James Hamlin was on the battleship USS California that day. And, far from it being his last, he lived on until 1999.
The nickname of the USS California was the "Prune Barge" because of the seemingly endless supply of that dried fruit supplied by the ship's namesake.
December 7, like December 6, was to be another duty-free day for him, "liberty" in Navy lingo. He was looking forward to sunbathing and swimming with his shipmates at Waikiki Beach, where he had also gone the day before.
That December 6, he had stopped on his way to the beach at the Honolulu Montgomery Ward store and bought a $9.95 radio for his steady girlfriend back in Lone Oak, a suburb of Paducah, Kentucky. The clerk had promised him it would be shipped promptly to Almyra Craig, who he had met in 1937. (They were married in 1943 while he was home on leave.)
--GreGen
My Cooter's History Blog has become about 80% World War II anyway, so I figured to start a blog specific to it, especially since we're commemorating its 70th anniversary and we are quickly losing this "Greatest Generation." The quote is taken from Pearl Harbor survivor Frank Curre, who was on the USS Tennessee that day. He died Dec. 7, 2011, seventy years to the day. His photo is below at right.
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