Front an interview on Story Corps. This organization goes around the US allowing people the opportunity to have a recording made of them talking about their history. The importance of this effort is nowhere more important and obvious than in this instance where a Pearl Harbor survivor gave his story and less than a month later, was dead.
We've got to get these stories down as soon as possible before they're lost forever.
Frank Curre was just out of high school and couldn't find a job anywhere because of the Depression. He decided to join the Navy, but at age 17 was too young. He told his mother that if she didn't sign the paper to allow him to join that he would go downtown and get a hobo to sign. She signed.
He went on board the USS Tennessee in August and headed for Pearl Harbor, "I never even heard of it."
On the day of the attack, he was in the mess cooking when he heard an explosion, then an instant later, another one.
"When I got up topside I saw the first God-awful sight I witnessed that day. That's when the bomb came down and hit the USS Arizona. That ship come 12 to 15 foot up into the air, broke in two and settled back down. If you had a bag of popcorn and you'd went out here in a breeze and threw it up in the air, that was bodies that went all over that harbor."
More to Come.
No comments:
Post a Comment