Garlen Eslick Died ""...With the Deck Above Your Head"

From the Amarillo (Tx) Globe News.

USS Oklahoma survivor Garlen Eslick died at age 87 on Feb. 8, 2010.  He was in the ship's galley at age 19 and slicing a salad when the attack came and was one of 32 survivors who were trapped in the Oklahoma's hull for 28 hours before rescue.

He was awarded a Purple Heart for injuries he received in the ordeal and later served on the USS Saratoga and USS Hancock.

After the war, he served as president of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, Chapter 5 in Corpus Christi, Texas.

On the USS Oklahoma website he remembered:  We knew the ship was trying to turn turtle.  The only thing we were thinking of was to get this boy through the hatch and topside.  Nothing was ever said about abandon ship.

We didn't even have time to dog the hatches down to maintain water tight integrity.  That was one of my duties, to dog the hatches down, and we were taking all those hits, and then the ship rolled and you couldn't have closed the hatch then if you wanted to...the hatch was too heavy because it was upside down.

There were bodies in the water, debris and you were standing on the ceiling on pipes, with the deck above your head."

That Had to Be One Really Frightening Experience.  --GreGen