From the Dec. 7, 2013, Tampa (Fla) Tribune "Pearl Harbor memories don't fade away" by Howard Altman.
WERNER KLEMM was an 18-year-old from New Jersey and had big plans for his Sunday day off. He was going to meet a friend on the USS California who had just arrived at Pearl Harbor and they were going to the Pali Trail on Oahu. They didn't get there that day.
Morning colors had just been presented and his ship, the USS Dobbin, a destroyer tender, was just a couple hundred yards away from Battleship Row.
Mr. Klemm is now 90 and living at Port Richey, Florida.
He saw planes but thought it to be a mock air raid even after seeing an explosion by North Island. He just didn't think anything of it. When he saw the two big red circles under the planes, he knew. This was for real. This was war.
The Dobbin's alarm went off, but there was no confusion as the men went to their battle stations.
More to Come. --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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