First Hand Story of Pearl Harbor
Bainbridge News & Republican, March 26, 1942
Everett R. Herrick U.S.N.
The News prints below excerpts from a letter written by Everette Herrick of the United States Navy. Everette is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Herrick, of West Bainbridge [Chenango Co., NY]. This young sailor is one of the first of our local boys to see actual service. What he has seen, what he has done, and what he will remember for the rest of his life, is best explained by this letter from a boy who saw Pearl Harbor. It follows:
..."I had been standing the anchor watch with Ensign Simmons and McTilicuty from 7 to 8 that morning. I was relieved by the ships messengers (quartermaster strikers) at 7:45. When the attack started, I was in the crew wash room, shaving. I was half through when the first bomb exploded. It was then 7:55. I rushed to the nearest port to see what was going on. What I saw through the port was the real McCoy. I saw Goad Island in black smoke and fire. A plane came up out of the smoke and I saw the rising sun on the plane and knew they were here. I didn't finish shaving, but washed my face and put my gear away. By that time guns were firing from everywhere.
I don't know what time it was when our ship was hit by the bomb on the starward side of the boat deck. We only suffered one hit by bombs. This bomb went through top side, through the casemates, into division compartments and there exploded. The bomb went through three steel decks before it exploded at all. The explosion killed 16 of my shipmates including two officers and several marines.
When we were hit they called for volunteers to fight fire. I volunteered. I went to the scene of the fire which was down below main deck, officers country. The fire was put out. The sights I saw I will never forget and care nothing about telling them. My best friend, a Marine corporal, was killed. All I could find of him was one shoe, with the foot and part of the leg in it. His name was in the shoe.
After this fire was put out I returned again to my battle station only to volunteer again. I volunteered to fight fire on the dock. When I reached top side I saw that the two destroyers which were in dry dock ahead of us were hit by bomb and afire. The dry dock was flooded to protect our magazines on our own ship. The fire was started from these destroyers. (I'll omit their names). When I reached top side I was given a length of hose and told to go up the dock. This I did in the double run, because a Jap must have spotted me for machine gun bullets were hitting the ground a good six inches from my heels.
I could easily have told a jack rabbit to move over and let someone run that could. To get away from this, I stopped behind a concrete building. While I was behind this building, I saw a plane drop a bomb on our ship missing it by a good 100 yards.
We fought fire, the captain of one of the destroyers held a hose together during the second attack. While we were on the dock three more bombs came down. Some took cover in a plank tool box to get away from shrapnel. This was the best protection handy. When the last bomb exploded I ran for the same tool box. While in it we were machine gunned again but the bullets didn't seem to go through. I dug out some later for souvenirs. This ended the second attack on Pearl Harbor.
The rest of the day was spent cleaning up ship, handling ammunition, etc. There were four days and nights that I never saw my bunk at all. We didn't have any galley left so ate sandwiches for a while.
Remember the slogan of the American people is "Remember Pearl Harbor" for we are several who will never forget Pearl Harbor.
Everette R. Herrick, U.S.N.
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