U . S . S . WHITNEY RESTS BEHIND TORPEDO NETS IN PEARL HARBOR , APRIL 17 , 1942 .
so everybody was getting ready to head ashore and spend what they had . I was getting paid thirty dollars a month at that time , but we all called ourselves rich on pay day . Needless to say , thirty dollars never lasted long .
After breakfast , about half our fleet was getting ready to go ashore . I was planning to go later that day , but the first shore boats were preparing to leave at 8 a . m . I ’ ve often thought about how much more devastating the Pearl Harbor attack might have been if they had waited a bit longer and all these boats had been landing . Fortunately , it happened just a few minutes before the shore boats left and everyone was able to man their battle stations .
Aboard the U . S . S . Whitney , we were positioned in the northeast of the harbor , approximately two miles from the shore . At this position , we had a clear view of everything that was going on , but there was little we could do to influence the battle . All the ships were given orders that if anything should happen we would do whatever we could to get our ships out of the harbor . Our captain had the same orders , but our movement was somewhat complicated by the fact that we had four destroyers tied up next to us and they all had to get unhooked and moving , which took a little time . Three of the four destroyers were able to get their aircraft gunners manned with three-inch , 50-caliber guns , and get into the action a bit .
We received our orders to move out , but because of all the activity among the destroyers and ships around us , we were tied up and ultimately told to stay put . The ship commanders were mostly able to get their destroyers moving and there was one going out in the channel with guns blazing , before they were hit and caught fire . The fire crews responded as quickly as they could because they knew the channel was so shallow that if you sunk a ship in it , nobody could go in or out . Of course , the Japanese knew this too . They had good intelligence on what was going on and how to complicate our movements .
The U . S . S . Nevada battleship had a fire going on both ends . The Japanese wanted to sink the ship in the channel , but the commander was smart and turned the ship around and ran it into the ground . As a result , he saved it , and later they were able to re-commission the ship . He used his head because he realized what they would do if he got stuck in that channel . There were an untold number of brave actions performed that day by sailors , marines , and army men .
Everybody had been drilled assuming that if anything like Pearl Harbor occurred , there would likely be a landing of some kind . Typically in war , there would be a bombing on the shore and that would be followed up with a ground invasion . So that ’ s what we ’ d anticipated and what we were looking for . Fortunately , it never happened and the Japanese didn ’ t proceed that way . They weren ’ t prepared for a ground landing as it turned out , but that ’ s what we were all alerted to while we were still trying to care for the problems posed by the Pearl Harbor bombing , including addressing severe damage to several ships .
You did what you had to do is what it all amounted to . I can say that the sailors , for the most part , didn ’ t have to be told what to do . They could see what needed to be done and they did it .
The next day , we went back to Ford Island , a small island in the center of Pearl Harbor , to assist with the repair and recuperation of some of the ships that were badly damaged . We had full electrical power , and so we were able to run lines over to them so the electricians could hook up before we moved on to the next one .
8 AMERICAN VALOR QUARTERLY