Gale Mohlenbrink USS Northampton on Special Assignment in Pearl Harbor |
According to the archives in Washington DC, I, another seaman, and a boatsman mate had been ordered to remain in Pearl Harbor with the Captain's gig to do necessary maintenance work. On November 28, 1941, according to the records, the USS Northampton left Pearl Harbor with the task force for a week of maneuvers at sea and the three of us remained behind doing the prescribed work on the gig. The other seaman and myself were asleep on the gig at 7:55 am, when we were awakened by the noise of bombs going off. Wondering aloud whether there were maneuvers in the harbor, we stepped out of the boat onto the floating dock. I could hear the sounds of planes, explosions and firing. My buddy and I turned to the harbor and battleship row in time to see a plane skimming very low across the water, with splashes of water spouting up as he went. I had just enough time to think, "he is shooting at us" and see the big red sun on the wing, when my buddy and I turned together and, as one, dove through the hatch of the cabin on the gig. The hatch is barely wide enough for one person to go through it. The two of us never did know how we did it, but we got under cover simultaneously, through that narrow hatch. The plane abruptly pulled out into a steep climb. After the next couple of planes leaving from their runs also rose without hitting our Captain's little gig, we realized the coal trestle, who's floating dock we were tied to, loomed high above us so the planes had to climb without strafing our boat. When a lull came in the horror unfolding before us, we went onto the island. The Army was handing out weapons. Everyone thought the Japanese were going to invade the island. As we were unattached, with our ship at sea, I loaded myself with as much ammunition as I could drape over my shoulders and around my waist, took a rifle and went to the beaches to defend them, if attacked. The rest of the day and that night were spent going to various points of defense in case the Japanese attempted a landing. The night was terrifying, as every sound was unknown and every movement thought to be the enemy. The next day, after finding some food, we were heading back to defense lines. I can't remember where I was exactly, but I looked to the harbor and the USS Northampton was coming in past battleship row and the devastation there. I have to say that never in my life, before or sense, have I ever been so glad to see anything, as I was to see my ship. That was my home, coming into that harbor. That was a feeling of life and routine and things known, in a world that had gone completely upside down in a matter of minutes. We turned in the weapons, and returned to the Northampton. Then began the 4 long years of war. I was in combat conditions from December 7, 1941 until the day the Japanese surrendered. I was in Pearl Harbor on August 15, 1945, when I heard of the surrender. I was attached to the USS Edison and had returned to Pearl Harbor from the invasion of Southern France to prepare for the pending invasion of Japan. The beginning and end of some of the most memorable years of my life happened in Pearl Harbor. There is no way to describe in words my feelings for Pearl Harbor and Hawaii. I return as often as I am able to this beautiful place. I have no memory of the week prior to December 7, 1941, and did not realize that I had lost the week, until 1991, when I applied to receive the commemorative medal cast by the United States Government honoring the 50th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack. Because my ship, the USS Northampton, is not a ship that was in the harbor, the Navy went to the archives to verify my location on December 7, 1941, before issuing the medal to me. I was very glad to receive the letter from the Navy explaining what they had done. I had always felt people could doubt the circumstances surrounding my experiences on December 7, 1941, as I was not aboard a ship known to be in the harbor. The fact the Navy had taken the time and effort to verify my experience, so the medal would only be given to those deserving of it, made the medal more priceless to me than it had been when I applied for it. I was stunned when I read the letter stating I had been in Pearl Harbor the entire week prior to December 7, 1941, as I have no memory of that week where I ate, worked, slept, or played until the morning of December 7th. I have always told the story as "I was in Pearl Harbor for a day or so and was asleep on the gig, which is most vivid in my mind, when the attack began." The attack is as vivid in my mind's eye, as if it had happened yesterday. The day after the attack, when my ship returned, and I went aboard, I am hazy as to what we did when, but I do remember the things being done. I have come to believe that the trauma of the attack created the void and I never even knew it was there until 1991. |
Information provided by Gale Mohlenbrink. |
