did sharks eat pearl harbor victims did sharks eat pearl harbor victims

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. "The sea was real rough when it came in and the sharks started gathering around. In January, another ship took him to San Francisco to the Navy hospital on Treasure Island. But when Ka'ahupahau realized that the girl actually did die, she regretted her rash order and instead said that sharks should never attack humans in the Pearl Harbor region. He weighed 92 pounds by the time he was sent to rehabilitation in Corona, Calif. The telegram, which misspelled Conter's last name, promises further information and asks his family not to divulge Conter's posting. One of the men started yelling. The Solace dispatched motor boats to the Arizona to rescue wounded sailors and her crew pulled others from the water. As the 50thanniversary of the attack neared, Langdell got a call from a documentary filmmaker. "It sounded like someone shooting guns. In his dining room in Colorado Springs, he keeps a replica of a hard diving helmet, the kind his divers used. "The only people he would talk to were either very close friends or relatives," his son says. The crews learned the routines of the Japanese ships. They said, 'You should have been dead a long time ago.'". Today, he tries to pass on what he knows to students of history. 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. Sailors found food and shelter wherever they could. did sharks attack titanic survivors. For a long time, he didn't think he would ever return to Pearl Harbor. In 2011, he was one of six Rhode Islanders who had lived through the attack on Pearl Harbor, the only one from the Arizona. Here is a story he will tell, a memory he will keep. He finished his stint in the Navy in Shanghai, working shore patrol the way he did back in Honolulu. The guns used the same type of control mechanisms Bruner had mastered on the Arizona. June 12, 2022 June 12, 2022 0 Comments June 12, 2022 0 Comments "They told me the team was already picked," he said. Hetrick was sent to the USS Lexington, an aircraft carrier. "I went back and told my mother I wasn't going up there anymore," he said. person grazed by a shark), nor incidents classified by the International Shark Attack File as boat attacks, scavenge, or doubtful. But there are moments when he knows what he did meant something. The flare exploded and started a fire, which forced the plane into the water. And it holds deep meaning for Potts, even though he did nothing to win it. The clerks decided they could not send Stratton away without his permit. It was the first time Randy, his son, had seen his father cry. Conter was talking about survival, about coming back alive. "I don't think we'll ever be able to swim to shore. Las Vegas seems to like Hetrick. I wasn't working for nothing.". I think that's what kept me living to this day.". Japanese torpedo bombers hit the Lexington and crippled the big ship. As anniversaries of the attack passed, Ray Jr. would asked his dad if he wanted to visit the USS Arizona memorial at Pearl Harbor. He got to know Alan Ladd, who had starred in a series of war movies. Whale sharks can grow to 65 feet in length and weigh up to 75,000 pounds. 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 thought you'd be in flight school," he said. In 2006, Hetrick returned to Pearl Harbor for the 65thanniversary of the Japanese attack. Anderson spoke to one of the tanker's crew about towing the Macdonough. In 1966, 25 years after the attack, Stratton returned to Pearl Harbor with his family. Some even like to dine on smaller shark species! The mangled bodies such as J.J. Astor was probably caused by the 1st smokestack falling into the water and. They offered to perform at a gathering of Utah survivors. His name never appeared and he would leave for the day. He spent the rest of the day retrieving bodies from the harbor. 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. "We're were out and around. He is one of nine living survivors from the attack on the USS Arizona, the battleship he boarded in 1941 when he was 17. Cook got the buddy's telephone number and tried to call him. "We wouldn't get much fire back and by the time they sounded general quarters, we were on our way," Conter said. 