Gerald L. "Jerry" Halterman US Navy Navy Yard Pearl Harbor |
The son of Thomas M. and Lois McSparin Halterman, I was born on March 13, 1921 in Carbondale, IL. I attended Carbondale Community High School, and in 1939, attended the University of Southern Illinois. I was called into the US Navy in St. Louis, MO for 6 years. My Navy Recruit training was in San Diego, CA. I was in Company 39-26 for only 8 weeks due to the threat of war. I became an officer through the Navy Officer V-12 training program. I am a Pearl Harbor Survivor and belong to the Bay Patriots Chapter of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Associations, Inc. of Massachusetts. I witnessed the USS Oklahoma being torpedoed and its sinking at Pearl Harbor on Sunday morning December 7, 1941. The ship sank with 429 shipmates who perished, including 3 sailors that had shared the communications office duty with me as Yeoman 3rd Class. Sam T. Nevill (Wall, OK), Brady O. Prewitt (Hoxie, AR), and Edmund T. Ryan (Trenton, NJ). My learning to type in high school was critical to my career in the Navy because I was privileged by having information that I could use. I served 18 months aboard the "Okie" and typed the message from the 14th Naval District seeking a Yeoman 3rd Class for their communication office and my commander granted me permission to take shore duty inside the Navy Yard at Pearl Harbor. That saved me the fate that took the lives of my three buddies in the ship communication office, which was located on the third deck below the main deck. The ship's baseball team manager tried to talk me into staying on board on April of 1941. I made the right decision to transfer. The action related to December 7, 1941 and the Japanese attack began on Saturday, December 6th, when that evening I attended a "Battle of the Ships Bands", put on at the nearby Richardson Recreation Center, just outside the Navy Yard. Upon its completion, I returned to the US Naval receiving station for an hour or two of sleep, before taking the 8 minute walk to the 14th Naval District Communication Office for the midnight duty of typing messages as they came in over the teletype. Some were in code and the restricted strip ciper code was allowed to be broken by the enlisted yeoman with the proper security classification. It was a very quiet watch until 0654 hrs. when I typed a message from the USS Ward saying they had fired on, and dropped depth charges, on an unidentified submarine operating in an unauthorized area near Pearl Harbor. We had in previous weeks received similar m3essages, which had turned out to be fakes with hits on whales. I handed the message to the on-duty communications officer and was then relieved early at 0700 hrs to take the 8 minute walk back to the receiving station for breakfast, shower and some sleep. I was the only one authorized to sleep-in. My bunk was on the 3rd and top floor and I had just turned in at 0755 hrs when low flying Japanese torpedo planes began swooping over and down to the harbor to release their one torpedo each, targeting the ships. My former ship, the USS Oklahoma (BB-37), was hit first, taking 9 torpedoes and capsizing in about 12 minutes, taking 429 men to their graves. My bunk was near a front window and Japanese planes were so low you could plainly see their goggle covered faxes and the red ball under the wing tips, so recognition was not a problem. I could see them coming in, and by going quickly to the rear windows, could see them dropping their torpedoes and see their wakes go into the ships. Concurrent with this, the USS Arizona was taking the bomb hit that penetrated their ammunition supply, mid-ship, causing an inferno. This sank the ship and killed 1,177 men, many of whom are entombed in the Arizona memorial at Pearl Harbor. I quickly went downstairs to the basement, and finding the ammunition locker secured, came upstairs to the first floor cafeteria and out the front door. In the confusion, a young officer was forming a fire fighting party to go aboard the USS Pennsylvania that was in dry dock aft of the USS Cassin and Downes. This turned out to be futile as they had to go below deck for protection from bombs, making it impossible to fight fires. I separated from the group prior to their departure and found refuge across the road from our building in a ditch, adjacent to a fence bordering the baseball outfield. This is where I witnessed the second attack. IT took place about 20 minutes after the first, and this was from high altitude bombers coming down the channel entrance. You could see the bombs reflecting the sunshine and angling down onto their targets in the harbor. On going back to the receiving station, the morning was filled with oil soaked sailors being brought by motor launches to the Merry Point Sailor Landing. They then walked up to our basement entrance for showers, clean clothes and upstairs to the cafeteria for food. Tables were set up around the cafeteria with ship names posed for survivors to log in and for future assignments. Our motor torpedo boats were criss-crossing the oil soaked harbor to insure that no more two-man subs had penetrated the entrance to the harbor. The one that was sunk was later sent back to the US to assist in war bond drives. That evening a total black-out of the Navy Yard and harbor was enforced. I had made it a point to be in the communication office prior to darkness, knowing that young seaman guards might yell "halt" and not hearing them could very well get you shot. Shortly after dark an alert was received of unidentified planes coming over the harbor. While I hid under my desk, all the guns that could be activated, open fire and downed 6 planes, killing 11 men from the carrier USS Enterprise. You can also find their names on the plaque at the staging area to visit the Arizona Memorial. This is my one day experience in a shooting war. I was also involved communication-wise in the Battle of Midway when a message came through from Admiral Nimitz at the submarine base. This was to Midway upon hearing that Japanese aircraft carriers were spotted. He told our pilots "To exterminate the bastards". It proved to be the turning point of the war. If our ships at Pearl Harbor had been able to activate their guns in time to fire at the on-coming torpedo planes, they would have wiped out the building and me that morning of December 7, 1941. Our building was at Merrys Point Landing, bordering the oil storage tanks, which the Japs missed, and was a 5 minute walk to the submarine base. I was subsequently advanced to Yeoman 1st Class, and then selected for Navy V-12 Officer Training, which I took at St. Ambrose College in Davenport, Iowa (04/23/43 10/44). I was Battalion Commander for 2 of my 4 semesters there and I pitched and played 3rd base for their baseball team. Then to Midshipman school, Ft. Schuyler, NY. I was commissioned Ensign in March 1945, with graduation in St. John Divine Cathedral in New York City and assigned number 43275. From there I had a choice of amphibious training in Florida or Navy supply at the Harvard Business School. I chose Harvard. The war came to an end and I had met Rosalie Sharpe of Wellesley Hills and we were married on October 20, 1945 in the Wellesley Hills Congregational Church. We went to Amherst College in February 1946 and lived on campus, first in Valentine Hall in a 2nd floor suite, and then in the GI Village with former President Julian and Cora Gibbs, and others. Rosalie worked in the library and with the GI Bill, I made it to commencement with General George C. Marshall speaking. He had previously announced the Marshall plan at the Harvard commencement one week earlier. We have three sons, David, Ronnie, and Glenn. Glenn is handicapped, in Special Olympics, and we play unified golf in their tournaments. I have spent most of my business life with Raytheon Missile Systems Division in Engineering and Public Relations. I have been retired since 1986 and am enjoying unified golf and sharing other activities with Glenn and the rest of our family. |
Information provided by Jerry Halterman. |
