Report of Pearl Harbor Victim Was Highly Exaggerated-- Part 2: The Radio and the "Prune Barge"

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