Wallace Freer US Navy USS Nevada |
I was aboard the USS Nevada at Pearl Harbor and was an SK1C at the time. I was in charge of an ammunition supply on the third deck. We were just above the magazines and had men down in them. We knew when the ship got underway, but then the bombs started hitting and we lost our phones. They were fighting fires on topside so salt water was leaking down around the hatches and they flooded the magazines. When they came to get us out about 1:00 p.m., the water was about waist high. They had run the ship aground on orders to clear the channel. They tried unsuccessfully to patch the torpedo hole and finally put the ship in drydock and we came back to Bremerton with the hole in the bottom. The ship was rebuilt and next went to the Aleutians for the invasion of Attu. After which we went to the East Coast and escorted convoys to England until D Day. As far as I know it was the only combat ship that was at both Pearl and D Day. |
Information provided by Wallace Freer. |
