Three days earlier, their 20-year-old son became the first Suffolk County casualty in World War II. His younger son believes the experience changed his dad forever. The smile widens. 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. At his request, he was assigned to the officer candidate school in Newport, R.I. Soon, he became one of the earliest TV weathermen and an evening fixture in Roswell homes, or at least those with televisions. "This shows where all the ships were," he says, pointing at a map depicting Pearl Harbor on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941. Three months before he would mark 30 years with the company, he was let go, bought out like a lot other older workers in those days. You can't leave the Navy.". "Once after we crossed the equator, one of the planes came back," he says. Japanese torpedo bombers hit the Lexington and crippled the big ship. He displayed no pictures, kept no mementos that his family knew about. They moved to Santa Maria, not far from Santa Barbara, to be near their oldest son, then to Colorado Springs to be near Randy. "It was like a hard jolt.". "I canned 500 quarts of fruit one year," Marietta says. His service on the Arizona also seemed to give him added credibility among the young sailors. Cook made it to his battle station on Dec. 7, 1941, but the Arizona was moored in a cramped harbor and couldn't have fired the big guns even in a prolonged assault. 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. After that, he started teaching U.S. troops the skills of survival, evasion, resistance and escape. Be immersed in the details of the infamous attack on Pearl Harbor and . amc gremlin for sale washington state did sharks attack titanic survivors. And that's what he told every soldier and airman who took his courses.*. Pearl Harbor | Facts & History | Britannica He describes the store of booze they pulled out of safe and the money. The Hirasaki family suffered some of the worst losses that terrible morning. In the years after, he became active in survivors' groups and started going back to Pearl Harbor more often. I still get to the point when I'm talking about it, first thing you know, I go to bed at night, wake up and can't sleep for a week.". They would serve together for a little over a year. After the war, Langdell returned to the family auction business in Massachusetts, but after all those years in Hawaii, the Philippines and in the tropical South Seas, he couldn't readjust to the cold. The sky began to darken and the wind grew. 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. did sharks eat pearl harbor victimssig sauer minimalist folding stock. Now, Bruner prepares for his next trip in the Captain's Quarters. He would sail to San Francisco on one of the cruise ships refitted to move troops, the Lurline, or maybe the Matsonia. They still had to climb onto the dock and then into a truck for a short ride to a Navy hospital. He was active in those groups for many years, serving as president of one devoted to the Arizona. Some even like to dine on smaller shark species! By early 1941, Langdell was one of the "90-day wonders" and drew his first assignment: The USS Arizona. Anything you choose is fine. He pushes his shirtsleeves up to show his arms. Smoke rises from the battleship USS Arizona as it sinks . If a plane crashed, crocodiles awaited in the river. / Reuters. As Conter told it, the story wasn't about punching sharks, or skulking in the jungle or chasing shadows to the waiting rescue boat. 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. Song's got some zip to it, he said. The best time for a bombing raid was after 1 a.m., when the ship was quiet. "I'm going to be back out there one of these days," Conter said, his voice wistful as he watches a foursome trying to stay on the greens. Still traveling at 17 knots, the Indianapolis began taking on massive amounts of water; the ship sank in just 12 minutes. "I wasn't going out there. He built a reputation as a guy who could bring in the harvest on time. Calhoun quizzed Conter about his posting, his job on the ship. As he prepared for his new posting on the Frazier, Langdell decided to make a move. They were dead in the water.". "We can't forget what happened there that day. 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. Sometimes he can't control his emotions, so he declines speaking requests. "They said, 'If you re-enlist, we'll send her over.' Once he was awakened by a loud noise and a flash and thought his ship was under attack. "I'm a painter," he said. "Sure, let's see it." 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. A while later, he and Marietta were on the road again, to a missile base in Sturgess, S.D., to gas lines in Wisconsin and North Dakota. But he became restless. On the morning of May 8, the fighting intensified as American aircraft tried to turn back the enemy planes. The owner said, 'give it a name and say who are. "I don't think we'll ever be able to swim to shore. Similarly, the . BuzzFeed News Photo Editor. A few incidents were possible shark bites, but shark involvement was not [] His ships steamed across the Pacific, through the Panama Canal to Africa. 