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. "It's just not going to happen. Inside the packets were the captains' new orders, military secrets, classified information that required clearance to handle. Joe saved six lives and he didn't get crap. Song's got some zip to it, he said. "It's always a great thing for me to see them," he says. "I said, 'Well, come on, then,'" Marietta says, and in 1950, they wed. That's where the cross-country adventures begin. Japan wanted the northern Pacific to control its shipping routes and block U.S. attacks from that direction. Alcohol. They hopped in a Jeep and head up the hill toward one of the Quonset huts, the one where liquor for the officers' clubs was stored. He struggles to speak at times (though when he's feeling good, he likes to flirt with the nurses). Bruner, who turned 94 in November, is now one of nine living USS Arizona crewmen who survived the ship's sinking. World War II veterans are a special breed, Lt. Col. Denis Riel said as the men accepted the medals. We swept the decks and took the small bones. "I told another kid if they come back again tonight, I'm leaving.". That same year, he met his wife, Valerie, in Palm Springs. The job paid $700. Hetrick saw a new opportunity and joined. Libby got the message. The Navy occasionally cuts away small bits of the wreckage for memorials. He ran to the anti-aircraft battery, his battle station, but there was no ammunition ready. "I was on a date on that Saturday night with a gal I'd been running around with," he says. Tensions between Japan and the U.S. simmered throughout the early 20th century and came to a boil in the 1930s as Japan attempted to conquer China, even . And he still likes to talk about that other young fellow from Oklahoma, the one who didn't make it home. Haerry had made two runs to shore on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941. Guns. Bruner was put in charge of the gun batteries. "Some of the ships I was on had guys who liked to play the guitar, so I knew something about it. "We're right-arm rates." did sharks eat pearl harbor victimshavelock wool australia. Colombia. We hauled it all back in.". One day, some smaller boats sailed past. Some even extend their consumption to seabirds. Seventy-three years later, he is one of just nine survivors of the attack on the Arizona. It sits a little higher than most items, but not necessarily on a platform. I quit. One day, a Navy officer came on board and asked if anyone wanted to volunteer for an assignment in the aviation section. The crews were based on tender ships moored in secluded harbors. In U.S. history the name recalls the surprise Japanese air attack on December 7, 1941, that temporarily crippled the U.S. Fleet and resulted in the United States' entry into World War II. The guns hit the periscope. By then, he'd seen the world, witnessed history before it was history. 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. The exhausted crew dragged ashore an hour later and hid in the jungle, fearful they would be captured by Japanese soldiers. "I told the men, 'If a shark comes close, hit it in the nose with your fist as hard as you can.'". Once a shark finds its prey, it needs to decide on whether to eat or not based on smell and appearance. "It is only by the grace of God that I stand here today," he said. "I appreciate your thoughtfulness. Lonnie had taken up trap shooting and hoped to do a little hunting back home. Potts stayed in Honolulu until the end of the war. I asked the boss, 'how many hours is in a day for you?' They knew the oil tanker Tippecanoe was out there, but couldn't see her. "The nights up there were already short, so I didn't get much sleep," Cook says. "This shows where all the ships were," he says, pointing at a map depicting Pearl Harbor on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941. He's never been back. Bass. Conter and others in his group boarded a boat to go out to the platform and see his old ship. Would Langdell agree to meet Abe on film? The Lexington sailed out of Pearl Harbor not long after. 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 . Japan and China were at war again and America was trying to protect its interests without getting involved in the conflict. "Are you in the Navy? Conter was stationed on the Arizona at Pearl Harbor in September 1941, when he turned 20. The Langdells ended up honeymooning in Monterey and Carmel on the central California coast. "It was like a hard jolt.". 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 . Years later, at a reunion in Tucson, Cook learned that one of his buddies from the Arizona had been sent to the Lexington and was in the Coral Sea when the carrier was attacked. So you see how that works."). Yes, a lot of brave men died. At his request, he was assigned to the officer candidate school in Newport, R.I. A painting of the Arizona hangs on the wall of a sitting room. We all have to remember that they did not die in vain.". And my co-pilot, Lou Conter, saved my life. A sailor on the deck of the repair ship Vestal spotted the men and threw a line across. Pearl Harbor attack, (December 7, 1941), surprise aerial attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu Island, Hawaii, by the Japanese that precipitated the entry of the United States into World War II. he met his contact and not long after, he was standing in for Orson Welles in a scene from the movie "The Stranger.". "Remember Pearl Harbor!" became a rallying cry