"I would tell them. He was able to visit the national cemetery at an area called the Punch Bowl. 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. "It sounded like someone shooting guns. Lots of men brought home scars from World War II and Korea. He likes to wear a cap that identifies him as a veteran of the Arizona. The United States was a neutral country at the time; the attack led to its formal entry into World War II the next day. "I'm planning to marry your wife's sister, but I've got to have somebody take my place at work. In the spring of 1943, the Macdonough headed north toward the Aleutian Islands, where Japan was trying to establish strategic strongholds that could control shipping lanes and thwart allied attacks on the Japanese islands. Conter attended the same event and was seated next to Valerie. (See Pearl Harbor Attack.) And my co-pilot, Lou Conter, saved my life. "I really miss it.". "It didn't take me that long. 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. His ships steamed across the Pacific, through the Panama Canal to Africa. They are reminders of a moment in time he can never escape, a moment he sees again and again. "Hi," he said, introducing himself. A woman from Illinois drew Bruner's name. "I wasn't going out there. They were dedicating it to Potts and wanted him to have it. A sign over the arched door marks the room as "Captain's Quarters.". Langdell took a right turn instead of a left and the newlyweds didn't realize their mistake until they stopped for gas in Gilroy, about 80 miles south of San Francisco. During his voyage to Alaska, Cook remembers the flying fish, which stirred up the water like a torpedo wake. "I said, 'sure, I'll take it.' "In the Army you were crawling around in the mud and everything else and I didn't want to do that.". "Iremember hearing explosions at first," he says. I couldn't.". Once a month or so, Clarendon Hetrick's phone rings with a call from Utah. "We won't get in," Conter said. So reads the telegram sent to the Mattituck home of Anna and Clifford Penny on Dec. 10, 1941. But the war was over. "I came back to the pier one morning and my name was on the list to do KP work," he says. Anderson had finished his first day as a Hollywood stunt man. By the time the woman from Illinois found him, he was ready to face his past. 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. 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). They still had to climb onto the dock and then into a truck for a short ride to a Navy hospital. He did not reach a hospital for several days, but doctors still saved his hand. Were there sharks Pearl Harbor? 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. When the fourth bomb detonated in the powder magazine, anyone left was blown over the side. Haerry nods and like a good sailor taking orders from the chief, he pulls himself up with a walker and shuffles off to lunch. Everything was taken ashore and properly taken care of.". Langdell lives now in a skilled nursing center. "I thought you'd be in flight school," he said. Posted by ; royal canin yorkie dog food reviews; parkland psychiatric hospital dallas, tx . "What houses they built!" He looks forward to his time with the guys from his years in the Navy. 4 Comments. They ran Joe and Libby Langdell's Village Mart for more than 20 years until they retired. 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. '", "Some things," he says, "you don't know about what they'll mean until years later.". He watched the band perform and stood as a survivor of the Arizona, one of the sailors who lived. He squinted and thought about where he was. He heard the same stories from his grandmother and his aunts. Usually, sharks will prioritize eating: Smaller fish. "Would you like to listen to it?" Some even extend their consumption to seabirds. The things I don't want to remember was the blood.". I think that's what kept me living to this day.". In January, another ship took him to San Francisco to the Navy hospital on Treasure Island. Now, some courses require less than a week of field time. Over the course of nearly two hours during the morning of December 7th, 1941, a fleet of Japanese fighters and bombers assaulted the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in hopes of crippling the US Navy for the duration of World War II. He would answer questions, but in short bursts of description, with no emotion. His own battle station was beneath the gun turret shattered by the last bomb to hit the Arizona. "They said, 'If you re-enlist, we'll send her over.' On the same bookshelf sit mementos from his time on the Arizona. I wanted to know if you could do it for a couple of weeks.". A smile spreads across his face as Dean Martin's voice fills the cab. He would draw out snippets and stash them away, collecting them until he would weave the barest narrative. For some reason I had always thought that the titanic had gone down way farther North. His mother suggested Hills Business College in Oklahoma City. did sharks attack titanic survivors. Whether they're a spiny dogfish all the way to great whites, sharks love eating fish. He got to know Alan Ladd, who had starred in a series of war movies. ("Two of us with the same rank were up for the same kind of job," he said. In the years after, he became active in survivors' groups and started going back to Pearl Harbor more often. is clu gulager still alive did sharks attack titanic survivors. They said, 'You should have been dead a long time ago.'". He stopped in the small town of Payson, Utah. He moved to Provo and sold cars until 1990. Marietta shakes her head. Potts had not returned to Honolulu in the decades since he left for San Francisco in 1945. A platform marked the wreckage of the USS Arizona. 