4. In 1967, Conter retired from the Navy. We left and never fired a shot at them.". 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. "I ain't seen 'em since.". And he has watched with dismay the changes in survival training. "Lou, let's go to flight school," Conter's buddy said one day. 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. Doctors treated him and he recovered, but the his fingers never healed properly. 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. Stories of survival. Explosions rocked the vessel and fires burned into the evening. For years, Stratton wore the scars from the Arizona without talking about them much. Conter attended the same event and was seated next to Valerie. But he could not be prepared for what he found on the charred hulk of the battleship. Cook was assigned to the USS Patterson, then two months later, transferred to the Aylwin, a destroyer that had been moored at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7 and engaged the bombers as the attack began. "He said, 'I had survival training in the ocean. A smile spreads across his face as Dean Martin's voice fills the cab. A storm was approaching, a big one by the looks of it. I had one pair of dungarees and that was it, that and a towel and shaving gear.". They moved to Modesto, Calif., where he got a job driving a produce truck in the fruit orchards. When the fourth bomb detonated in the powder magazine, anyone left was blown over the side. He will meet three other survivors in Hawaii for their last reunion. He started on a small station, playing organ music. And in the back corner, a real trophy. What Do Sharks Eat? - American Oceans 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. And he was allowed to visit a part of the Arizona few people ever see. This all changed when the United States declared war on Japan, bringing the country into World War II. "Talk about treating you like royalty," he says. As soon as he turned 18, he enlisted in the Navy. Pentagon ends program to identify Pearl Harbor victims - The Washington Afew weeks after the war started, sometime in early 1942, Potts opened a letter from his mother. He clashed with the station manager of the radio station and finally quit. A year after World War II ended, Haerry went home for a while and married a girl he'd met not long before. Conter got his wings in November 1942. 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. Three days had passed since Japanese bombers had punched a fiery hole in the Navy's Pacific fleet. Abe offered condolences and said he prayed that all their souls were at peace. "The nights up there were already short, so I didn't get much sleep," Cook says. Pearl Harbor was the site of the unprovoked aerial attack on the United States by Japan on December 7, 1941. Dec 12 2014. 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. "I just didn't want to. "The kids coming up now have never heard of it," he says, his voice tinged with sadness and dismay. Hetrick turns a rusted chunk of metal over in his hands, running his fingers along the curves and edges. Among his responsibilities was overseeing the naval officers' clubs in the area. ", "You will go to the Arizona and you will take off all the bodies and body parts above the water line," the man said. He moved to Provo and sold cars until 1990. And there's a trophy in the corner the paneled room that means as much as anything else there. He started chatting up a regular customer, a contractor, and got a job building houses. On the Arizona, he worked on the deck crew. "These guys were the first heroes of the war, even though the war hasn't been declared," Ray Jr. says. did sharks eat pearl harbor victims. He doesn't like to talk about the attack. In early January, Conter visited his young lady friend again and again, Admiral Calhoun was there. He likes chocolate and is disappointed if Ray Jr. forgets it. Lonnie Cook was born in this rural town south of Tulsa, not long after it was founded as a stop on the Ozark and Cherokee Central Railway. By the time they were back, the icicles were forming again and two more guys would go out.". Attack on Pearl Harbor - Wikipedia "They played country music because the people here loved that," Anderson says. Bruner looked each recruit in the eyes to determine the right job, but he wasn't testing their mettle, not yet. By the end of the day, had persuaded Anderson to sign up for the Navy Reserve. The paneled room behind the door in the living room of the Provo house is filled with trophies of almost any imaginable sort. Hetrick was sent to the USS Lexington, an aircraft carrier. Hawaii Sharks | Incidents List 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. Browse 2,614 pearl harbor attack stock photos and images available, or search for world war ii or pearl harbor 1941 to find more great stock photos and pictures. But he is proud of his service, of the other sailors on the Arizona. You have a great voice, he was told. did sharks eat pearl harbor victims. The shock of jumping