Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Pearl Harbor Survivor Recalls That Day

Richard Nisson, 92, of Plymouth, Massachusetts, will attend a Pearl Harbor Remembrance ceremony at Yarmouth town hall Dec. 2nd. He currently is in a hospice with cancer.

On Dec. 7th, he was an ensign on the seaplane tender USS Curtiss which had just arrived in Pearl Harbor two days earlier. That morning, he was climbing a ladder when he heard the planes and was wondering why the air force was practicing so early on a Sunday morning.

Once topside, he saw a plane banking with a "big red meatball" on its wings and saw smoke billowing from Battleship Row.

A Japanese minisub fired a torpedo at the Curtiss, but missed, but a Japanese dive bomber crashed into one of the ship's cranes.

The November 24th Plymouth Patriot Ledger showed a picture of the USS Curtiss at Pearl harbor with smoke billowing up from it.. Wikipedia says that the ship was hit and 19 died. Repairs were completed in four days.

The Pensacola Naval Aviation Museum will honor Pearl Harbor survivors Dec. 7th.

The Greatest Generation. Cooter

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