while bombs were still bursting and flames were pouring from our naval craft, the u.s. crew valiantly moves out to join the fleet and avenge pearl harbor. >> on december 7, 1941, japanese planes attacked the u.s. pacific fleet at pearl harbor, hawaii. almost 2400 americans were killed and almost 1200 wounded. the next day, president franklin roosevelt appeared before a joint session of congress to request a declaration of war against japan. this year marks the anniversary -- 75th anniversary of the u.s. pearl harbor attack in the u.s. entry into world war ii. up next, we hear from pearl harbor survivors who were on board the u.s.s. arizona during the attack. the national park service conducted these oral histories. >> helen took me up, met the

admiral, met the captain. and then he and i had the job, onerous job of inventorying all the marine stores like the bayonets, belts, uniforms, the whole bit. we were doing that in the evening, down in the double bottoms, very hot. not air conditioned in those days, or even today. and finally, after some hours of that, allen chaplin said, well, let's go to the club and have a beer. and i said, fine. and we did. and he ran into a bunch of arizona shipmates of his, who he knew, but i didn't know any of them, having been a tennessee marine. but anyway, they said, hey, major, come on and join me, it's my birthday. and he did. and after he got into the spirit

of the party, the birthday party, he told me to go on home to my wife in waikiki and join him in the morning, sunday morning, and we'd finish it then. i said fine. i thought it was a great idea. i caught a cab and went home to my bride in waikiki. the next morning, there was no arizona to join him on. >> living next door to me was a lieutenant commander, who was assigned to the fleet weather central in pearl. and he got a call to get his tail down to his -- you know, his battle station. and he knocked on my door. he said, come on. i came out. i could see the flak over pearl harbor. and so i got in touch with some of my tennessee shipmates and we got a cab and went straight on out to pearl. at mary point landing, we could

see ships burning and there was actually a japanese torpedo that had made a run and beached itself up on the land. and it was lying there. and boats were coming past the point and the captain would call -- coxon would call out, i'll take you to any ship, any ship. i couldn't go to the arizona. i went to ford island. and i ended up in a bomb shelter, up in the north end of ford island, near -- quite near the arizona actually. because the second wave was hitting the place. and there, in the bomb shelter, i met allen chapley, the chap i had relieved. he had swum ashore from the arizona and with him were about 14 other marines. i didn't know any of them, as i say.

i remember one was named corporal nightingale. i remember that because of the odd name. we hunkered down until all clear was sounded. i was convinced that someone had to be -- me up there by the hand, because i had intended to be aboard that ship. i told my wife i was not coming come home, and just because alan chapley wanted a beer, that did save my life. i think they were just carrying out their orders as well. they, from a military point of view, did a superb job. they were pros. and we were not prepared, unfortunately. they knew exactly what they were doing. the tennessee, i mentioned, it got two hits. centerline hits. one right through the top, one

on the center gun of number two. they were good. >> last week, we were out there, just before the attack, submarines, following us all the time. we knew they were subs. they wouldn't surface during the day, but at night, they'd surface. they'd pick them up and they would immediately submerge. and we'd send messages to them on the radio, on the international frequencies. they would not answer. so we knew they were jap subs. usually it worked this way. one battle force would be in, the other would be out. the battle force, division one, was the one force. the other battleship, division two and four, were the other ones. and they would go out. we were coming in on friday, december 5. the other force was coming out.

so we're flying in. we always fly in when they -- we'd fly in. either landed ford island or somewhere. anyway, the other force wasn't coming out. and i asked, i said, hey, what's the matter with the other battle force? they're not coming out. he said, well, they've decided to leave them all in the harbor and send out the faster cruiser, scouting for us. i said, well, why? he said, well, if we go to war, which he says things are touch and go, they figure the only thing that will happen here is some hit-and-run raids at night, from submarines. and they can't hurt the wagons inside. but out here, we're not fast enough to outrun them. so that's the thinking, of putting them inside. well, that satisfied me. we put our airplanes over on ford island, beached them over there.

