Keith Settle US Navy USS Maryland |
Saturday, December 6, 1941, was a busy day for ship's cook Keith Settle, who was using extra elbow grease in the galley of the USS Maryland to prepare for an admiral's inspection. As he and 1,200 shipmates finished their work and closed the battleship's watertight doors, the USS Oklahoma pulled alongside at Ford Island in Pearl Harbor. The next morning, when Japanese torpedoes sped through the water to targets on "battleship row", the Oklahoma's presence saved the Maryland. "The reason I'm here today is because the Oklahoma was next to us and she took the torpedoes six or more," says Settle. "we didn't have five minutes, we didn't have 30 seconds" to prepare for the attack. Settle, 20, didn't see the Oklahoma take the hits or roll over from the massive damage until about two hours after the attack because he was in the bowels of the ship at his battle station the powder magazine. "We knew things were going on, but we had no idea what," says Settle. When he emerged, the normally bright Hawaiian sun was obliterated by smoke from the wrecked, burning ships littering the harbor. Settle's shocked reaction was, "My God, the whole Navy's gone." He and others from the Maryland helped rescue the Oklahoma's survivors and repaired damage to their own ship's bow from an aerial bomb. That night, he returned to his usual bed, a cot in the galley. As he looks back, Settle, 77 still wonders why he lived while others died: "Life took on a different meaning" after the war, he says. "It's a precious commodity." The Maryland, with Keith Settle aboard, limped to Bremerton, Washington, for repairs and then returned to the Pacific. It took part in the invasions of Tarawa and the Palau Islands, two bloody battles for the Marines. Settle next saw action on a gunboat in the Marianas Islands and then took part in Marshall Islands operations in a landing ship tank. Settle was a chief petty officer when he was discharged in 1947. He was chief of food production and service at the Fresno Veterans Administration Hospital for 30 years before retiring in 1980. |
Information provided by Keith Settle. |
