From the December 20, 2012, Cincinnati "Pearl Harbor Survivor shares stories" by Lisa Wakeland.
Joe Whitt was on the USS San Francisco in drydock that day and had just finished breakfast and was on deck learning how to play guitar. Many of the ship's crew were on shore on liberty. Most guns and ammunition was stored away.
When the attack came, the men grabbed whatever they could to fight with and went off to war. He remembers, "We had no guidance, we had nobody to tell us, and we were pretty much on our own."
The torpedo planes were gone and the ones coming now were dropping bombs and strafing. He was shocked to see the battleships on fire.
Mr. Whitt joined the Navy at age 17 only one year before Pear Harbor. During the war, he was in 17 battles including Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima.
--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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