and then went back aboard the ship. we would have been coming over to operate at ford island the next week. but there was no next week, as far as the arizona went. we were parked where the memorial is right now. and everything was pretty normal, except the vessel, the repair ship, was along side of us, because we needed work. we were to let our fires die down and take our power from the vessel and start monday morning. we were supposed to be working on the ship. and then we went out on saturday. and, well, the next day... we got hit. it was right after breakfast. just before 8:00. i had bought some christmas cards the day before. we were gonna -- several of us were gonna go down and gonna

write christmas cards, send christmas cards. get them ready to send. i put a bath towel around my neck, had my toilet gear in my hand. going to get a bath. then i heard these explosions. what's going on? ah, they're blasting on ford island, somebody said. i said, huh-uh. they don't -- they were building a lot of construction. they don't work on sundays. i says, somebody -- there was a lot of bombs laying around, because they were putting charges on the pby's, a possible chance to go out and attack those subs. and i said -- and they had these charges that looked like the old ash cans off the destroyer, but they had them hooked up. i said, some idiot probably kicked one of them fuses over there and blew the hangar up, so they didn't get our airplanes.

let's take a look. we went up, top side, one deck up. over ford island, big fires. and lots of smoke. and we see an airplane or two flying around up there. still didn't ring a bell, because airplanes -- we see airplanes all the time. but then we turned around, looked up the harbor. and here comes -- we saw a couple airplanes. and one of them, i said, oh, the army is out today, on sunday. then i saw that it was a torpedo plane, carrying a torpedo. i said -- two guys with me. i said, hey! the army ain't got no torpedo planes. that plane's got a fish under it. and just then they dropped the torpedo and i think it hit the oklahoma. two ships ahead of us. but then they swung over, they come back over the arizona. west virginia.

-- past the west virginia. they were strafing. you could see the old guns winking at you. get down! so we got down. it missed us about three feet, four or five shots. then they sounded the air raid. they said all engaged personnel, go to the third deck. -- unengaged personnel, go to the third deck. well, theoretically, i'm unengaged. i didn't have an actual air raid station. so i've got to go down to the third deck and wait for assignment, where to go? we headed for the third deck. just as we got -- we started to go down the ladder to the third deck. well, we do have a general station. then also fire at the quarterdeck. i said to them, them two guys ahead of me, come on back up here, we've got a battle station, general quarters. i turn around, come back up.

a marine lieutenant says, get back down there! i said i'm going to my battle , station. he said, get back down there! there won't be any panic on this ship. i said, i'm not panicking, i'm going to my battle station. i just went to my battle station. and, well, i guess i moved him out of the way. but the other two guys were in front of me, going down the ladder. they didn't get back up. they're still out there. the bomb had hit it, glanced off, went down through the quarterdeck. the fire was down the deck blow -- below but it looked like a , blowtorch, coming out of the hole that the bomb went in. we were out there, trying to get that fire apparatus going. yelling at the guy, get us some pressure! he said i'm on the phone, trying to get it. nobody answers. we had just a few drops coming out the stupid hose. then we got hit four, five times. every time we got hit, seemed like it would knock us down.

then we'd get back up again. we'd start operating again and then we'd get hit again. we got that big bomb down. and when the forward magazines blew, you could feel the ship just raise out of the water, like that, see, just like a bucking bronco. and then that big fireball come rolling back. and i dropped my nozzle. and i remember this. i still have my towel up around my neck, because i didn't want to lose my towel. i had a knot in it. and i didn't have a hat on. i ducked my head i turned my , back, as quick as i could, and that fireball hit, just like swoosh! i didn't feel anything until i was in the water. and i mean, i was down in the water, deep. and i fought to get to the surface.

and i saw that i could still see and i looked back at the ship. i'm in the water, maybe 20, 30 feet off the ship. and i looked back up. i couldn't see a living person on the ship. not one. of course, the ship is up here, and you're down here. i couldn't see anybody. i says, i'm not going back aboard, because there's no use. we had oil on the water. and they had fire on the water, up forward. and you are looking forward. you could see fire, like this. the wind was blowing the fire forward, which is good. but i didn't realize the idea of... it was fairly close. so i struck out for the nevada. and there were several guys swimming toward the nevada, toward where she was tied up. and, well, two or three of them just gave up. nobody's in a position really to help anybody, because you're out

