Carl W. Bowman US Navy USS Aylwin |
I joined the Navy on January 22, 1941 for a six-year hitch. I did six weeks of boot camp at the Great Lakes. On completion, I was assigned to the USS Aylwin (DD355). As luck would have it, I could have been assigned to a battleship in which case I probably would not be here to write this. I guess we would have to say the luck of the draw. I went aboard the Aylwin on May 16, 1941, at Pearl. It was being repaired after an accident with a sister ship Faraget. Our duty usually was ten days on patrol and seven days in port. On December 7, 1941, we were in port, tied up to two buoys located in the east lock off of Ford Island. There were three sister ships tied up along side us. I had just finished eating chow and was in the head reading the Sunday paper when the general alarm went off. My first thought was "what in the world are they doing having a drill on Sunday morning with half the crew on weekend leave?" I pulled my pants up and went out the after deckhouse. I looked and saw this Jap torpedo plane making another run on the battleship Utah, which had already been hit. That plane was so close I believe I could have hit it with a potato. My normal battle station was the #5 gun. I ended up in the I.C. Room two decks below the main deck. That's where the gyrocompass and all the switches to the guns and telephones are located. I put on the head set that put me in touch with the Fire Control Tower. I was the only one down there and scared to death. It took us 55 minutes to get up steam. In getting underway, we backed over a quay, damaging both our screws. As we made our way out of the harbor, we were dropping 600 lb depth charges. Every time one went off, I thought we were hit. I would ask the Fire Control Tower if we had been hit. They would say, "No it was a depth charge". I stayed down there all day and that night. The next morning we went back in port to pick up the rest of our crew. What a terrible sight to see all the damage the Japs had down. I stayed on the Aylwin over three years. They kept us pretty busy. We took part in the Coral Sea battle. We were plane guard for the Lexington and it was sunk. We picked up some survivors and also the captain's dog, which was a Scotty. We later were in the Battle of Midway as plane guard for the USS Hornet. In that battle, the Yorktown was sunk, but we sank four of their aircraft carriers. That battle was supposed to have been the answer to Pearl Harbor. There were many more battles, too many to write down. There were so many young men who lost their lives that dreadful day, December 7, 1941. To them, they have my wholehearted gratitude and love. I've been blessed so many many times. I can't thank God enough. |
Information provided by Carl W. Bowman. |
