From the September 17, 2013, Stars and Stripes, from the Tacoma (Wash) News-Tribune "Pearl Harbor Survivor Smith dies" by Adam Ashton.
George Smith died Sept. 13, 2013, at age 89 in Olympic, Washington.
He ran away from his home in Chicago and rode trains to relatives in Seattle. At age 17, he dropped out of high school and joined the Navy to see the world.
He was on the USS Oklahoma at Pearl Harbor and had just finished his night watch shift. He remembered, "One plane came in, circled, came right down to us. The guy opened the hatch to his plane and dropped his torpedo, waved at me and took off. The next thing I knew there was a big explosion."
Mr. Smith swam over to the USS Maryland and spent the rest of the battle there, clad just in his underwear.
Another thing he recalled was reaching for wounded men in the water only to grab severed limbs.
--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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