3 decks below

Bruce E. Pereyda

“I was aboard the Utah at the time of the attack.

“My ship was hit right away and started to list. By the time I got from three decks below to top side, she was almost 90 degrees over her side. The ship just rolled over on me.

“I came to the surface, and the water was covered with oil. I was picked up out in the middle of the channel by a motor whale boat and taken to Ford Island.”

Slide down the side

W.W. Lewis

“After mid watch in Stbd Eng Rm. with Hilton Elrod (Pork Chop), I went to my sleeping Qtrs (Blue Heaven) about 5 a.m. Dec. 7, 1941, was awakened at 7:55 a.m. by three successive explosions, and I think two more hit before I got topside and slid down the side of the ship into the water. I got into a whale boat and helped some others, who were injured, into the boat, including Mr. Isquith (Chief Engineer), when the boat got full I jumped out to make room for more injured, and swam to Ford Island where I got into a deep ditch which was there for reasons unknown to me, where I stayed until after the main raid was over, then to the officers Qtrs for dry clothes and on to an ammunition party till about 11 p.m. then, I think aboard the Raleigh where some of us spent the nite in the mess hall and a stray machine gun bullet came thru the hull and hit the man next to me in the arm and a man behind him direct in the heart.”

Dungarees, cigarettes and go

Cecil W. Camp

“On the morning of December 7, 1941, I had relieved the watch in the Port engine room. I had been on watch about 20 minutes when the first torpedo hit the ship on the port side. It was about 5 or 8 minutes before I could hear someone hollering that the (Japanese) were attacking us. I ran up the ladder to the third deck. On the port side was our sleeping quarters, and water was already washing over my bunk. I went to the starboard side of the ship, went up to the second deck to our locker room and mess hall. There were several other men there. One asked if he should take his Dress Blue Uniform with him, I told him he wouldn’t be needing that for a good while. I grabbed an extra pair of dungarees, a carton of cigarettes and went on top side. A friend and I sat down on the side of the ship and slid into the water. We swam to Ford Island where we were picked up for a working party. They took us to the USS California to unload ammunition. That evening we were taken to the ammunition ship that was tied up at the docks in the shipyard. We spent the night there.”