From the CBS "Stories from Main Street: Union's Tom Mahoney Among NJ's Last Pearl Harbor Survivors."
Mr. Mahoney said that he "looked out the porthole, put my head out. About fifteen feet from the ship, [there] was this plane coming around out of a turn and he had a huge torpedo underneath him, and he dropped that torpedo into the old Utah. I turned around in the mess hall and I yelled loud and clear 'Go to your battlestations!'"
He was from Union, New Jersey, and, at age 19, was an electrician on the USS Curtiss, which took a direct hit.
Four decks were on fire. The ship was a hell of a mess. We're fighting the fires, being strafed by planes constantly." He ended up manning a hose for eight and a half hours.
Getting the Stories before They're Gone. --GreGen
The USS North Carolina (BB-55) My all-time favorite warship. As an elementary school student in North Carolina, I donated nickels and dimes to save this ship back in the early sixties.
No comments:
Post a Comment