into a harbor knowing he couldn't swim. The studios needed tough men who could handle dangerous situations. did sharks eat pearl harbor victims - daytuigiay.vn He squeezes past the pool table, past the photos and the maps and the medals. Three days later, he and his buddy were on a ship to San Francisco and then a train to Pensacola. Williams was in the Arizona's band. "If somebody in authority said do something back then, you didn't question it. The body parts we put in pillow cases. He stopped in the small town of Payson, Utah. "After 36 hours, I still hadn't put in a day. The six-year Pentagon project identified nearly 400 who died on the USS Oklahoma in 1941. Everything was taken ashore and properly taken care of.". And it holds deep meaning for Potts, even though he did nothing to win it. It identifies Stratton as a survivor of the attack that sank the ship. "We're were out and around. More than 20 years earlier, he had earned his real estate license in California and had maintained it. Posted on December 7, 2021, 5:08 pm. Langdell knew Libby was friends with a skater in the Ice Follies, which was summering in San Francisco. Military Ends Pearl Harbor Project to Identify the Dead For some reason I had always thought that the titanic had gone down way farther North. "I went back and told my mother I wasn't going up there anymore," he said. "We worked with a crane barge capable of lifting 700 tons," he sys. Anderson demanded to know. Why Did Pearl Harbor Happen? Conter's crews flew missions across the South Pacific: New Guinea, Borneo, New Britain, the coast off Perth, Australia. Nightmares invade his sleep when he remembers those final moments. The ship was to turn around and steam toward Alaska. No sharks did not eat Titanic passengers. The guns hit the periscope. He keeps the mementos from his experience the maps, the photos, the clippings, the medals, the painting in a room behind a door on the side wall of the living room in the house where he has lived for 54 years. They found a way to take prints from the edges of his fingers, enough to satisfy the law. Bruner keeps mementos of his time on the Arizona in the sitting room. Usually, sharks will prioritize eating: Smaller fish. After his second discharge, he knocked around Nebraska again, working in his dad's tavern, then on a beer truck, but he grew bored. OAHU, Hawaii (NEXSTAR) On the day that will live in infamy December 7, 1941 2,403 U.S. personnel were killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor. Stratton logged thousands of miles of travel. The ones that gave him nightmares, the stories from the day he nearly burned to death, he kept to himself. The things I don't want to remember was the blood.". In 2006, Langdell walked along the steep shoreline of Ford Island, the Arizona memorial in the background. Using its sonar equipment, the ship fired depth charges and eventually sank the enemy submarine. war. Langdell is one of the last nine survivors from the Arizona. Stratton falls easily into the memories of his years on diving boats. Langdell returned to Pearl Harbor in 1976. A moment passes. Too many strategic decisions come down from Washington instead of from the commanders on the ground. Friends told them when the left the church, keep the water on their left. 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. 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. Before the attack, many Americans were reluctant to become involved in the war in Europe. Abe's Pearl Harbor speech has been well received in Japan, where most people expressed the opinion that it struck the right balance of regret that the Pacific war occurred, but offered . queensland figure skating. pearl harbor 1941. uss arizona. Although he is 97, he decided he couldn't miss a final reunion this year and he bought his tickets early. 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. Why not try radio? We all have to remember that they did not die in vain.". Haerry ran away from home to join the Navy. Hetrick still likes to talk about the new shoes he bought the day before the attack in Honolulu. USS Indianapolis at Mare Island. Haerry sailed on Navy ships through World War II and again during the Korean conflict. The USS Arizona ballcap that almost every survivor owns and wears. He tried not to remember the days after the attack. "It didn't take me that long. "You I know.") 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. 