From the Dec. 5th Denver Post by AP.
Clarence Pfundheller was on the USS Maryland Dec. 7, 1941, and in front of his locker when a fellow sailor yelled that Japanese planes were bombing. At first they didn't know whether to believe him, "We never did call him a liar but he could stretch the truth pretty good. But once you seen him, you knew he wasn't lying.
Mr. Pfundheller was 21 and manned a 5-inch antiaircraft gun and tried shooting at the low-flying planes. They had problems with all the thick black smoke, "This was the worst thing about it--yeah, your eyes--it bothered your throat too, because there was so much black smoke rolling around that a lot of times you could barely see."
He is now 91 and will be in Pearl Harbor for the 70th anniversary. He enlisted in the Navy in 1939.
The ammunition for the 5-inch gun was locked away. After they got it open, they fired the 3-foot long, 75 pound shells, but the enemy planes were too close to aim, "You could see them pumping their fists and laughing at you."
The crew of the Maryland scrambled when the USS Oklahoma, berthed next to it, capsized. "We had to cut the lines tied up to us because it was pulling us away."
He came back to Iowa after the war.
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