Death of One of Nevada's Last Two Pearl Harbor Survivors, Leonard Nielsen, 98-- Part 1

From the August 12, 2020, Las Vegas (Nevada) Review-Journal.

November 30, 2018 Veterans Reporter News.

He died on August 9, 2020.

Mr. Nielsen joined the Navy in 1940 and trained at San Diego.  Upon completion of boot camp, he was assigned to the USS Arizona and sailed to  Pearl Harbor where he was transferred to the heavy cruiser  USS Pensacola where he was a ship-fitter (a sailor who made underwater repairs to the hull of the ship).

On November 30, 1941, the Pensacola left Pearl Harbor to transport Marines to Midway Island, but he had gotten sick and remained at Pearl and had an emergency appendectomy on the hospital ship USS Solace four days before the attack. He was still on that ship on December 7.

And, he had quite the view of the unfolding carnage.  "The wave after wave of Japanese planes never seemed to stop," he said.  "What startled me most  was seeing a Jap plane fly by so close I could clearly see the pilot's face."

--GreGen