there in the water and you've got your shoes on, and you're just swimming for yourself. three of us actually got over to a whale boat, with the ores. and i was too weak to get in. so i hung on the side of it for, oh, maybe a half minute or more. get a little strength back and threw a leg over. pulled myself into the whale boat. nevada is down, almost a floating dry dock down there. and the second wave of japs hit. and i mean, they hit hard. they concentrated on her pretty much, because she was -- she was heading out. so they hit her bad. i remember, we got a bomb hit up forward. and it knocked us all askew inside there. and i thought i was looking -- i thought i was in the air, looking down at the ship, because i could see these big old cap nets and stuff. looking right up at me. then when i realized i'm on the deck, the deck just peeled up

like this, when that bomb hit up there. and what was normally down here was up here like this, and i was looking at it like that, because she was on fire, in a lot of places. well, they had a lot of wounded. i couldn't do any good where i was, so i went out, started helping getting the wounded guys onto life rafts to get them headed over to the hospital over there, toward the navy hospital, the navy yard. and i got down there. then they passed the word for they need some men back to fight fires. went back there. we fought fires. we threw a mattress in the water, soak it, put it on your back, go up there on the boat deck where the fires were, throw that mattress down, stomp on it, then run back down, get another mattress. well, about two trips, two ladders, i'm worn out, because i've had it, see. carrying stupid, heavy mattresses. i stepped over guys that were laying there.

arms blown off, heads blown off, everything else. but i was in such a state that it didn't seem to bother me. and then i was so tired that i just -- i had to get out of the way, because i was too weak to carry a mattress up top side anymore. and i tell you, i was a pretty sturdy young man. but it had been quite a day. i went in the blacksmith shop. and i went over in the corner and laid down. all i wanted to do was sleep. i was just worn out, completely. if you ever really had fatigue, you know what i'm talking about. but -- and i went to sleep. and then a couple guys are shaking me. they said, are you all right? i said i'm okay. leave me alone. let me sleep. i'm okay. one guy says, he's hurt, he's bleeding! a man said, how come you're all oil-soaked? i said i'm off the arizona. he said we better get you to

sick barracks. he started moving me. i hurt bad when they started moving me. i yell at them, leave me alone or if they had morphine. they gave me a shot of morphine. like putting a nice warm blast over you. i didn't hurt anymore. then they said, well, we've got no place in sick bay. so they put me on a motor launch and i headed for -- they hauled me to the hospital ship. and i went back down. they were over there. i was going down the battleships. here's the california sinking. and here's the oklahoma. capsized. here's the west virginia, burnt, sinking, sunk. behind her, the arizona is in a shambles. god, there's our battle fleet. i do remember this much, on the hospital ship, though. it must have been hours later, because i was laying there, half asleep, asleep probably. somebody woke me up.

and, here, drink this. he shoved a tube thing in my mouth, soup, see. and i looked at the guy. he's oriental. and i thought, oh, god, they've captured us, see? and i said, get the hell away from me! i knocked the things out of his hands. get away from me, you so-and-so jap! someone said, hey, hey, he's one of ours, he's okay, he's okay, see. so they brought me another. meal. and i was awful hungry. and i sucked that soup completely down, through busted lips, blistered lips. but i drank all the soup they had anyway. it had been quite a number of -- i spent quite a number of days on the hospital ship. of course, i didn't feel too bad, because i see guys in the bunks next to me that were dying, and i wasn't dying. >> i was asked if i wanted on a battleship. i thought that would be an ideal

place, a nice, big ship in the pacific. and so i took that assignment. and i joined the marine detachment, in long beach, california, on 7 december '41. i was the last watch before breakfast. i was with the admiral. and then i got off and had breakfast. i'm getting cleaned up. i was going to have liberty. the first thing that i felt, a couple thumps on the -- it felt like it was on the ship. not real sharp but evidently, those were bombs or something going off on ford island, being transferred by water probably. but my thought was, it was a water barge bumping. they used to come every day and give us fresh water. i heard a message.

