|
|
View our slide show of the
PBY Memorial Foundation Naval History Center
....Click on a photo to launch the slide show.
|
   
 
Here's something you don't see every day...
mail from a Pearl Harbor ship the day before the attack.
17 year old Cecil Calavan of the USS Utah rushed to post this Christmas card in time for the mail boat on Saturday December 6th 1941. 24 hours after he posted this, the Utah was torpedoed and then capsized. Cecil (left) holding the card he mailed almost 70 years ago. His pal, Tony (right) was aboard USS Nevada at Pearl Harbor. Tony is a proud and outspoken "Battleship Sailor" He joined the Nevada in 1938 (!) when she and her sister ships were America's first line of defense.
Cecil made a few remarks about famous photo of the Utah capsizing
X) marks where Cecil was when the first torpedoes hit. He looked out portholes (same as seen at (Y) on starboard side) to see what happened. He was in the head, shaving by order of Bosun's Mate Paul Acuff (brother of singer Roy Acuff). Cecil: "Acuff was a Tennessee man and he cussed with a lot of F-words to remind me I was in the navy now and had better look it, so I grabbed my razor and went aft to the head. Acuff had saved Cecil's life: 5 minutes later a torpedo slammed in to the compartment Cecil had vacated.
1) Cecil slid down the listing side of Utah to this shelf. Many other men were doing the same. He waited a few minutes unsure what to do. Men in a boat were urging him to jump ("they also used F-words" - Cecil)
2) Jumped in the water and was picked up by a boat.
3) That boat is here next to the mooring quay with Cecil aboard watching his ship roll over. "Lots of noises: hissing, rumbling, things breaking, the ship groaning and screeching."
4) The flag is at half-mast because the man raising it was strafed and killed while hoisting the colors.
5) I always wondered what these shed looking things were on Utah. Yesterday, Cecil told me they were steel boxes that were placed over 5 inch gun mounts to protect them when Utah was serving as a target. Utah is commonly dismissed as just a target ship, but she was also the fleet's primary anti-aircraft gunnery training vessel. As such, she carried all the latest weaponry - 5-inch, 1.1 inch .50 cal -all manned by gunnery instructors who were the crack shots of the navy.
It still bothers Cecil that the Utah got
it first before she could show the fleet how to really shoot!
Under those boxes (the crew called them "doghouses") were two state of the art 5' gun mounts. Normally exposed, they were covered that day because Utah was scheduled for target vessel duties and not gunnery.
Reported by Will Stein - PBY Memorial Foundation Vice-Chairman
|
