Harold Scott Richards US Navy USS Utah |
Information provided by Harold Scott Richards. |
I joined the U.S. Navy on June 14, 1938. On the first of October 1938 I was assigned to the USS Utah for duty. My duty station was at the 5" guns. On that early Sunday morning, December 7th, I was in my office. The supply office was also my sleeping quarters. I heard the noise of airplanes and went to the porthole. There were many planes headed in our direction. I saw a torpedo bomber coming straight for the ship and it dropped a torpedo. Before I had the chance to run, it hit the ship with a tremendous explosion. The blast blew me out into a passageway. My next recollection, I was outside the office and was going to my battle station. The ship was sinking so fast we were ordered to abandon ship. Within a couple of minutes the ship was listing so much I could hardly stand. It was about 8 minutes from the time we caught our first shell until we started to go down. To make matters worse, the fuel oil from the oil storage tanks had floated to deck and it was almost impossible to stand. By this time there were many of us trying to scramble to the topside, because we knew we had to abandon ship. By forming a human chain of outstretched arms we managed to get to the topside. We had to run down the side of the rolling ship or run to jump overboard because the Japanese were machine-gunning all of the men. We hadn't been in dry dock for quit a long time and we had barnacles on the side of the ship. They were razor sharp. I cut my feet, legs and backside-every part of my lower body- against the ship's bottom as I slid. We had small boats picking up the survivors but the boats were being heavily gunned, so I decided to swim to shore. Before I could get away from the ship, someone jumped on my left shoulder tearing the ligaments loose in my back and breaking my collarbone. Due to all the excitement I did not know at the time that my collarbone was broken. The fuel oil from the ship was very thick, like molasses, and it had come to the surface. It was rather messy trying to swim through. I am very thankful it had not caught fire yet. I swam about 300 feet to Ford Island, and within a matter of minutes we started getting the wounded and dead to the hospital. In about an hour the hospital was full. We also sent them to the administration building, which was used as a first aid station and headquarters for assignment to duties. From there I went to the shipyard area and for the next three days I assisted in the disposing of the dead. My own injuries were not serious, so I did not go to a doctor until the 4th day after. On December 10th I was assigned to a supply ship for duty, the USS Castor. We hauled supplies to the southwest Pacific Islands, and to other ships. In 1943 I was assigned to Guadalcanal to set up a pay office and in 1944 I was assigned duty in the Amphibious Invasion Group. I was discharged in May 1946. In my 8 years of service I spent over 5 years overseas. |
