His Pearl Harbor Death Was Highly Exaggerated-- Part 4

James Hamlin and a few others scrambled for their gas masks.  A chief petty officer stopped him and said this was no gas attack and ordered him to the Number Three Fire Room to help get the ship underway.  Minutes later, a bomb hit and exploded where the gas masks were stored and he never saw the others who had been with him again.

When the abandon ship order was given he found his escape route blocked by fire and debris.  He saw a sailor slumped against the bulkhead and recognized him as one of the clerks at the ship's "Geedunk" stand where sailors could buy cigarettes, ice cream and candy.

Hamlin laid him out on a couch in the wardroom and found out later that the clerk was already dead.

--GreGen