like, men, take cover or something like that. and then three or four seconds later, i picked my speed up faster to get back there, because we mustered just for a second or so before we go to general quarters. i'm standing forward. just looking, more or less, with these headphones and talking to the guns, when the ship blew. and when the ship blew, the force of that ship, it just rared like that. it was so great that your knees buckled. and forced you right to the floor. and all of us was forced to the floor with that. you couldn't possibly stand up. it was that great. and then it started doing this. the vibration from up there, and

then the extra whip, because of the steel, and then it would go faster, faster, faster. and we ended up in a human ball, about eight or ten of us, just hanging on to each other, on the deck, when it quit doing that. we got up, checked each other out. nobody was hurt. there wasn't any of the glass broke, up there in that -- i don't know how thick that glass was. it wasn't broke. we look down and it's just a white furnace in front of us. just complete destruction. it was -- you just couldn't imagine that heat and the stuff that i seen before my knees buckled. just go up in the sky. i don't know how high it went. and it seemed like, in just a few minutes, we just observed more. i watched the oklahoma.

i watched the oklahoma go over like a wounded whale, went over the side. and the men was coming off -- over the lifeline and then walking on the side of the ship and walking near the bottom. then evidently they massed -- the mast hit bottom in the channel. and it didn't roll any farther. and there was men just all on the side of that oklahoma. i seen these other men, from the fore part of the ship, i could see them through the edge of the fire and the smoke, trying to go down that line that had been thrown to them by the vessel. and i seen them go down like circus people, down that line. i seen people trying to jump from up in there, either from the yard arm or someplace. and it seemed like they would swing and they would go out, and then like they're gonna try to land in the water and then they

got about this angle, out to the outer edge of the curb of -- curve of jumping. the fire and the heat seemed to suck them right in. and they never did hit the water. they went right into the fire. then we come to the galley deck. here's some of the cooks down in there that i recognized. do you recognize the men by his physique or his voice? no clothes on. charred, burnt black, standing there. they wouldn't live long. they were in shock. one big cook, that used to cook our early breakfast for us, i was on the marine well boat team for the ship. he used to cook breakfast for us. when we'd go up to exercise, and there he stood, with one leg on, one leg off. bleeding. and he didn't live. none of those burned people on

that deck lived. i go over the quarterdeck, or on the quarterdeck. i go over to the edge and sat down. i was attempting to take my shoes off. and the next thing i remember, i'm in the water swimming. shoes so i swam ashore with those shoes on and my trousers and a t-shirt. swimming through the oil, you didn't dare go that way. the result fire. spreading, so we swam this way out and then in. then we would swirl and go down to make more time underwater for a short while and then we would pop up and then it was the major

like how well i pulled when the well boat came. we hung in there. for years there was a guilt anding, how did i survive all those good guys die? lot.came up a i was afraid to talk about that for a long time. years iast 25 or 30 volunteered to give speeches in a lot of different places and whenever i could. i keep abreast what happened themand i, out and tell this is going to be a hard story for someone to stand up here and

talk and tell you about a defeat. -- >> therek, to me was a water -- i still think to my mind was a water tower and i knew there was no drill. they had the dive bombers and and the manson horizontal bombers that we couldn't reach. i saw the nevada get hit and the west virginia get hit. after the oklahoma capsize. we had the fireball. somewhere.g to get we were burning alive. , the the initial explosion

decks were so hot you couldn't touch them or lean them. . you were just tried to get someplace. andere caught off guard somehow we survived just trying to still keep surviving. >> my battle station was changed from the distribution room to the active repair party which was what saved my life because of i been in the distribution gang i would still be there. chief petty officer came running down and said the japanese are attacking. man u battle stations. . for a minute we froze.

we ran to our battle stations and mine was about four decks down by the number three gun and also the radioshack. the first man there was supposed to get the headset on and make contact with the engine room, that is our control center. i did that but i could not raise anybody. so i stood there with the headset on for a few minutes and whether it was a bomb or torpedo that hit the ship. it not be lights out, there was a terrific explosion and it was just like a tornado had gone through the ship and it pushed me from the top of the ladder to the bottom. i have no idea how it got down there -- i got down there. i was standing on the bottom of the ladder and so i took my hands and i rubbed my body all over the place. legs tod my arms and make sure by had me broken

