My grandfather was there and was one of the lucky ones who survived. His gunner chair was spinning out of control because the electrical on his ship had been hit causing it to go haywire. The chair kept spinning around and around and each time he passed the actual gun, a piece of metal dug deeper and deeper into his thigh. He almost lost his leg but an explosion then tossed him into the ocean. Bleeding profusely and attempting to swim, he was going in and out of consciousness until two other sailors buoyed him with lifejackets and eventually helped him to a dinghy and taken to shore. He was quite lucky the sharks didn’t get to him. Unfortunately, the sharks were being kept very busy…
He didn’t used to like to talk about this… for a long, long time. Eventually, he began telling his story after he visited Hawaii and went through a healing process.
A horrific day in our history…
My grandfather was there and was one of the lucky ones who survived. His gunner chair was spinning out of control because the electrical on his ship had been hit causing it to go haywire. The chair kept spinning around and around and each time he passed the actual gun, a piece of metal dug deeper and deeper into his thigh. He almost lost his leg but an explosion then tossed him into the ocean. Bleeding profusely and attempting to swim, he was going in and out of consciousness until two other sailors buoyed him with lifejackets and eventually helped him to a dinghy and taken to shore. He was quite lucky the sharks didn’t get to him. Unfortunately, the sharks were being kept very busy…
He didn’t used to like to talk about this… for a long, long time. Eventually, he began telling his story after he visited Hawaii and went through a healing process.
A horrific day in our history…