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. When was the shark attack on the Jersey Shore? Conter was talking about survival, about coming back alive. Inside the packets were the captains' new orders, military secrets, classified information that required clearance to handle. I guess he'd do anything he could for me. 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. That fateful day led the United States . He saw Gene LaRocque, a man he'd served with aboard the Macdonough. Ray Jr. seems surprised. A storm was approaching, a big one by the looks of it. Finally, after a few weeks on the tanker, Potts was handed a new assignment. Smoke rises from the battleship USS Arizona as it sinks . Langdell will return to the Arizona once more. 1. No one knew much about Bruner's years in the Navy, not the early years anyway. 11 Oldest Pearl Harbor Survivors (Updated 2021) December 7, 1941 is a date that everyone in America has committed to memory. 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 . Schenkelberg was no stranger to hardships . They moved to Santa Maria, not far from Santa Barbara, to be near their oldest son, then to Colorado Springs to be near Randy. 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, Kaahuphau and her brother Kahiuk. He wanted one last unforgettable day. He was assigned briefly to the Arizona, then to the Saratoga, an aircraft carrier, then, as the Navy tinkered once more with its troop alignment, back to the Arizona. Survivors' groups wanted to find all of them so their stories would not be lost. It fit in that location. "You," the fellow said. His younger son believes the experience changed his dad forever. A while back, Stratton and his wife Velma retired to Yuma and lived there about 15 years. They moved to Modesto, Calif., where he got a job driving a produce truck in the fruit orchards. Haerry straightened in his seat as his story was told. 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. There are a few personal photos on the table, but nothing from his years in the Navy. "I never talked about it much then," he says. "They were very good days before the war. did sharks eat pearl harbor victimshavelock wool australia. 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". "I'd do it a hundred times more," he says. John was sent from training camp in Illinois to Bremerton, Wash. 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. For a while, the young family lived in Puerto Rico as Haerry, now a chief boatswain's mate, drew new assignments aboard his tender. He asked what the fellow did. north but again I'm not a shark expert. His son reaches in the cab and queues up one of the hundreds of songs he and his daughter downloaded onto the new MP3 player. He and a buddy had been talking about their future in the Navy. More than 20 years earlier, he had earned his real estate license in California and had maintained it. He and his wife, Doris, have lived in the same house for 54 years. 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. As he prepared for his new posting on the Frazier, Langdell decided to make a move. Since the 1920s . It turned out most of the regular stuntmen were still in the military. did sharks eat pearl harbor victimssig sauer minimalist folding stock. ", "Fine," the worker said. "The stuff he likes.". As anniversaries of the attack passed, Ray Jr. would asked his dad if he wanted to visit the USS Arizona memorial at Pearl Harbor. 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. Here is a story he will tell, a memory he will keep. That same year, he met his wife, Valerie, in Palm Springs. A sailor on the repair ship Vestal, tied up nearby, spotted them and threw them a line. The Hirasaki family suffered some of the worst losses that terrible morning. It took more courage on your part to present this wreath than it did for me to accept it.". June 12, 2022 . He jumped into the harbor, even though he had never passed his swimming test. The clerks decided they could not send Stratton away without his permit. Langdell was an ensign, an entry-level officer, not yet a year in the Navy. 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. Three days later, he and his buddy were on a ship to San Francisco and then a train to Pensacola. The band members had decided they wanted to honor survivors from that day. 