for the U.S. during World War II. "I knew everything that was going on.". Finally, the tanker spotted the destroyer. He had taken a bullet to the back of his leg as he was climbing the tower, but the burns were far worse. Only 35 dead were . "She went to California and I followed her," Lonnie says. He doesn't like to talk about the attack. (See Pearl Harbor Attack.) It is dated Dec. 21, 1941. "I didn't have any speaking parts, but I was working for the studio and they paid me.". He returned after the war to his home along the railway in eastern Oklahoma. For some reason I had always thought that the titanic had gone down way farther North. Too many strategic decisions come down from Washington instead of from the commanders on the ground. The things I don't want to remember was the blood.". As Conter told it, the story wasn't about punching sharks, or skulking in the jungle or chasing shadows to the waiting rescue boat. He could see the planes were flying too low for his guns anyway, but before his crew could figure out their next move, an armor-piercing bomb detonated near the powder magazine beneath the No. Deer and rabbits wander the hillside. Before the war started, a hospital stay that long would have earned a sailor a discharge, but not anymore. Stratton's eyes brighten. Maybe next time. medge. Cook never got a chance to catch up with his buddy, but marveled at the connections he seemed to make from his short stint aboard the Arizona. All rights reserved. He was thrown into the ocean and waited 57 hours to be rescued while shipmates around him were eaten by sharks. Crustaceans. He gave Anderson the name of a contact there. His mother suggested Hills Business College in Oklahoma City. "Knock it off. "Sometimes, we'd come back, eat, then sleep on the beach.". The fellow told him to report to the front gate of Sam Goldwyn's studio in Hollywood on Monday morning. He likes to wear a cap that identifies him as a veteran of the Arizona. We left and never fired a shot at them.". The USS Arizona ballcap that almost every survivor owns and wears. Not long after he returned to Pearl Harbor near the end of the war, Anderson searched out some of the battle reports from Dec. 7, 1941. They stayed composed as their stories were told, stories of bravery, of quick thinking. He has told her about his escape from the Arizona. Bruner was one of them. Photographs. Ray Jr. seems surprised. Updated: Dec 8, 2021 / 05:46 AM CST. "We said we'd volunteer if they'd put two or three of us together on the same ship," he said. ", "You will go to the Arizona and you will take off all the bodies and body parts above the water line," the man said. "Talk about treating you like royalty," he says. "When I got back home, my doctors here wanted to know about my medical background," Bruner said. 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. . "The station wagon was for the captains of some of the ships that would come in," he said. The only question was how Langdell would send Libby word about his arrival from Pearl Harbor. He fought cold and hunger on a ship nearly dead in the ocean off Alaska. I couldn't.". Kitchen patrol. The Saratoga was attacked by six Japanese suicide bombers within about 24 hours. But he became restless. Haerry nods and like a good sailor taking orders from the chief, he pulls himself up with a walker and shuffles off to lunch. "He should have the Navy Cross," Stratton says. Seabirds. Whether they're a spiny dogfish all the way to great whites, sharks love eating fish. "I went and found the head guy and by the time I got through explaining things to him," Potts says, "my name was never on that list again.". The buddy wasn't home, but his son-in-law answered. Never would've found it.". He cleaned and painted day after day, but he also operated the motor boats used to ferry crew members to shore, a job that let him leave the ship periodically. Sentiment ran high against the Japanese, he said, but also against U.S. leaders whose decisions many questioned in the aftermath. They generally prefer the shallows in temperate, tropical regions, which is usually where divers and surfers come into contact with them and potentially become the victims of shark trauma. Bruner toured Nagasaki in a Jeep with other Navy officers and chief mates. He tries to abbreviate it: "We went to California and got married.". A sign over the arched door marks the room as "Captain's Quarters.". December 7, 1941: Pearl Harbor Casualties. Haerry would come home on those days with cigar boxes full of the coins. That didn't last long and he headed back to Morris, where he met Marietta. The Navy wanted to keep him in Idaho, working with new recruits at a boot camp, but he pushed for a seagoing assignment and wound up on the destroyer USS Stack as a gunner's mate. Or got fired. Afew weeks after the war started, sometime in early 1942, Potts opened a letter