From the Dec. 6, 2008, News Messenger.
Gunner's Mate 2nd Class James Clark was on "gun watch" on the USS Vestal.
"At 9 I was wearing headphones and word came down that unidentified planes were approaching. Later they said they were friendly planes and repeated, 'Do not fire, do not fire, do not fire'
"But there were some with machine guns in the tower of the USS California and they started firing at this plane.
"Tracer bullets were hitting the water by the plane and ricocheted right over my head. I told my buddy we'd better hit the deck.
"They shot down our search plane," Clark said of the sailors aboard the California. "They call that friendly fire, but it killed the pilot. Everybody was jittery that night.
He didn't leave Pearl Harbor after the attack. "I stayed and worked on the salvage. We were involved in taking fire control equipment and guns off the sunken ships."
In March 1942, he was transferred to Naval Proving Grounds in Dahlgren, Virginia, where he served in the Navy's land-based gunnery school. There, he was involved in testing 20 and 40 millimeter guns to improve their accuracy.
Another Pearl Harbor Story. --Cooter
1 comment:
I wish todays Republican Tea Partiers had listend to Margaret. Oh waited a minute. She was what Rush calls a Rhino. Of almost extinct now i.e. moderates.
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