USS Nevada Sailor Dies in 2012-- Part 2

Don Blair had been the president of the Santa Rosa based chapter of the now defunct Pearl Harbor Survivors Association.

He was born in North Dakota and grew up poor, one of nine children, on a farm.  Persuaded by his girl friend, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1939.  Two years later, he was a yeoman doing a host of clerical duties on the USS Nevada.  (Perhaps he was the one who originally wrote the Log Summary of the attack that I posted yesterday and today?)

On December 7, 1941, he was  21-years-old and looking out a porthole, "I saw this plane flying in low-- and had this meatball on it."

The Nevada was damaged, but also was the only battleship to get underway during the attack.  Mr. Blair spent most of the battle below deck receiving and forwarding damage reports and standing ready to answer ship structure inquiries which would require review of the Nevada's blueprints.

It was afternoon before he received permission to go topside, "I could see blood all over the deck." He also saw pallets waiting to be taken off with bodies and parts of bodies.

--GreGen