from his mother. Finally, the four U.S. destroyers were ordered to mount a torpedo run. "Well, I'd brushed enough paint on that damn ship, I figured I could do it," he says. Schenkelberg was no stranger to hardships . He returns his attention to the cranes and the catapults that flung the seaplanes into flight. "This went on for four straight hours. I think it was one of the proudest days of my father's life.". Knives. Potts was working aboard an oil tanker, making short runs out of the harbor to refuel ships anchored off the coast. At the time, sailors wore patches designating their rates, the enlisted expression of rank, on the right or left sleeve, depending on their assignment. In California, he earned his naval seaman's license and went to work on a drilling rig offshore near Santa Barbara. Posted on December 7, 2021, 5:08 pm. Though Conter turned around the first time he ventured toward the sunken Arizona, he has been back since, to see it with other survivors. "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. They catch up. They trade stories. Farther down the paneled wall hangs a painting of the USS Arizona, the battleship Navy recruit Potts boarded in December 1939. "I'm planning to marry your wife's sister, but I've got to have somebody take my place at work. Three days earlier, their 20-year-old son became the first Suffolk County casualty in World War II. 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. He tried to keep his thoughts on the work in the office. The river wound through dense vegetation, leaving 15 or 20 feet of clearance on each side of the plane. The report said most of the guys in the anti-aircraft batteries, where Jake fought, were shot down early in the assault. Another five minutes, Bruner figured, and they'd have run out of ammunition. "We made friends. Kuwait. Civilian Casualties. Some of 'em made it, some of 'em landed on the deck. '", "Some things," he says, "you don't know about what they'll mean until years later.". "Why do you like the hat, dad?" He had a ticket home to Minnesota, but decided to find a place to stay and come up with a plan. The shock of jumping into a harbor knowing he couldn't swim. When Anderson said he was, his old friend was incredulous. There's a little air bubble. "He'd always have to be prompted.". Bruner keeps mementos of his time on the Arizona in the sitting room. The paneled room behind the door in the living room of the Provo house is filled with trophies of almost any imaginable sort. They found a way to take prints from the edges of his fingers, enough to satisfy the law. He fought with other sailors in the Battle of Midway and watched the Marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima. "On the day I swore into the Air Force, I was still in my Navy uniform," he said. He and a buddy had been talking about their future in the Navy. Stratton logged thousands of miles of travel. Three years later, Ray Haerry Jr. holds the cross in his hand, fighting back tears. The job wasn't what he expected in September, when he was discharged from the Navy. "We lit into them, started firing on them," Bruner said. "We'd send two guys out to knock the icicles off the guns, then they'd high-tail it back in. For over an hour, in two waves, some 350 Japanese aircrafthaving taken off from six . The inscription reads "Spirit of Aloha Award, Timpview High School Marching Band.". Langdell was discharged at the war's end and returned to Massachusetts, where his wife, Libby, waited. Potts had not returned to Honolulu in the decades since he left for San Francisco in 1945. Hetrick was still just 21 by then, but a seasoned sailor who shared little in common with the 17-year-old kid who left high school and joined the Navy on his parents' signature. The planes took off and landed on the water; the pilots tied up to buoys near the ship. "Lou, let's go to flight school," Conter's buddy said one day. They are reminders of a moment in time he can never escape, a moment he sees again and again. "He wanted the east coast, I wanted the west coast. A tale of war and romance mixed in with history. In March, the crew turned back Japanese forces in the Battle of Komandorski. He wanted to part of it. He pushes his shirtsleeves up to show his arms. Aviators most often arose from left-arm rates. Almost imperceptibly, he sways. It was Sunday and some of the crewmen with liberty wanted an early start. There were: Cook and another crewman. In World War II, he fought at Guadalcanal, in the battle of the Coral Sea, at Okinawa and Iwo Jima. Using its sonar equipment, the ship fired depth charges and eventually sank the enemy submarine. Langdell is one of the last nine survivors from the Arizona. Soon, he became one of the earliest TV weathermen and an evening fixture in Roswell homes, or at least those with televisions. "So they knew.". Hetrick shrugs, trying to get comfortable in the recliner. Military Casualties. Pearl Harbor was a United States Naval base on the island of Oahu, located west of Honolulu. At 100, he is the oldest. Before the trip, Langdell hadn't talked much about his years in the war, about his time on the Arizona. Haerry accepts the chocolate bars his son has brought him. But he didn't want to start his civilian life in the brig, so he left it in Honolulu. Fires still burned on the broken USS Arizona the morning after the Japanese ambush. 