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. Long a bachelor again, Bruner has also entertained lady friends from time to time. The two men not only met, they took a boat to the USS Arizona memorial and laid a wreath in front of the wall with the names of the crewmen who died on the ship. elephant tail jewelry did sharks eat pearl harbor victims. For a long time, Haerry never talked about his experiences at Pearl Harbor. He had stopped at Pearl Harbor more than a decade earlier, on his way to a posting in Korea. He joined the Navy because it seemed like a better environment. A few years ago, the Cooks attended a fund-raising dinner at a local American Legion post. What do great white sharks eat in Hawaii? Sailors found food and shelter wherever they could. Octopus. Framed medals. Only 35 dead were . He can't relive those images anymore. "I'd already sent word, even before the first one got there," he says. About a month later, Japanese suicide bombers sunk the Pringle near Okinawa. The planes took off and landed on the water; the pilots tied up to buoys near the ship. Anderson smiled. An impressive collection of restaurant menus from 30 years of cross-country searches for used cars. The crew unloaded anything they could do without, to keep the damaged hull above the water line. He resumed one of his old jobs from the Arizona, piloting motor launches from the receiving station out to the Navy ships. He knew he was near release the day an officer came by and launched into a pep talk about the war and the Navy's role in it. One day, he stopped for coffee at the Brown Derby restaurant in Hollywood. Handout . Williams was in the Arizona's band. 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. They eventually bought a home-furnishings outlet farther inland and finally built their own store in Yuba City, north of Sacramento. He wrote Libby a letter and suggested it would be a good idea if Libby visited her friend on or about a particular date. The unprovoked attack on Pearl Harbor killed more than 2,400 Americans and struck a blow to the Navy's Pacific fleet, which had been based at Pearl Harbor. Another five minutes, Bruner figured, and they'd have run out of ammunition. "I don't think we'll ever be able to swim to shore. Keeping the memories alive. As his stint was about to end, the Navy decided to transfer him back to Pearl Harbor. The song, "Hound Dog" and the singer, Elvis Presley, both went over pretty well, the way Cactus Jack remembers it. The flare exploded and started a fire, which forced the plane into the water. 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. 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 remembers all the details and most of what happened later. She prods him to move around more and to leave the room for meals. "The Navy Department deeply regrets to inform you that your son Louis Anthony Counter quartermaster third class US Navy is missing following action in the performance of his duty.". Before the year was out, Cook was sent to gunnery school in Washington, D.C., and to the South Boston Navy Yard, where he joined the new destroyer Pringle on its shakedown cruise. He's never been back. After Pearl Harbor, Langdell asked for a posting on one of the new destroyers the Navy was set to launch. When he dies, his remains will be interred under the No. June 12, 2022 June 12, 2022 0 Comments June 12, 2022 0 Comments He spent the rest of the day retrieving bodies from the harbor. Nobody was expecting anything like that.". "He called me one night and said if you won't let me come to California, I found a lady who's got a new black Buick and I'm going to move to Texas.". His kids and grandkids. They met at a dance at the YWCA on North State Street. The Americans stopped the Japanese ships and wiped out some of the top officers. Although he is 97, he decided he couldn't miss a final reunion this year and he bought his tickets early. Explosions rocked the vessel and fires burned into the evening. One, Joe Langdell, lives about 40 miles away in Yuba City. Stratton's eyes brighten. As he recounts the experience, he rubs his hands together, then holds them out, turning them over. "He wanted the east coast, I wanted the west coast. "They were saying, when it first started, some of the ones whose station was up here ", He traces his finger up onto the main forward mast, to the crow's nest and the bridge. The Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor began just before 8 a.m. local time Sunday morning, December 7, 1941. 1914-1941:The mightiest ship at sea | Dec. 7, 1941: The attack that changed the world| Documentary: 'Witness to Infamy' | 2014: The final toast. I saw one airplane, with a big red meatball on the side. Libby got the message. Anderson always talks about his brother, Delbert "Jake" Anderson, when he tells the story of his own escape from the burning ship. He bought another gun in the states and he is never far from it. Joe Langdell found a table in the wardroom of one of the ships moored in Pearl Harbor and sat down with his breakfast. 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.
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