Anti-aircraft duty

George William Ondrick

“As soon as I finished breakfast. I got my razor out to shave so I could go ashore. For some reason or other I put my shaving gear away and went up topside,” Ondrick said. “I saw this plane fly over by Ford Island. It was so low that you could see the pilot’s teeth as he was grinning.”

Ondrick continued, “I turned to my left, and I could see a cloud of black smoke billowing from the USS California.” General quarters was then sounded, he said. “I went to my battle station, which was the 16-inch guns. A short while later they called for volunteers to take primers out to the anti-aircraft guns. I volunteered for this, and again at about 10 a.m. I helped load anti-aircraft shells into a small boat to send over to the California as her magazines were underwater.”

‘Most hair-raising’

James Francis Hughes

“A pharmacist’s mate third class at the time, I had slept late that morning and was just about to turn on the water in the shower when a chief pharmacist’s mate came running into the sick bay stating over and over, ‘We’re being attacked. We’re being attacked.’”

Hughes continued, “I got out of the shower and stuck my head through a porthole to see what was going on. I then grabbed my clothes and ran to my battle station. Survivors from the USS Oklahoma were brought aboard and sent below through my station.”

After the attack, Hughes said, “I was assigned to the task of handling the remains of a victim trapped in the forward hold of the USS Maryland.”

Temporary patches were placed over the damage. On the following Sunday, Dec. 14, a sufficient amount of water had been pumped out, making possible the recovery of remains.

“It was early morning when this recovery was made, and the transfer to the burial detail was made during darkness. This trip in the harbor, via motorboat, was most hair-raising. Each ship we passed called out the challenge and got the reply that got us through safely,” Hughes said.

“One sentry with a nervous finger could have started the entire fleet firing at us. It was dawn when we returned to the Maryland.”

Black from oily smoke

Dwight Leon Orman

“I recall how the ship’s captain was in pajamas, robe and slippers, and how our admiral came aboard at about 0930 dressed in his white Palm Beach suit, white straw hat and white shoes — and how black we were from the oily smoke.”