9. . He likes chocolate and is disappointed if Ray Jr. forgets it. The marching band had been invited to fly to Pearl Harbor and perform at activities commemorating the 70thanniversary of the attack. His own battle station was beneath the gun turret shattered by the last bomb to hit the Arizona. When the fourth bomb detonated in the powder magazine, anyone left was blown over the side. The war's over.". Although he is 97, he decided he couldn't miss a final reunion this year and he bought his tickets early. McBride reached the last man, Raymond Haerry, a 20-year-old coxswain on the day of the assault. Hotline & WhatsApp : +971556212280 | Landline : +97143873596 , +97167499398 james reynolds obituary. Handout . To prepare for the trip, they were studying World War II history, attending lectures, writing research papers. 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. As he prepared for his new posting on the Frazier, Langdell decided to make a move. Three days since the war started. In the waters off Honolulu, he confronted his memories. The Coghlan supported Army landings and Navy bombing runs. The ship was to turn around and steam toward Alaska. "Hi," he said, introducing himself. Similarly, the . Amidst the rush to war following the attack, there was also the painstaking effort to recover those who had been sunk with ships like the USS Oklahoma and the USS Arizona. An electro-mechanical computer would aim the guns. He was in the studio on Valentine's Day 1955 when a nervous young man walked in. As they talked, Ray mentioned that his dad had been aboard the Arizona. Whale Shark (Rhincodon typus) The whale shark is the largest shark species, and also the biggest fish species in the world. This list and the accompanying graphics do not include encounters in which a shark does not actually bite a person or board (e.g. "I wasn't going out there. He remembers all the details and most of what happened later. "Sometimes they'd get shooting at you and you'd look at the shells and they looked like they were going to hit you. On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. He finished his training and was discharged in December 1945. No sharks did not eat Titanic passengers. CARNIVOROUS SHARKS. Nobody could debate what that was, no question about it.". "I'd do it a hundred times more," he says. They bought a small ranch and, while Lonnie continued to work welding jobs, they grew walnuts, almonds, peaches, apples, nectarines, cherries and grapes. He was smart enough to excel, but started cutting classes not long after the start of his first semester. "It's where the war started.". He points out the cranes and the locations along the ship where he would tie up the motor boats he piloted to fetch supplies and ferry sailors to and from shore. 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. alain picard wife / ap calculus bc multiple choice / did sharks eat pearl harbor victims. 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. 4. The bomb that shattered the Arizona's bow exploded as Cook and the others climbed out of the turret. The attack was devastating for the Americans, though the Japanese . The Coghlan approached the Aleutians in October, as winter was pushing fall aside. Their backs are gray, blue, or brown in color and covered with regularly arranged light spots. A few years later, a new station owner showed Anderson his plans to start a TV station. Haerry says he wants lunch delivered to his room, but the nurse says no. "It's always been my fear that people are going to forget that day, that people are going to forget the sacrifice that was made that day.". The band members had decided they wanted to honor survivors from that day. You don't fire guns in port, so I ran out real quick to see what was happening. "We'd patrol at night. He owns a chunk of the ship's burned deck, a reminder he keeps in a box with a few other items. On the 70thanniversary of the attack, the men had been brought to the state capitol to receive new honors. When they said, 'grab your sea bags and let's go,' I did.". "It hadn't really sunk in what had happened.". A month after the Coral Sea battle, Cook's ship was part of the American forces in the critical Battle of Midway. When he first arrived at Pearl Harbor, Hetrick wasn't even old enough to buy a beer until he found a place where they didn't ask questions if a guy was in a service uniform.