Attack on America 9/11/2001
McHi Grad Recalls Attack on America in 1941
Written by John Noyce Millner, Class of 1938
Attack on America 9/11/2001
When TV news on September 11, 2001 showed airplanes flying into skyscrapers it brought into recall a scene of devastation which I witnessed on December 7, 1941 at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
U.S.S.
Detroit Photo Taken Before Attack
I was at my usual work station, the radio transmitter room of the USS Detroit, berthed at pier F-13 on the west side of Ford Island. Upon hearing explosions we viewed through portholes Japanese planes flying 15 feet above the water releasing torpedos.. The first torpedo traveled beneath the fantail of the Detroit and lodged unexploded in the mud of Ford Island. The next struck the USS Raleigh, just aft of us, which listed to port and sank but did not capsize. The next two struck the battleship USS Utah. which immediately listed to port and capsized. All of the above torpedo releases took place in less than two minutes and general quarters sounded soon thereafter.
Rigging for battle required all portholes to be closed and their steel guard plates firmly secured. This ended our ability to view any thing outside of the ship. For the next two and one half hours we heard loud explosions and felt strong vibrations. Taken with what we had seen during the first two minutes, this noise and shaking made all of us nervously apprehensive.
We were later able to connect the first of two loud explosions to the ammunition magazine on the USS Arizona which had exploded when hit by aerial bombs and the second to a salvo of aerial bombs which had missed the Detroit by only 8 feet exploding and covering the entire bow of the ship with a layer of muddy water.
We also found that this same high altitude bombing run by the Japanese had dropped three bombs on the already sunken Raleigh, two missing but one going through her fantail barely missing the aviation gasoline storage tank.
Photograph of the western side of Ford
Island and ships in moorings offshore, taken from a Japanese Navy plane
during the attack. Ships are (from left to right): USS Detroit (CL-8);
USS Raleigh (CL-7), listing to port after being hit by one torpedo; USS
Utah (AG-16), capsized after being hit by two torpedoes; and USS Tangier
(AV-8).
Our tensions were somewhat relieved when we were called upon to do what we were there for: to set up and adjust the various radio transmitters to frequencies called for by radio central. Since there were more communications circuits being manned than transmitters available we were constantly required to shift frequencies back and forth as needed. I should point out that shifting frequencies was considerably more involved than just turning a dial to a certain number.
When the attack was over the Detroit got under way about 12:30 pm along with the USS St. Louis and a small group of destroyers with orders to proceed north and search for the enemy. After a three day unsuccessful effort the group returned to Pearl Harbor. What we saw was disheartening. Eighteen ships were sunk or capsized. Aircraft on the parking strip were burned. The hangars were destroyed. Many other ships were in various stages of damage. The surface of the harbor was covered with black oil, debris and floating bodies.
The Detroit left almost immediately to escort the
commercial liners Coolidge and Scott which were transporting military
wives children and some wounded to San Francisco.
In following days all damaged ships other than the Utah
and Arizona were salvaged. Debris, oil and bodies were quickly
removed. On the Detroit only one man was slightly wounded by a piece of
shrapnel.