USS Enterprise (CV-6) The flight deck of USS Enterprise (CV-6) echoed with the command over the loudspeaker from the bridge: “Pilots! Man your planes!” Thirty-one year old Lieutenant Richard H. “Dick” Best Jr., operations officer of Bombing-Six, watched from near the ship’s island as the crews of the twelve Douglas SBD-3 Dauntlesses of Scouting-Six and five SBD-2s of Bombing-Six climbed aboard their airplanes and wished he was one of the Bombing-Six crews who would be the first of the squadron to arrive home at NAS Ford Island, since he was eager to go on leave with his wife and four-year old daughter who were waiting for him in Honolulu. He glanced up and saw Vice Admiral William F. Halsey Jr. - universally known in the Navy as “Bull,” though no one ever used that to his face - watching the preparations for takeoff from the admiral’s bridge as commander of Carrier Division Two. Best could see the four heavy cruisers of Cruiser Division 5 led by Rear Admiral Raymond A. Spruance aboard his flagship USS Northampton (CA-26) and six destroyers that constituted Task Force 16 as grey shapes on the horizon.
In January 2018 we went to Oahu for a winter/warm weather getaway. We stayed on the north shore and were taken in by the great surfers on the pipeline, and the fresh picked pineapple. The day before leaving we got a hotel in Waikiki and went to visit Pearl Harbor. I was humbled as we walked around. We wanted to go there but were unprepared for the emotion it brought out. The next morning we were getting ready to go to the airport to fly back to Portland. I was brushing my teeth when my husband put his phone in front of my face... it said.. INCOMING BALLISTIC MISSILE. THIS IS NOT A DRILL TAKE COVER. I thought he was kidding and picked up my phone.. same thing. Turned on the television., the local station was giving instructions on taking cover. Stay away from windows. I decided to stand in the window. Looking out there were people scrambling and although I didn’t see it apparently some were putting there children down manholes. 45 minutes later we got a message that it was a false alarm and disregard missile alert. Although I was relieved, all I could think of was I had some time to prepare for whatever , but our sailors on Pearl Harbor didn’t. I felt a connection there that I can’t explain
My husband was a Navy airman. One of our tours of duty was Barbers Point, Hi. While we were there they made the movie Tora Tora Tora. They used Ford Island and the Barbers Point air field. We saw a lot of jeeps and trucks reconfigured to look like the 1940's. They also repainted planes to make them look like the Japanese attack planes. At the end of the day they would fly over our housing area before landing. That site of Japanese planes going over just gave me goosebumps! I felt a flashback and a little bit of fear even though I knew it was movie making. Thank you TC for relaying all of the detailed history and making it personal and real.
One correction…the SBDs used Wright Cyclone R-1820 engines, the F4Fs used Pratt&Whitney R-1830s. Plus I think the photo of the PBY being pulled ashore was taken at Kaneohe NAS. That’s the Koolau Mountains in the background.
“I knew my plans had changed.” I bet this is what my mother Dorothy thought on the morning of Dec. 7 1941. She was sailing home from Hawaii aboard the SS Lurline when, a few hundred miles from San Francisco, the captain announced the attack on Pearl Harbor. This was shortly after also receiving an SOS from a nearby freighter that it was being shelled by a submarine. The Lurline then began zig-zagging at high speed the remainder of the trip.
About a week earlier in Honolulu she had met her boyfriend Vic, an ensign aboard the Enterprise. He had proposed to her, and they planned to marry in the spring of 1942 when he expected to get leave. Dorothy had expected to see more of Vic on this trip, but on Nov. 28 he disappeared. She contacted the Navy but of course they gave her no information. Dorothy did not see Vic again for 14 months, when he returned to San Diego on his way to flight training. They immediately married and took off across country for Dallas.
I visited Hawai’i for the first time in 2008 (celebrating our 25th anniversary). We spent 10 days on Kauai, and at my insistence spent 4 days on Oahu. We toured the USS Arizona and the USS Missouri plus some museums. It was somber and impressive. The wall acknowledging eventual internments of USS Arizona survivors with their shipmates was profound.
My Dad was USAAC in WWII. He maintained that the US Navy/Marine Corps had been the difference in the Pacific, and without them, we’d have lost WWII. He was an amateur historian himself, and would have loved your writing.
My husband and I lived on Oahu for 13 years. December 7 was always a day of remembrance and reflection. A visit to the Arizona memorial was a sober and emotional experience, seeing the hulk of the battleship lying on the floor of Pearl Harbor, imagining all the men entombed therein and seeing their names enscribed on a wall of the memorial. On a subsequent visit to Pearl Harbor, we had my husband's father and mother (both French) in tow and one of the Enterprise's descendents was tied up, with a good part of it's aviation hardware on the flight deck. Papa (himself a veteran of the WW2 European theater) looked up at flight deck looming above us and muttered in admiration, "This is what won the war!"
