The State of New Jersey's Pearl Harbor Survivors

From the December 10th New Jersey Star-Ledger by Bob Consadine.

Thomas Mahoney of Union and Ralph Jeffers of Ocean Township are two of the living ten memebrs of the now-defunct N.J. Pearl Harbor Survivors Association.  Both were on the USS Curtiss that fateful day and spoke at the 70th commemoration of the attack at Brookdale Community College on Dec. 10th.

Sadly, all three New Jersey chapters of the PHSA have disbanded.

Jeffers was an aviation machinist enjoying breakfast on the ship at 7:55 AM when he heard a loud explosion.  He looked out the porthole on the starboard sideand saw the target ship USS Utah turn over after being hit by a torpedo.  There was a rush to battle stations and he remembers having to wait in line to get up the ladder.

The USS Curtiss, a seaplane tender, was spared from damage the first hour and loaded with a thousand gallons of aviation fuel as well as bombs, shells and torpedoes.  At 9:05, a damaged Japanese plane crashed into the No. 1 crane on the starboard side.

Seven minutes later, a 500 pound bomb passed through the carpentry, radio and repair shops and into a hangar and exploded.  Most of the Curtiss' twenty casualties came from that.  He and two others were firing from under the protection of another crane.  The ship only had a skeleton crew on board at the time as many weer off ship seeing families.

Sad to Be Losing These Heroes.  --GreGen