bones. . step through that doorway as i did that, there were several other men around there with me. now, the explosion had consumed all the oxygen in the air and we were not able to breathe. i dropped down on my hands and knees and opened up on the bottom. thank goodness somebody opened the one on the top -- once on the top. we were doing that without being able to breathe. we knew we had to do this. by that time, the water had started to leak in to the base of the number three gun. so we all knew we had a leak. we crawled up to the number three gun out to this hatch and their is a handle on the hatch that you can take a hold of and

there was one time i thought i would be on the deck and here i was up in the air and so i swung over to the latter that was on the side of eternity and crawled down. i was on the fort island side of the tour it. --turret.- tourist hoping it would be looking hit us. -- they would not be able to hit us. bodyoil was covering her and so we were getting tired, this just isn't possible to swim because your skin breathes as well and we were getting so tired and so i swam over to the which ishis large -- this large cement object you can see today and i put my hands up on the bumper and fortunately there were two men standing there and they pulled me up to

my waist and said you've got to get up the rest of the way yourself because there are other men we have to pull out of the water. that normally i'd have fallen back into the water, but i knew if i did that i would most likely drowned so you get this extra energy and i forced myself up onto this bumper and as i did that, one of the other fellows had gone to the aft end of the ship and lives in 30 foot launches their and he got one of those and started it up and brought it around and told us to jump in and said i'm not stopping because there are fighters all over the place and so i jumped into the launch and i hit one of the benches and since i was so oily, i just about slipped out the other side.

the first time i went back was the hardest because it is like facing all of your friends that you don't have any more. if anybody talks to me about the arizona or whatnot, it wasn't that i didn't try, i had a real hard time trying to talk. this time, that wasn't the case. i have been able to get over that. i pray for all of these men on the ship. that i know a man of that wouldn't have fought to the death to preserve our nation thatse freedom is a gift has to be fought for sometimes and has to be appreciated and understood. just before the service was over , it rained. just a little bit, there was

just missed cop -- mist, but it was like tears from heaven that these men remembered us to. >> i got transferred and , theteered for the arizona you, you, you type. i was long beach late september. sunday was the liberty day supposedly and i was due to solo . i was taking flight lessons. i said it looks like the fly boys are out early because they do support surprise raids on us. andt behind them coming up there was a great big red sunset. ours and i're not said get the hell out of here.

i climbed up the side of nevada. i don't think we're time to think right away. the adrenaline came out of no place and you instantly reacted. top andd up off the caught the scuffle edge and actually flipped up onto the deck. i don't think it could have done that if i wanted to thinking about it. sides and wee brought the boat back to your zone when she blew up. arizona when she blew up. we were to carry the casualties over to the hospital. -- six times their and they finally sank the 50 footer. we tied up to a barge and let her hang their and fill up with

water. we found a pickup truck sitting there on sure. -- shore. building. inside its full of armament and whatnot and we put a machine gun in the back of the truck and we each had rifles and 45s and we japsout there with the and we blew a tire so we got out of the truck. that is when i saw more gold , about ever seen my life eight admirals walking towards us and asking where's your ship. it.id that's he said that is -- you are the one you need. -- we need. you're going to be a bodyguard,

you stay with this officer. i guess it was 10:00 or 11:00 in the morning before i stopped and said hey, we are at war and then i got scared. that point, i wasn't really scared i was just running on adrenaline. >> i was up in the chief's headquarters of the time. i think i was sorting my laundry. andof the chiefs came down said the california is on fire. and i see the ladder the zero coming over and so i took off. the chief quarters as a buddy anchor. i had 125 yards to go. i jumped up with both feet.

no problem getting there. there's nobody there but me. my battle station was in the upper part of the tour it. why i went below, i don't know. i almost made a mistake. we were knee-deep in water immediately. you can't fire that wet powder. waited, we were unconscious anyhow. our explosion was not the big one. our explosion hit up one of the terrorists and went down we think to the port deck -- one of s and went down to we think the port deck and exploded.

we do not know about the big one until we got out of the current and onto the deck. .hen the explosion came see and you could and in lot of stuff other words, everything was unconscious. .nd nobody was hurt knew we were sinking other than that, we didn't know. and it was obvious that we had .o

we had no communication, nobody was telling us what to do. we were stuck there. up after soment discussion. i think somebody said we should and somebody said we shouldn't. i had no input on the decision. we finally went up into the gun room and we stayed there for a while. our close up, our uniform than whiskey the shirts and whites. black shoes and black socks. thought that there might be involved.

