Pearl Harbor - 72

72 years ago... A million stories of courage.  Here's one I know (my friend J.R. prodded me into sharing a story - thanks.  I've added a few comments for clarification):

Late 1980s, I was out at Monterey, CA. at the Naval Postgraduate School, I had just graduated, and packed out my apartment, etc., and I swung by the small exchange to get a haircut.

There was one barber working and he told me to come in and have a seat in one of the chairs, so I did.  There were two men in the shop with him: one getting his hair cut and one sitting in the barber chair next to him and they were talking about golf and their grand kids.  Both were probably in their late 70s.

The barber finished up and they paid and left.  Then the barber turns to me and says: 'See those two guys?  Both have Navy Crosses. (The Navy Cross is the second highest award for heroism in combat, immediately below the Medal of Honor.)  Both also survived Pearl Harbor.  The fellow whose hair I just cut was one of the engineers on OKLAHOMA.  When the ship was hit he was in the engine room and tried to control flooding, but they lost power and he couldn't do it and the ship started rolling."

USS OKLAHOMA, one the US battleships in Pearl Harbor, was in the process of having some work done and the access plates to the bilges had been removed; these are about 20 inch wide plates that are normally bolted in place and make certain spaces water tight. You can take them off in port, but once you do that there is no easy, fast way to close them up and make the ship water-tight.  Once the ship started taking on water any effort to control flooding, or try to settle the ship straight down onto the bottom became hopeless.  Additionally, any ship that has taken that much damage will normally lose power, not only making it impossible to operate pumps, but also plunging the interior of the ship into darkness.  The ship rolled over but hit bottom in the shallow water of the harbor and ended up on its side.

"He led a few men 'up' to the bottom but they got separated in the dark.  Eventually, he found himself alone in a space, in the dark, and the water was at the door to the space. He also found a large wrench.  In the dark he could feel a number of items bolted to the deck and bulkhead - now above him - and he unbolted them and let them fall, so he could have clear access to the deck/hull.  Then he began to beat on the hull at regular intervals.  Eventually, he received a tap back.  And then he waited.  He was one of the last guys cut out of the hull, on 9 December."

32 men were cut out of OKLAHOMA's hull between the end of the attack the morning of 7 December until the last few were rescued early in the morning of 09 December.  The man who led the effort to cut them out was a civilian shipyard worker, Julio DeCastro, 'Lead Caulker and Chipper' at the Navy Yard.  Beating on the hull from inside - from areas that were already under water - continued for several more days but they couldn't reach those guys.

And the other guy? I asked.

"He was the OOD (Officer Of the Deck – the man responsible to the captain at any given time, for the operation and safety of the ship) on ARIZONA on 6 December.  On the morning of the 6th his wife dropped him off at the small-boat landing to take the launch out to the ship, and as he was saying good-buy to his wife and 2 boys, RADM Kidd showed up.  

RADM Isaac Kidd was Commander BatDiv 1, Battleship Division 1, which consisted of the three battleships ARIZONA, NEVADA, and OKLAHOMA.  Battleships were known for their spit and polish and ARIZONA had a particular reputation as a ship that was always 'inspection ready.'  RADM Kidd died on ARIZONA on the 7th, and was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.  In total, 15 men were awarded the Medal of Honor from action on 7 December, 10 of them posthumously.

"Kidd said hello, and said hello to the wife and kids, and one of the kids said something to the effect that 'we're going to spend the night on the ship with dad.'  So, Kidd says 'you should sleep with them in my in-port cabin and I will sleep in the at-sea cabin.' " 

In warships the captain has two cabins: an 'at-sea' cabin located near the bridge, so he can get some rest but be close at hand, and an ‘in-port’ cabin which is normally the nicest - and largest - cabin on the ship.  Except for ships that are designed to carry admirals.  In those cases, the admiral will also have an ‘in-port’ and an 'at sea' cabin.  And the admiral's in-port cabin can be counted on to be an exceptional space, as it was normally used not only for the admiral to live in, but also for the admiral to entertain official guests.  And the ARIZONA's was apparently a particular example of what the Navy can do when it wants to...

"So that night he picked the kids up, took them to the ship where they ate in the wardroom and slept in the Flag in-port cabin (the Admiral’s cabin – Admirals are referred to as ‘Flags’ because admirals traditionally fly a flag when on a ship that allows people to know there is in fact an admiral embarked), then in the morning he got the kids up early, turned over the watch early, and headed ashore to meet his wife for 0800 Catholic Mass at the base chapel.  And he was walking into church when the first round hit.  The two men went on to fight across the Pacific, and both retired as captains, and later retired in Carmel."