My father-in-law remembered that day well, and never got over the cost to his family. My mother-in-law’s family suffered grievous losses in Europe, but she forgave everybody, everything, all her life. Thank you for this. Your history lessons are factual, emotional and unforgettable
My uncle, who was in the Coast Guard during the war & my aunt, who was a WAC, made a trip to Pearl Harbor & the Arizona - saw the pictures & they were very emotional about the visit. I was only 3 years old in 1941, so dont have too many memories of that time, other than a few years after, several uncles & aunts were in the service - all but one came home.
In January 2018 we went to Oahu for a winter/warm weather getaway. We stayed on the north shore and were taken in by the great surfers on the pipeline, and the fresh picked pineapple. The day before leaving we got a hotel in Waikiki and went to visit Pearl Harbor. I was humbled as we walked around. We wanted to go there but were unprepared for the emotion it brought out. The next morning we were getting ready to go to the airport to fly back to Portland. I was brushing my teeth when my husband put his phone in front of my face... it said.. INCOMING BALLISTIC MISSILE. THIS IS NOT A DRILL TAKE COVER. I thought he was kidding and picked up my phone.. same thing. Turned on the television., the local station was giving instructions on taking cover. Stay away from windows. I decided to stand in the window. Looking out there were people scrambling and although I didn’t see it apparently some were putting there children down manholes. 45 minutes later we got a message that it was a false alarm and disregard missile alert. Although I was relieved, all I could think of was I had some time to prepare for whatever , but our sailors on Pearl Harbor didn’t. I felt a connection there that I can’t explain
Of course you did - you shared the same emotions.
Well said, TC.
My husband was a Navy airman. One of our tours of duty was Barbers Point, Hi. While we were there they made the movie Tora Tora Tora. They used Ford Island and the Barbers Point air field. We saw a lot of jeeps and trucks reconfigured to look like the 1940's. They also repainted planes to make them look like the Japanese attack planes. At the end of the day they would fly over our housing area before landing. That site of Japanese planes going over just gave me goosebumps! I felt a flashback and a little bit of fear even though I knew it was movie making. Thank you TC for relaying all of the detailed history and making it personal and real.
as far as I can make out, nobody does this as well as you do, Tom.
One correction…the SBDs used Wright Cyclone R-1820 engines, the F4Fs used Pratt&Whitney R-1830s. Plus I think the photo of the PBY being pulled ashore was taken at Kaneohe NAS. That’s the Koolau Mountains in the background.
I bow to the gentleman from Hawaii. :-)
“I knew my plans had changed.” I bet this is what my mother Dorothy thought on the morning of Dec. 7 1941. She was sailing home from Hawaii aboard the SS Lurline when, a few hundred miles from San Francisco, the captain announced the attack on Pearl Harbor. This was shortly after also receiving an SOS from a nearby freighter that it was being shelled by a submarine. The Lurline then began zig-zagging at high speed the remainder of the trip.
About a week earlier in Honolulu she had met her boyfriend Vic, an ensign aboard the Enterprise. He had proposed to her, and they planned to marry in the spring of 1942 when he expected to get leave. Dorothy had expected to see more of Vic on this trip, but on Nov. 28 he disappeared. She contacted the Navy but of course they gave her no information. Dorothy did not see Vic again for 14 months, when he returned to San Diego on his way to flight training. They immediately married and took off across country for Dallas.
I never realized the Enterprise was so close to the action that day.
Incredible. Thank you.
I visited Hawai’i for the first time in 2008 (celebrating our 25th anniversary). We spent 10 days on Kauai, and at my insistence spent 4 days on Oahu. We toured the USS Arizona and the USS Missouri plus some museums. It was somber and impressive. The wall acknowledging eventual internments of USS Arizona survivors with their shipmates was profound.
My Dad was USAAC in WWII. He maintained that the US Navy/Marine Corps had been the difference in the Pacific, and without them, we’d have lost WWII. He was an amateur historian himself, and would have loved your writing.
https://deepseamusic.bandcamp.com/track/bugle-calls-boots-saddles
My husband and I lived on Oahu for 13 years. December 7 was always a day of remembrance and reflection. A visit to the Arizona memorial was a sober and emotional experience, seeing the hulk of the battleship lying on the floor of Pearl Harbor, imagining all the men entombed therein and seeing their names enscribed on a wall of the memorial. On a subsequent visit to Pearl Harbor, we had my husband's father and mother (both French) in tow and one of the Enterprise's descendents was tied up, with a good part of it's aviation hardware on the flight deck. Papa (himself a veteran of the WW2 European theater) looked up at flight deck looming above us and muttered in admiration, "This is what won the war!"
My father-in-law remembered that day well, and never got over the cost to his family. My mother-in-law’s family suffered grievous losses in Europe, but she forgave everybody, everything, all her life. Thank you for this. Your history lessons are factual, emotional and unforgettable
My uncle, who was in the Coast Guard during the war & my aunt, who was a WAC, made a trip to Pearl Harbor & the Arizona - saw the pictures & they were very emotional about the visit. I was only 3 years old in 1941, so dont have too many memories of that time, other than a few years after, several uncles & aunts were in the service - all but one came home.