From the March 22, 2016, St. Joseph-Benton Harbor (Mich.) Herald Palladium "Pearl Harbor survivor, longtime mayor dies" by John Matuszak.
Robert "Bob" Flaherty, 96, one of Barrien County's last Pearl Harbor survivors died March 17, 2016. He was mayor of Watervliet for 18 years.
He enlisted in the Navy in 1940 and shipped to Pearl Harbor in February 1941, serving on the USS New Orleans and escaped injury in the attack December 7, 1941.. In 1942, he was forward gunner on the destroyer USS Laffey off Guadalcanal when it was sunk with much loss. Uninjured, he drifted in the ocean for five hours before being rescued.
At the end of the war he was stationed in Miami training to pilot landing for the planned assault on Japan.
--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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