that's were we took all of our close of except shorts and pointed our sites out to the sides. we came out, probably not seeing much. we came out over the overhang and onto the deck and we could the mast was gone. the first thing you know, the deck was riddled with bullets. bullet holes. of course the stern never sank. we were in the water. the forward part of the middle of the ship. the next question is what do you do? there wasn't anyone i could help so, i'm not sure

the word got around to anyone in command, as a group you to make your own decision. there was nobody on deck to tell you what to do so we jumped in the water. we took our shoes off and jumped in the water. it is about 10 or 15 feet down. key and ier to the think we jumped in. that was a mistake as well. burning oil. we went back and went back aboard. i saw a guy walk out of our compartment who looked like crisp bacon. i think it was an hour or more yet been in there.

i help into the boat and got them down to the boat and he died on the way to fort island. i found out later he was my best friend. i think a lot of them went over on the line to the vestal. thereof them went over which might've been a mistake as well because they got hit bad. they were along our stern. the three under foot ship along the 900 foot ship and they protected our deck. if they hadn't, we would have been in bad shape. there were two safe places you could be and that is where we were. , i were three seconds later would've been in that fourth deck blast.

maybe it's still here. ofmaybe it is an explanation why i'm still here. say if i battle you knots,slowed down to 20 we would have gotten it right in the middle. in the navy, your ship is your home. the beach didn't mean much to me. the way i describe it is i lost my buddy and i lost my home. it is like having a fire. there is really no way you can describe it. me in thelieves

respect that i'm going to join them. i had this guilt complex and it was how did you survive? if you ask yourself why or other people ask how. usually it is the guys who are doing all the work out there in the battle is the guy who didn't make it. you are standing around doing nothing, you survived. the ships were working before the big explosion. >> i spent a little bit of time as a mess cook. weeks before two the seventh, i was transferred

back and i-80 duty station. that morning we were all up early. the fourth division had the duty of setting up the benches for the church service. we had artie had breakfast -- already had breakfast. i went down to the lower passageways because that is where my battle station was. the ship just lifted up and settled back down and sank real fast. i don't think we really realized but i knew thed, powder magazines and stores there, the exposed white got everything. -- explosion wiped out everything.

they used four free projectile. they had a lot of it. big, heavylot of batteries. when the saltwater hit them, chlorine gas started coming up. we had to leave the turret and went out a rear hatch. we got onto quarterdeck. it's a chunks of steel were the strafing was going on. we felt one bump. a bomb hit the armor and went to the side. when we came out, john anderson , he had a together

brother of the five inch gun and we were trying to get him. they brought the barge to the stern of the ship and the lieutenant commander did damage control, he told us we might as well leave the ship. we went right over to the island , there was a runway there and we took the wounded in. i think they were picked up and taken to a hospital. there.ome clothes over we got a boat and started picking up people. nightt on the beach last and the next day i got on the uss mcdonald. i stayed on that till 43. most of the boys i went in with

who were school dropouts, i was a dropout. hungry, mostwere of their families were hungry, it was very tough times after having come through that great depression. there were no jobs or places to go, no homes and we found a home in the navy. it's important that we don't forget those boys. those boys never fathered a child, had a family, had a home, had what i had and that is really sad. most of them have been forgotten and i say because if we forget what has happened in the past, we are in danger of losing the future. brought three of my last grandchildren out here this time.

them to know that the freedom they have is not free. somebody played a -- paid a hell of a price for it. every ship except one. a battleship. i said let me go on a battleship. they said which one? i said i like to get one of the big five. they were the newest ones. they said how about the arizona? that was it. it is just as tough to go out there to the arizona memorial as it was the day when i saw it burning. when i go out there and read those names. american history tv is marking the 75th anniversary of the japanese attack on pearl harbor throughout this weekend and next.

saturday, december 10 beginning at 11:00 eastern time we will be live to take your calls and ofets for the author pacific crucible. that is live next saturday here on american history tv. >> american history tv marking the 75th anniversary of the attack on pearl harbor, next we join c-span2. featuring author steve twomey, and craig nelson. >> ♪ december 7, 1941. a day of infamy.