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. How could he say no? 9. . Hetrick recovered. Japan wanted the northern Pacific to control its shipping routes and block U.S. attacks from that direction. He likes to wear a cap that identifies him as a veteran of the Arizona. He had escaped the USS Arizona, the battleship whose losses surpassed any other. Pearl Harbor Warbirds offers the best Hawai'i flight adventure tours available. did sharks eat pearl harbor victims Since the 1920s . The river wound through dense vegetation, leaving 15 or 20 feet of clearance on each side of the plane. Some even extend their consumption to seabirds. The California was way down here. Cha c sn phm trong gi hng. "In the service, if you didn't use nasty words, you weren't a good sailor.". The tender didn't want to be tied to the larger ship when the worst of the storm blew through. A sailor on the deck of the repair ship Vestal spotted the men and threw a line across. There are a few personal photos on the table, but nothing from his years in the Navy. He decided to head back to the water. "It's hard to explain." As he talks about Pearl Harbor again, other memories surface. He resumed one of his old jobs from the Arizona, piloting motor launches from the receiving station out to the Navy ships. Alcohol. However, larger shark species like to eat large marine mammals and large fish species, including dolphins, sea lions, tuna, mackerel, and seals. Pearl Harbor, naval base and headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, Honolulu county, southern Oahu Island, Hawaii, U.S. He sits in his wheelchair as his son recites the narrative, keeping his father's story alive. It is about three feet tall, with a carved island figure on top and the silhouette of a Hawaiian warrior on a plaque. All rights reserved. The United States was a neutral country at the time; the attack led to its formal entry into World War II the next day. USS Indianapolis was a Portland class heavy cruiser of the United States Navy. Yes, some of them were his friends. Helpless, I watched your bomb sink the Arizona in nine minutes.". We swept the decks and took the small bones. "I said, 'sure, I'll take it.' After the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom, the United States opted to construct a naval base in 1899. The attack was devastating for the Americans, though the Japanese . He's not sure he'd have learned that lesson if he hadn't enlisted in the Navy. CARNIVOROUS SHARKS. 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. 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. 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 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. "We said we'd volunteer if they'd put two or three of us together on the same ship," he said. He was on Ford Island when the Japanese attacked, training for new assignment. He visited the memorial and was relieved to see the builders got it right. The face plate is glass and around the bottom are screws that would secure it to the diving suit. 9 Things You Might Not Know About the Attack on Pearl Harbor He fought cold and hunger on a ship nearly dead in the ocean off Alaska. By Christmas, he was in a hospital at Mare Island near San Francisco. The mast and towers near the bow tilted at a sickening angle. Anderson spoke to one of the tanker's crew about towing the Macdonough. He has trouble remembering the past. "He was very military by then, very disciplined.". The report: Oh, yes, she can cook. June 12, 2022 June 12, 2022 0 Comments June 12, 2022 0 Comments The tanker towed them to Adak, Alaska, and from there, another ship took the crippled destroyer to San Francisco for repairs. In January, another ship took him to San Francisco to the Navy hospital on Treasure Island. Schenkelberg was no stranger to hardships . Marietta shakes her head. 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. By 1991, the 50th . "From down inside, it wasn't too bad when they fired it," Cook said. Would Ken be willing to go as a guest of honor? "We won't get in," Conter said. Potts returned to Illinois in late 1945 to await his formal discharge, hanging out in Chicago. Seven decades later, he is one of nine living survivors from the Arizona. Langdell's ship, the USS Arizona, lay dead in the water where she sank 14 minutes into the attack. Attack on Pearl Harbor in rare pictures, 1941 At 93, he is one of the last survivors ofthe attack on the Arizona. Many places around the world are named for a stand-out feature, and Pearl Harbor is no different. Eighty years later, many of those killed are finally returning home and being laid to rest. 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. Pearl Harbor: Directed by Michael Bay. What he heard wasn't quite country music, but he liked it and he told the kid. Joe proposed and Libby accepted. "I put on two life jackets," Hetrick said. He's more like family than just a friend.". On the 70thanniversary of the attack, the men had been brought to the state capitol to receive new honors. It's in good shape for a paper.". There are over 470 species of sharks throughout the world. View of "Battleship Row" during or . From the shore, he helped wounded men from the water, men whose bodies had been torn apart by bombs and bullets and fire. He agreed to play it on his show. "He's there anytime I call him," Hetrick says. They knew the oil tanker Tippecanoe was out there, but couldn't see her. He spent long months on a tender, a vessel that carries equipment, parts and other supplies for ships at sea. He signed up for a Navy program that allowed college graduates to attend officer candidate school and emerge as ensigns within three months. Anderson has returned to the Arizona memorial often and has taken his family there. did