At the Barbershop

Many years ago, on a quiet Saturday morning, I walked into the barbershop on base at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey. In the shop was the barber, of course, and two men, both in their mid to late 70s. The three men were chatting about nothing in particular as the barber finished cutting one man’s hair. The other man looked as if he had just had his hair cut. The barber motioned for me to sit in the next barber’s chair and said he would be with me in a minute.

I listened as the two men older men talked about golf and their grand-kids.

The barber soon finished and the two men left.

He waited until they were gone, and then the barber told me who they were, without giving me their names, and their story.

The man in the chair had had duty on USS Oklahoma on the morning of December 7th, 1941. 

USS Oklahoma was in berth F-5, and like all the ships on battleship row, her port side was facing out. She was hit by the first torpedo at 0750, followed shortly after by two more. More hits followed in due course. She began to roll to her left, and shortly after 0800 rolled over until her masts hit bottom and she stopped rolling. She took at least 5 more hits that morning; 429 officer and men were killed.

When the ship was hit by torpedoes the man in the barber’s chair was in the engine room. As the ship rolled over onto her side he and several men tried to climb up to the main deck but the ship rolled faster than they could move. They were trapped below deck. The next day he and the sailors he was with were some of the last men last men to get out of the hull alive. Many did not make it. How long the rest stayed alive isn’t known. But on USS West Virginia the bodies of one group of sailors were found when they pulled the ship off the bottom, and they had carefully marked a calendar that showed they had lived for 13 days in the darkness.

The second man, who had already had his hair cut and was waiting for his friend, had had the duty on USS Arizona on December 6th. His wife had dropped him off at the pier on the morning of the 6th, and his two boys had been in the car with him. As he climbed out of the car, Admiral Kidd, Commander BatDiv 1, also arrived at the pier. As the story goes, one of his sons saluted the Admiral and Admiral Kidd returned the salute and said hello. The young boy commented that he and his brother were going to spend the night on the ship with their dad. Admiral Kidd suggested that they spend it in his in-port cabin, he would sleep in his at-sea cabin. 

Captains of ships, and admirals for those ships with space for a flag officer, normally have an at sea-cabin, located adjacent or very near the bridge, and a much larger (sometimes down-right palatial) in-port cabin which is used to entertain visiting dignitaries. Battleships, particularly the pre-WWII battleships, were known to have extravagant flag quarters. 

The LT objected but Admiral Kidd insisted. That night, his two boys joined him on the ship - and they stayed in Admiral Kidd’s in-port cabin. And early in the morning the LT got his two boys up, turned over the watch, and took the boys ashore to meet his wife in time to make the 0800 Catholic Mass. 

At 0755 onboard Arizona, sitting at berth F-7, they sounded general quarters. In quick succession Arizona was struck by 4 bombs, with 3 near misses. Around 0806 the 4th bomb hit near Turret II (the second turret from the bow) and (as it was caught on film, some details are known) 7 seconds later there was a tremendous explosion, as the forward magazines exploded. The vast majority of the 1,177 killed on Arizona were assessed to be killed as a direct result of that explosion.

The LT and his wife and boys were walking into the Chapel when the first bomb hit. 

On that Sunday morning 2,008 Sailors, 109 Marines, 218 Soldiers, and 68 civilians were killed. 

As for the two men, both obviously survived the war, both men were later recipients of Navy Crosses. But, they, and everyone who served at Pearl Harbor that day,  especially the 2,403 killed that Sunday morning, deserve a prayer and a few minutes of our time… May they all rest in peace.