[JewishRighter]

Thank you all for your excellent and thought-provoking posts. I have done a good deal of reading on the landings and battles of the Pacific theater and you really give me pause when you point out the difficulties faced in those campaigns. If the enemy wasn’t bad enough, the conditions were sheer hell. I am in awe of all of the fighting men of that war.

[Daffynition]

FWIW, you may be interested:

My uncle Joe Hartney USN, was the signalman on the USS Juneau and one of the ten survivors [out of 700] of the tragedy.

Fortunately, his amazing story was recorded for posterity: http://www.ussatlanta.com/stories/Juneasstoryfay.htm

You will weep, witness miracles, share his joy with the help he received from natives and be amazed at the courage and grit of this All-American hero. I think his story is worth the read.

An aside: He makes mention of looking at a photo of his wife in the linked account, before the torpedo hit; as a child, I recall him saying, that for some reason he uncharacteristically put his wallet in his shirt pocket. After the explosion and fire, his pants were blow away, and he would have lost his wallet; but as fate would have it, part of his shirt with his wallet remained.

Lue C. Hartney & Joseph Patrick Francis Hartney Sea2c Nov 1941

God Bless you Uncle Joe. Wherever you are.

I apologize that this is a raw narrative, recorded just before he passed. It could use an professional edit; but it just how he said it.