![]() ![]() And the men on the Oklahoma, all you could see were their heads bobbing and pretty soon a lot of small boats were dashing out there to help rescue all these men. "But I looked back and the USS Oklahoma had capsized and all I could see was the bottom of the vessel, totally tipped over. "It was a kind of crazy scene where planes were going here and there and you look up and say, 'OK, where are our planes?' You know, what I expected to see, like the movies, our planes come sailing down out of the sky and start chasing these guys and shooting them down. fighter planes, sitting out in the open that Sunday morning. Suddenly, the radiomen could no longer communicate with the rest of the fleet.Īcross the island, Japanese planes were already bombing hundreds of U.S. ![]() Water rushed into the lower decks, ruptured the fuel tanks, and knocked out the electrical system, rendering useless the mechanized hoists to send up ammunition to the anti-aircraft guns on the top deck. The attack on Pearl Harbor had begun minutes before and the USS California was already ripped open. The USS Nevada is also visible in the middle background, with her bow headed toward the left. ![]() Sailors stand amid the wreckage, watching as the USS Shaw explodes in the center background. And immediately the ship started easing to the port.Īn explosion at the Naval Air Station, Ford Island, Pearl Harbor during the Japanese attack. Water blew 50 feet in the air above the sides. And then they disappeared from my view, and a fraction of a second later they hit the side of our ship. "Then I started watching the rivulets of the torpedoes coming and approaching the ship. And about half the distance across the harbor they dropped their torpedoes. "I saw two of them approaching us just about the level of my eyes across the harbor, and they obviously were two torpedo planes. I thought it was just a drill that nobody told us about," Art said. "I could look out and see the Japanese planes, which were just airplanes to me. Seemingly out of nowhere, the first wave of 353 Japanese bombers, fighting planes and torpedo planes darkened the clean blue sky. Radioman Second Class Art Montagne raced to his battle station, high above the main deck, on the flag deck to join the Admiral's staff. "So the next morning, on December 7th, I woke up, had a cup of coffee, and about 7:50 I hear this tremendously loud clang, clang, clang followed by the bugle call, which was our signal to go to battle stations," Art recalled. It began with a plane and ended in flames The opal ring that Bud bought for Ellene. Even the guys allowed he looked just like the Hollywood heartthrob Tyrone Power. Charismatic and a bit wild, all the girls swooned over Joe. He wrote home of his best friend and fellow radioman, a teenaged Texan named Joe Ross. "All any enemy would have to do is sink a ship in the outlet and the fleet would be done for." Making friends and falling in loveĬome March of 1941, the young sailor was still swept up in the moment. "The whole fleet is bottled up in that small harbor." "Pearl Harbor is guarded like a mint," he wrote in the spring of 1940. Love, Bud."īut, after months at sea, Art's letters turned more serious. But as I didn't have a pencil or anything, I didn't get her autograph. Hula dances on the ship, swimming in Waikiki. "Dear Mom, having quite a time in Honolulu. What's more, having graduated at the top of his class, the young sailor was assigned to the USS California, the flagship of the Battle Force, handling the Admiral's communications.īud in Honolulu in 1940, and his letter to his mom in April, 1940. "I've been accepted into the radio gang," Art wrote. Soon, his mother received a gleeful letter. Even with a small scholarship, this high school track star couldn't afford to go to college. His family was still struggling out of the Depression. To his parents and six younger brothers and sisters, he wrote: "I've joined the Navy. There, 18-year-old Art "Bud" Montagne left a note behind in an empty house. My dad's story starts two years before Pearl Harbor, on a summer day in Sioux City, Iowa. This story was originally published on Dec. Renee Montagne Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Art Montagne in Honolulu, 1940 his letter to his mom, December 1941 and the American destroyer USS Shaw exploding during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. ![]()
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