Pearl Harbor Survivors Association
Rio Grande Valley of Texas Chapter 11

Don J. Wilson's Story

I joined the Navy on 11 Nov. 1937 just two months after my 17th birthday. Boot Camp was in San Diego. I went aboard the U.S.S. Henley DD-391 in April 1938. In 1941 we were in the Hawaiian Detachment, and the week before Dec. 7th we were screening Battleships. doing antiaircraft fire. But the whole week they didn't fire a shot because the towing plane kept sending down signals of unidentified submarines. We looked for those `subs everyday and on Saturday they quit and we went into Pearl Harbor about 1500 o'clock. And though we had not fired any ammunition we went over to East Lock and topped off all ammunition. Then we went to Mary's Point to top off fuel. Our squadron was the Henley, Blue, Helm and Bagley, but instead of us going with them we were with the Patterson and Ralph Talbot.

Before that ever week there would be a carrier in port, Yorktown, Enterprise, Lexington or Saratoga, but that Saturday night there were no carriers. The Utah came in and was in place where the carriers usually were. She had turrets but no guns. There were railroad ties on her deck on top of the regular decking, as she was used as a target ship and the Navy dropped water bombs on her for practice.

I was guard mail petty officer, so Saturday night I had to run a guard mail trip to the sub base. When I came back it was very dark and going along battleship row could see the movies being shown on the battleship decks. When I came aboard the Henley Lt. Fleck came from the movies to sign for the mail. I said, " Mr. Fleck do you know what battleships we got? It looks like every battleship we have is tied up together just like a nest of destroyers. The Pacific Fleet's tied up out there". He kind of laughed and said " how do you know?" I told him of seeing the movies on the fantails of the Battleships. I have a classmate on the Colorado and I know they are on their way to Bremerton right now." I said " the Colorado might not be there but there sure is a bunch of battleships out there." He went on back to the movies. I hit the sack because I had to get up at 4:00 Sunday morning to work in the torpedo shop. while we were working one of the guys reminded me that I had the 8:00 to 12:00 watch and that I had better get ready. I hurried and put on a suit of whites, ran to the galley to get an egg sandwich and hurried back to relieve the watch at 7:45. I got all the pertinent information from him and he signed the log. When I got to the deck I bit into my sandwich and the egg ran on to my clean whites. While I was griping about the runny egg, the messenger said "Willie, its time for quarters for muster." We didn't have a P.A. system, but had alarms. The green alarm was called the gas alarm. You pull it over and it goes BEEP and you turn it up and it quits. So we pulled it five buzzes for quarters for muster. I was so busy trying to wipe the egg from my uniform that I hit the red alarm, right next to the green alarm. That red alarm was the general alarm and it just kept going BEEP BEEP BEEP! Lt. Fleck came running out and said. "What happened?" I told him that I had messed up and pulled the wrong alarm. He laughed a little bit and said, "well pass the word down to the mess hall, all hands fall in quarters for muster, belay the general alarm." I was relieved and told the messenger, "you go to the mess hall. I'll holler in the crew's quarters" When I got back to the crew's quarters there was an old ship fitter sitting there on the lid of the ammunition locker, reading a magazine. He said" one of them airedales over there must have blown up some gasoline. Look at that PBY way up in the air." And that was it. Here came the Jap's. They headed straight for where the carriers should have been. The planes were green and had a big red sun with a white rim around it. One flew so close along side of us that I could see the goggles on the pilot. He dropped the torpedo right there because it had to run some to arm itself and it hit the old Utah and just rolled her over. They went after the Arizona and the rest of the big ships first. I guess that gave some of us destroyers a chance to get going. Though in later years a book called "TIN CANS" said that " due to a green hand ringing the wrong alarm, the Henley men were at their battle stations and the Henley was the first destroyer to get a shot off at the planes coming in. (suppose that was a lucky mistake I made , but I wasn't a green hand , just a sloppy eater.) 

We slipped our, anchor chain and cut our lines with fire axes and messed up something with the boilers, but we got underway. When I was going up the ladder to the bridge a huge explosion just seemed to collapse my lungs and I dropped the log book. I went back down after it, and I think that explosion was the Arizona blowing up. I went on up to the bridge and was ordered to take the wheel. Lt. Fleck said. "we have to keep the channel clear. If we get hit anyplace, run her aground, starboard side." He lost his voice that morning shouting orders over the firing guns. Every time one of those wired by us I tried to head for a cane field. I just knew that we would be hit and I had to keep the channel clear. So we went out of there in a zigzag. When we got right at Hospital Point A plane that had been hit was just kind of floating a little bit and then turned up. A kid named Seeley just tattooed that plane from wing tip to wing tip with a .50 caliber gun. The plane just rolled over and crashed into the hospital grounds.

Our Captain, Robert Hall Smith had been ashore the night before and we left Pearl without him. Later on he caught up with us on the Wasmuth and he jumped into a life raft and we pulled him aboard.. He was a short man and we called him fight'n Bob. As we hauled him aboard he was cussing and as he said in his Atlanta , Ga. drawl, " This is a hell of a way to start a war". That was Wednesday and I was still on the wheel with that suit of Sunday whites just filthy. Fight'n Bob ask someone how long I had been on the wheel? The officer told him that I had been there since Sunday morning. The Captain said, since Sunday and he had the watch? Send him below." I guess I woke up a day later. I decided that I had already had enough of that war the first day.

The Henley went on to fight in many South Pacific battles. We were torpedoed near New Guinea on Oct. 3rd 1943 and the Henley was sunk. After over seven hours in the water the survivors were picked up by the U.S.S. Reid and taken to Australia. From there we were sent back to the States and given survivors leave .

Don " J" Wilson stayed in the Navy and was on the U.S.S. Massey for several years ,eleven months of that time during the Korea conflict. He retired after twenty years and worked for the U.S. Postal Service for over 18 years. He died of cancer 2 June 1999 in Ft. Sam Houston San Antonio.

Remember Pearl Harbor and Keep America Strong!

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