From the December 4, 2011, Toledo (Ohio) Blade "Day of Infamy vivid for those at Pearl Harbor" by Jennifer Feehan.
Charles Kessinger, 93, of West Toledo, was on the battleship USS Pennsylvania in Pearl Harbor that morning and thinking of nothing except the baseball championship game to be played later on December 7, 1941. He was the team's centerfielder and they were slated to play the team from the USS Oklahoma.
Of course, that game was never played.
He is one of northwest Ohio's last Pearl Harbor survivors.
A 500 pound Japanese bomb hit the Oklahoma, in dry dock, killing 25. However, he said he was on the other side of the ship and didn't feel or hear it. Ordered to report to battle stations, he continued, "On my way to my battle station, I stepped over a dead sailor. That's something I'll never forget in my life." It is kind of hard to believe he didn't hear or feel the explosion, probably because of all the other explosions going on all over the harbor I suppose.
He married Ruth, who he met on shore leave in 1943.
Four Navy veterans and Pearl Harbor survivors will be honored Dec. 7th: Jim Gilbert of Toledo, John Fox of Sylvania, Tom Child of Findlay and Kessinger. Only John Fox and Kessinger attended the event as the other two were not up to it, healthwise.
The national Pearl Harbor Survivors Association will be disbanding after this year. Founded in 1958, it once had 29,000 members, but as of September, the number was down to just 2,708.
Sad to See the Greatest Generation Passing Away. --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.
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