LeRoy J. Knurr Mobile Hospital #2 |
I was stationed at Mobil Hospital #2 assembling metal buildings in light of the forgone conclusion that something was going to happen. We were there four or five months prior to December 7th. On December 7th, an old Navy man Seaman 2nd class with four, six year hash marks told us to go into a ravine and stay there. You could hear the whistling of bullets fly over your head. I could see puffs of dust popping up all around me from the bullets. After it was over we all looked to see what happened. The harbor was nothing but flames and smoke. The sad part was a taxi came up to our compound. A sailor from the Arizona came up to see his brother. He survived the attack on the Arizona but his brother was killed where we were. He stayed in that cab for about two hours before he went back to where he came from. We had been setting up three or four buildings a day, but we really had to step things up because of all the wounded that came in. We put up thirteen buildings that day! They took the mess hall we built and made it into an operating room. As soon as we would put a piece of plywood down a bed would be placed it with a mattress and sheets and a person to lay on it. I remember they had a couple of 55-gallon drums with the tops cut off and the doctors were throwing arms and legs and whatever into them. It was horrible. I went aboard the USS Grimes and steamed in with the USS Missouri the day before the peace treaty was signed and went to Nagasaki where we dropped the bomb. So I saw the beginning to the end. |
Information provided by LeRoy J. Knurr. |
