Posted on 12/06/2020 4:15:37 PM PST by BigEdLB
Don’t think WTDs being closed would have saved her. Oklahoma was hit by at least 9 torpedo’s. They ripped open hundreds of feet of hull below the waterline. The only thing that might have save the ship from turning turtle would be to flood the empty fuel and water tanks on the opposite side of the ship. She would have still sunk, but could have gone down on an even keel, like the West Virginia did.
USS Oklahoma Sailor From World War II Accounted For (Navy Fireman 2nd Class James B. Boring, 21, of Vales Mill, Ohio)
Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency ^ | 7/29/2016 | Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Posted on 12/6/2020, 7:15:37 PM by BigEdLB
I can’t imagine the courage of these men.
GM3 Eugene Paul Hann - KIA 12/07/1941 on board USS Oklahoma
My uncle and my father’s only sibling. They both joined the Navy in 1939 and were both assigned to the Oklahoma. Dad had just applied for and was accepted to flight school when the war broke out. Dad flew combat missions in all of the major campaigns in the South Pacific and retired after 22 years. Over 10,000 hrs. logged...that’s a lot of cockpit time! He made it through the war, uncle Paul not so fortunate. He never forgot the treachery of the Japanese at Pearl, and I think he felt bit guilty at the circumstances that spared him but took his only sibling.
RIP Uncle Paul
The account I related was from a book I read years ago by a man who was trapped below decks on the Oklahoma and survived that horrible ordeal. Gave me nightmares.
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