The Princeton's crew were ordered to abandon ship. When it was Oesterle's turn to leave, he climbed down a cargo net only to find there was no boat at the bottom. He climbed back up and discovered that he was alone on his burning, stricken ship.
"I came back onboard to help... nobody was there but me," he said.
Eventually, a boat did come back for him and took him to the Birmingham. In all, 1,361 members of the Princeton's crew were rescued.
Two days later, he wrote his mother to let her know he was alright. "All in all it was quite a day. None the worse for wear & tear," he wrote.
He finished the war stationed on other ships. Among his service medals are a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star, which he received for valor.
On September1, 1945, he and Joan were married at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. During the rest of his naval career as a dentist, Oesterle was stationed at bases in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Illinois and California as well as a stint at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Joan died in 1998.
Quite the Story. --GreGen
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