.". Whale Shark (Rhincodon typus) The whale shark is the largest shark species, and also the biggest fish species in the world. That led to a job in Roswell, the Sagebrush Serenade and Elvis Presley.
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