USS San Francisco Pearl Harbor Survivor

From the Dec. 5, 2012, Lomorinda Weekely "Pearl Harbor Survivor Left His Heart on the USS San Francisco" by Cathy  Dansman.

Richard "Johnny" Johnson turns 90 this tomorrow.  You'd never know it to look at him.  He was just 17 when he joined the Navy with his mother's permission after dropping out of high school.  That date was Dec. 6, 1940.  He said he joined, as the Navy promised "Join the Navy.  See the World."

On April 1941, Seaman Thrid Class Johnson boarded the USS San Francisco at Pearl Harbor and worked in its galley the entire time of his enlistment.  He said Honolulu was so ctowded with young sailors, as the nation prepared for war, that they would have to walk in the street when on leave.

The San Francisco was supposed to be in dry dock that December day, but wasn't because it was being painted.  Half the food and ammunition had been unloaded.

On December 7th that morning, he was on the fantail of the ship drinking coffee and thinking about his planned day on Waikiki Beach when he saw planes approaching.  Not knowing they were enemy planes, he remembers waving at them until the bombs and torpedoes started dropping.  Fortunately for him, the San Francisco was not attacked.

Just One More Story of the Day of Infamy.  --GreGen