sharks attack titanic survivors - epcorcentre.org The Coghlan approached the Aleutians in October, as winter was pushing fall aside. Stratton could not. "I was back here on leave before the war started and he was here too," Cook says. (See Pearl Harbor Attack.) He had a record, a new song he was trying out. He grew up in New Jersey and after high school, enrolled at MIT in Boston. Cook was the gun captain on the Pringle at the battle of Iwo Jima in 1945. One, Joe Langdell, lives about 40 miles away in Yuba City. "What's up with this one? As the war with Japan intensified, the Navy was building new warships as fast as it could. "I witnessed your attack from Ford Island. After the war, he worked as a stuntman for Orson Welles and John Wayne and helped build Alan Ladd's house in the hills outside Hollywood. Posted on . December 5, 2021 at 11:21 a.m. EST. As he recounts the experience, he rubs his hands together, then holds them out, turning them over. The Macdonough stayed until September, then sailed back on patrol in the Pacific. He looked for what he called medium spacing. He first visited the Arizona memorial in Pearl Harbor on the 50thanniversary of the attack and has returned since. "What are you looking at?" USS Arizona: The men who survived the attack on Pearl Harbor ages 2, 3 and 8, together with a 14-year-old cousin . The Navy began assigning sailors to new postings. On the actual night of the Titanic, were there actually sharks Joe had met Elizabeth McGauhy in Chicago half a decade earlier. The ship accompanied General Douglas MacArthur to the Philippines and was anchored in the harbor off Nagasaki, Japan, when the second atomic bomb exploded. They went out for coffee afterward. He was nervous about volunteering for anything, but he raised his hand. "I had to start training the new recruits on every machine," Bruner said. "They gave me 30 minutes to get off the ship and catch a transport to San Diego for training," he said. Libby had arranged stays north of the city. UPDATE:John Anderson diedin November 2015, less than a year after this report. I quit. From the Vestal, Bruner was taken to the USS Solace, a hospital ship in the harbor. The ship provided fire support for the Marines going ashore. Five years later, in 2011, he got a call from the band director at Timpview High School in Provo. She tracked him to the Los Angeles area, then started a phone search. "I was always wanting to learn more when I was younger," says Hetrick's younger son, Robert, who lives not far from his dad in Las Vegas. "Are there any officers from the Arizona here?" 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 half-swam, half-walked the 70 yards to Ford Island and manned a mounted machine gun. He finally received his orders to return to the states. Doctors and nurses wove among gurneys, administering morphine shots and looking for the victims most in need. "There's the battleships there's the Nevada, the Arizona, the Tennessee, the West Virginia, Maryland, the Oklahoma. Her father was an engineer and a top executive for a dredging company with a big Navy contract. But he clutches the cap and puts it on as he sits in an easy chair by the window. 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. . The worst shark attack in recorded history also happened to be a disaster for the US Navy. Once a week, they motor on into Tulsa, where Marietta takes a china painting class and Lonnie wanders the aisles of sporting-goods stores. "Something had happened that no one could comprehend.". The fellow told him to report to the front gate of Sam Goldwyn's studio in Hollywood on Monday morning. That led to a job in Roswell, the Sagebrush Serenade and Elvis Presley. Inside deadliest shark attack EVER as 150 sailors from USS Indianapolis Whale sharks are found in warm waters in the Pacific . Cook worked in California, mostly welding jobs, until the union he belonged to called a strike. He settled in Palm Springs and built a career as a real estate developer, buying up land for commercial and residential projects. But he didn't want to start his civilian life in the brig, so he left it in Honolulu. "We took all the bodies we could find.". "I told the men, 'If a shark comes close, hit it in the nose with your fist as hard as you can.'". He was treated there for four months. "Andy, you had 12 years of the damnedest fighting I ever saw. He left home at 5 every morning and took a ferry from Jamestown to the Navy base. Medals. The band had won a trophy in one of the competitions during their stay in Honolulu. We were going to have a date the next day. Knives. A few years after that, they left for Las Vegas, where their son, Bob, and his family help them get around. Rays. He was promoted to Lieutenant Commander in February 1954, the rank he held until he retired. The report said most of the guys in the anti-aircraft batteries, where Jake fought, were shot down early in the assault. The Navy captain who lived on Waikiki Beach gave a lot of parties and invited these guys. During his voyage to Alaska, Cook remembers the flying fish, which stirred up the water like a torpedo wake.