Pearl Harbor Survivors Association
Rio Grande Valley of Texas Chapter 11

PEARL HARBOR
by Lou Grebbin

I promised I'd tell the story about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7th, 1941. I wish I hadn't promised this since I prefer telling stories that have a little humor and leaves a person with a good feeling. I've been putting this chore off as long as I can, but since I've verbally made the same promise to a good friend, this job has come to the "top burner". Maybe as I wade through those painful moments I might be able to find a few moments of humor.

Now on that fateful Sunday morning of almost fifty years ago my two friends and I (I mentioned the "Three Musketeers" in tattoos) arose early that morning because we planned on going ashore and going to church. This for selfish reasons, since we wanted to meet some nice girls and be invited to their homes for Christmas dinner. We'd had breakfast and climbed into our spotless "tailor-made" white uniforms. I was putting a final shine on my shoes when the ship sort of shuttered and jerked. Someone remarked that it must be the garbage scow coming alongside. I went back to buffing my shoes to that "special" shine; but almost immediately the general quarters (GQ) klaxon with it's urgent clang - clang sounded. More than one of us grumbled "Why in hell were they holding a drill on Sunday morning?"

Our living quarters *note was on the extreme stern of the ship. My GQ station, gun # 4 was above us, also on the stern. Our ship was tied up (moored) to what was then called "ten-ten" pier at the Pearl Harbor Shipyard. It was the second ship of three ships alongside the dock. The stern was faced outward and pointed toward "Battleship Row" and Ford Island. Naturally, when we came up out of the hatch onto the deck we looked out under the awnings directly toward the battleships Arizona and Oklahoma. We saw a torpedo plane skimming across the harbor toward them. Someone hollered (was it me?). "Hey, they're making mock torpedo attacks on Battleship Row!"

As the torpedo was dropped the airplane peeled away heading past our stern and we couldn't help but notice the red balls on each wing. Someone came running aft from the quarter deck screaming " the Jap's are attacking! This is no drill"! As the torpedo slammed into the side of the Oklahoma (probably the one that capsized her) and exploded , we were jarred into another world.

From then on, everything that happened has to be told in a hodge podge way. You see, it becomes confusing as to what happened, when and how. I know that we had to get our gun, gun # 4 in condition to fight. This meant that we had to cut the awnings down and throw them over the side. We also threw the movie projectors over the side plus anything on the deck that would be in the way. Nobody knew who had the keys to the ammo magazines so the locks were broken. This was true of the locks on the ammo hoists near the gun. Similar activities was taking place at the other three guns and the gun director. We got the decks and guns ready for action in record time.

Our 2/c Boatswain was gun cap. (captain) A Gunner's Mate was trainer and a Seaman was pointer; I was Hot Shellman. That is it was up to me to catch all the empty powder cases (cartridges) as they were ejected from the gun's breech. We were among the first ships to start firing back (That is with a semblance of order.) In catching this brass I was to wear asbestos gloves; but since none could be found I caught them with my bare hands or more frequently just "batted" them down and kicked them out of the way. To this day I don't know why my hands , (or other parts of my body) was not burned. I know our gun put up quite a heavy barrage and we didn't have any respite until the end of the first wave of Japanese planes were done.

During the short pause between the first and second waves, the Gunner's Mate who was trainer was called off the gun to assemble some fifty caliber machine guns: so I was reassigned as trainer (leaving the "hot brass" to fall where it may,) and so had a spot where as I trained and fired the gun I could watch practically all the action. There was the Oklahoma "belly up", the Arizona sitting on the bottom along with the West Virginia, Maryland, and Tennessee. I don't remember the Nevada slipping away heading for the channel, but it must have during the second wave. Also the battleship California wasn't within my sight nor any of the ships in the shipyard. All in all everything was pretty much in a mess.

After the second wave, a little over two hours since the attack began, our ship was able to get up steam and get "underway" for sea. There were very few of our crew that had been ashore and most of them made it back in time before going to sea. As we steamed out the channel through patches of burning oil and debris we were able to pull aboard a handful of men who had survived from their various ships bring sunk. Later they became permanent members of our crew. They had some really hair - raising stories to tell. One man from the Oklahoma told about having to crawl up the ever increasing slanting deck and then down the hull of the ship as she rolled over. Another from the West Virginia told of being trapped in a flooding compartment as the ship settled to the bottom.

All in all the Jarvis didn't suffer any real damages and only one man actually was a casualty, having minor wounds from shrapnel when we were strafed by Japanese aircraft. That man was in good enough shape to remain aboard ship and continue on duty.

So we steamed past the wreckage of "Battleship Row", into the channel leading to sea past the Nevada where she had beached herself to avoid sinking in the middle of the channel. (If this had happened all the ships would have been "bottled " in the harbor.) Then out to sea where we rendezvous with other ships who had made it out of the harbor. We were mostly destroyers and a pretty motley group.

Of course as we came out of the channel into open waters we expected to meet the whole Jap fleet. Much to our surprise there was no enemy out there. We were pretty keyed up and going on nothing but nerves, so when we realized we has survived the holocaust our body reaction was extremely intense. I know that I wasn't alone at the ships rail with the "dry heaves".

We joined the carrier Saratoga and headed in the direction we thought the Jap fleet might be, with no success. We returned to Pearl Harbor about three days later. We took on ammunition, fuel, and supplies, then back to sea to resume a fruitless chase. Those first few weeks of the war was grim and discouraging. In fact our morale was in a deep cellar by mid January of 1942. In February and March though our moral started back up since we were able to take part in two successful raids; one on the Gilbert Islands and the other on the Marshall Islands.

A couple of things on a lighter vein.
The Captain's Gig (boat) was tied up between the bows of the Jarvis and Mugford and was the sleeping place of its Coxswain. And just before the attack he'd roused himself and was relieving himself over the side when the attack began. It wasn't noticed until the ship was heading out to sea that his "whites" were now a solid gray/black except for yellow streaks going down his pant legs. Also his "fly" was still open with the "family jewels" out for the world to see. Then there was the sailor that had mounted one of the assembled fifty caliber machine guns up above gun number three. He no sooner opened fire than the gun jammed. (Those guns were noted for doing this.) Undaunted, this man stepped over to the nearby potato locker, grabbed an armload of new ammunition and started throwing these potatoes at anything that looked like enemy; all the while cussing up a" bloody blue streak" (these two stories were told to me.)

So now I've fulfilled my promise and told my story. I'll admit that it is dull and doesn't portray any drama, horror or any other stark emotion that could be viewed from that day. These things I prefer to keep locked inside myself and hope nobody else has to experience them. Remember that the things that I saw, heard and did that day was seen, by me aboard the destroyer U.S.S. Jarvis on Dec. 7th. 1941. The story by a sailor aboard the Oklahoma or Arizona, on Ford Island; or a soldier at Schofield Barracks would be entirely different.

*Note: (I originally used the word "Foc'sle" when stating that the crews living quarters were in the after part of the ship When my friends from the Pearl Harbor Survivors Ass"n reviewed this article they hooted and hollered that "everyone knew that the foc'sle (forecastle) was always located in the bow of the ship" This I do not agree with. In my forty four years of going to sea I have always heard sailors refer to their sleeping quarters as their "fod'sil no matter where it was located in the ship. But, to make this clear to all other land lubbers who read this, I changed it to read 'living quarters". O.K.?

 Remember Pearl Harbor and Keep America Strong!

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