Jim Gailey, Pearl Harbor Veteran, Dies in 2012-- Part 1

From the August 12, 2012 Tulsa (Ok) World by Tim Stanley.

James Russell Gailey, 88, of Muskogee, Oklahoma, was aboard the USS Helena at Pearl Harbor.  he kept looking at the battleship USS Oklahoma and thinking it was incredibly majestic, but it made him think of his home state of Oklahoma.

He saw many survivors of the Oklahoma swimming toward his ship where they climbed aboard and immediately took up fighting positions.

In June 2010, he was at the dedication of the Oklahoma's mast at the Muskogee War memorial Park.

A native of Commerce, Oklahoma, he enlisted in the Navy in 1941 and his ship, the Helena, arrice at Pearl in November.

--GreGen