Continued from Jan. 5th.
"When there was a lull in the bombing, a truck came along with a sound system announcing it was taking all sailors aboard. The Utah sailors went to the USS Vestal."
Once there, he James Clark was dispatched to the infirmary. "The officer looked at me and asked if I was alright. I said I was and he said 'Okay, get cleaned up.' I had oil on my face."
At the infirmary, Clark said "they were breaking out the machine guns. They asked me if I knew anything about them and when I said I did, they put me to work..
"We had two assembly lines going. We put the guns together and carried them out and put them on trucks to use for defense purposes."
For the first time in his story, Clark paused, his face reddening and his voice breaking. "Oh boy" he said, "this gets touchy for me. When we were setting up the guns there were civilians there\---Japanese and all\---asking , 'What can I do? What can I do?'" These were Japanese civilians.
Clark said he had bitterness toward the Japanese for many years, but he is now touched by the fact that those on Pearl Harbor that day were eager to arm themselves and fight against their own countrymen.
"That struck me\--the way they wanted to fight back. But we all wanted to do something. We wanted to get at 'em."
You usually don't get this much information from a newspaper account of a Pearl Harbor survivor, so I am writing it verbatim from the story which appeared in the Dec. 6, 2008, Marshall, Texas News Messenger.
More to Come. --Cooter
Showing posts with label James W. Clark. Show all posts
Showing posts with label James W. Clark. Show all posts
Monday, January 25, 2010
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Marshall, Texas, Pearl Harbor Survivor-- Part 3: Clark Sees a Mini Sub-- Part 3
Now, this next part gets very interesting in light of tonight's Nova program discussed in an earlier entry today.
Clark saw a Japanese mini submarine and that must have been the one that was found.
From the bathhouse where we last left our erstwhile survivor, James W. Clark recalled seeing "a two-man Japanese submarine close by and coming into the harbor. It released a torpedo at one of our ships which was anchored in the harbor. I was expecting a big explosion but the torpedo barely missed the ship and went up and hit the beach.
"One of our destroyers was coming out of the harbor and ran over the sub. Just as it cleared the sub, it dropped two depth charges. There were two big water spouts and I never saw any more of the sub."
Perhaps this was the last anybody has ever seen of that submarine until tonight's show?
A Nice Tie-In to the TV Show. --DaCoot
Clark saw a Japanese mini submarine and that must have been the one that was found.
From the bathhouse where we last left our erstwhile survivor, James W. Clark recalled seeing "a two-man Japanese submarine close by and coming into the harbor. It released a torpedo at one of our ships which was anchored in the harbor. I was expecting a big explosion but the torpedo barely missed the ship and went up and hit the beach.
"One of our destroyers was coming out of the harbor and ran over the sub. Just as it cleared the sub, it dropped two depth charges. There were two big water spouts and I never saw any more of the sub."
Perhaps this was the last anybody has ever seen of that submarine until tonight's show?
A Nice Tie-In to the TV Show. --DaCoot
Marshall, Texas, Pearl Harbor Survivor-- Part 2
Continuing with yesterday's story by James W. Clark from December 6, 2008.
"I had one stairway to get up to the main deck. The sailors in the stairway weren't moving. I was concerned that something bad was going to happen, and shortly, someone began yelling to clear the stairway. I got up to the main deck and figured I had about 70 feet to go to be in the open.
"I started running to get out in the open, but the gangway equipment was breaking loose from the side of the ship. I had to jump up and grab a beam so it could fall under my feet.
"Then the water pushed me up under the overhead. I estimated I had between 20 to 25 feet to swim (underwater) to get in the clear. I swam and I swam. I just kept swimming until I couldn't hold my breath anymore.
"When I came up, I was in the clear, but I had black crude oil in my eyes and on my face. It's hard to wipe crude out of your eyes with saltwater.
"A liberty boat had just returned from the beach and they started picking up sailors who were in the water. I got in the boat, and I was put on the beach.
"There was a big ditch there and they told us to get in it. I did, but I realized that, if an enemy plane saw all those sailors, it would be easy strafing. There was a bathhouse close by/-near the channel which came into Pearl Harbor/ and we got in it."
"I had one stairway to get up to the main deck. The sailors in the stairway weren't moving. I was concerned that something bad was going to happen, and shortly, someone began yelling to clear the stairway. I got up to the main deck and figured I had about 70 feet to go to be in the open.
"I started running to get out in the open, but the gangway equipment was breaking loose from the side of the ship. I had to jump up and grab a beam so it could fall under my feet.
"Then the water pushed me up under the overhead. I estimated I had between 20 to 25 feet to swim (underwater) to get in the clear. I swam and I swam. I just kept swimming until I couldn't hold my breath anymore.
"When I came up, I was in the clear, but I had black crude oil in my eyes and on my face. It's hard to wipe crude out of your eyes with saltwater.
"A liberty boat had just returned from the beach and they started picking up sailors who were in the water. I got in the boat, and I was put on the beach.
"There was a big ditch there and they told us to get in it. I did, but I realized that, if an enemy plane saw all those sailors, it would be easy strafing. There was a bathhouse close by/-near the channel which came into Pearl Harbor/ and we got in it."
Monday, January 4, 2010
Marshall, Texas, Pearl Harbor Survivor-- Part 1
December 6, 2008 Marshall (Tx) News Messenger.
James W. Clark joined the Navy out of high school in 1937 to see the world. He trained in San Diego and was assigned to the USS Utah which had served in the Atlantic in World War I and had been extensively modernized in 1925 before being converted into a radio-controlled target ship in 1931. It later became an anti-aircraft training ship.
In May 1940, the US Pacific fleet was transferred to Pearl Harbor. On December 7, 1941, the USS Utah was on the west side of Ford Island with the light cruisers Raleigh and Detroit. "About 8 o'clock I was looking out a porthole on the starboard side of the ship to see what the weather was like. I was on the baseball team and we were going to play that day."
"I saw a plane coming toward us. I knew it was Japanese because I saw the insignia on the wing. So I yelled to my shipmates and they all rushed over so they could see it."
"Just then an aerial bomb hit the port side of the Utah and a second or so later, we received another hit. About that time, my gunnery officer came by and got me and another sailor to go down below deck with him to check out the water tight doors.
"There was a river of water coming down the port passageway and the ship began to list 35 degrees to port. So my officer said, 'We'd better get out of here."
To Be Continued. --Cooter
James W. Clark joined the Navy out of high school in 1937 to see the world. He trained in San Diego and was assigned to the USS Utah which had served in the Atlantic in World War I and had been extensively modernized in 1925 before being converted into a radio-controlled target ship in 1931. It later became an anti-aircraft training ship.
In May 1940, the US Pacific fleet was transferred to Pearl Harbor. On December 7, 1941, the USS Utah was on the west side of Ford Island with the light cruisers Raleigh and Detroit. "About 8 o'clock I was looking out a porthole on the starboard side of the ship to see what the weather was like. I was on the baseball team and we were going to play that day."
"I saw a plane coming toward us. I knew it was Japanese because I saw the insignia on the wing. So I yelled to my shipmates and they all rushed over so they could see it."
"Just then an aerial bomb hit the port side of the Utah and a second or so later, we received another hit. About that time, my gunnery officer came by and got me and another sailor to go down below deck with him to check out the water tight doors.
"There was a river of water coming down the port passageway and the ship began to list 35 degrees to port. So my officer said, 'We'd better get out of here."
To Be Continued. --Cooter
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