Pearl Harbor Day

Seventy-three years ago, Americans relied on the assumption that an enemy would announce its intentions before it attacked. On this date in 1941, however, they were to be disabused of that notion.

Frank Dolan, 1941

On that Sunday morning, just as the flag was to be raised on my father's repair ship, USS Vestal, the Japanese attack came without warning. At 7:55 AM, the first wave of enemy aircraft began hitting the U.S. Navy ships anchored in Pearl Harbor and the army air base there. Dad's ship was one of the many that were hit.* Torpedoes also passed under his ship to strike the battleship Arizona, to which Vestal was tied alongside. Several other ships were destroyed along with hundreds of lives lost.

Even while Japanese envoys were negotiating in Washington, their high command had directed its fleet to launch the strike. The American people were outraged beyond the comprehension of the policy makers in Tokyo. A generation of Americans brought up on peace was going to war.

The day after the attack, the president delivered his famous speech to Congress and to the American people. About that address, author Walter Lord wrote: "The speech was over in six minutes and war was voted in less than an hour, but the real job was done in the first ten seconds. 'Infamy' was the note that struck home, the word that welded the country together until the war was won."

USS Arizona Burning

*My dad, Frank Dolan, recounted his personal experience of the attack in his narrative, Pearl Harbor: As I Remember.

Sources: Day of Infamy, Walter Lord; Frank L. Dolan's Service Records and oral account

The other Pearl Harbor disaster, 1944

Today is the 70th anniversary of the West Lock disaster at Pearl Harbor, an incident that few of us know much, if anything, about. The accident, which occurred on a quiet Sunday, just after 3 PM on this date in 1944, began following an explosion in a staging area for Landing Ships, Tank (LSTs) and other amphibious assault ships in West Loch.

The West Lock was a scene of great activity in May as ships were being loaded with ammunition, gasoline, and other cargo in preparation for the June invasion of the Mariana Islands in "Operation Forager." An accidental explosion occurred on an LST as she was being loaded with mortar ammunition. Three ships were lost in the explosions and the devastating fire that quickly that spread to other vessels in the harbor.

The cause of the initial explosion is uncertain. However, lack of experience in the handling of ammunition and other explosive cargo was the suspected cause. Few of the officers and men involved in loading the explosives had actual experience or training in handling it. Welding operations being carried on nearby could have been a contributing factor, but smoking was also suspected as triggering the explosions.

Twenty-nine LSTs were berthed in the lock to receive supplies from the West Loch Naval Ammunition Depot. Each LST was loaded with thousands of pounds of fuel and oil along with 6,000 cubic feet of ammunition stowed on the decks, under the guns, and in the amphibious craft onboard. Each LST had a 199-man crew plus about 200 Marines or Soldiers as part of the invasion force. The situation was ripe for disaster.

The official investigation revealed that the first explosion occurred on board LST-353, where heavy ammunition was being loaded. Gasoline stored in drums on adjoining ships was accidentally ignited, and in moments several LSTs were ablaze. The flames prevented crews from casting off lines and breaking free of the other ships. Then a second explosion came moments later, and a third—the most violent—followed shortly thereafter. It was a scene of smoke, chaos, and confusion, with men either blown overboard or leaping into the water to escape the flames.

Smoke billows upward from West Lock on May 21, 1944, when disaster struck
a nest of LSTs readying for the Saipan assault.
National Archives Photo  

The official account listed 27 dead and 100 missing. However, other sources state the final death toll at 163 servicemen, with a further 396 wounded. Six LSTs were sunk, 2 already carrying smaller, fully loaded amphibious crafts. Several more LSTs were damaged and/or run aground. Four could not be repaired in time for the invasion. Seventeen tracked landing vehicles (LVTs) and eight 155 mm guns also were destroyed.

With the reinforcement of the fleet coming from elsewhere, and through quick repair efforts, amazingly Operation Forager was only delayed by a single day, with the invasion commencing essentially as planned 3 weeks later.

While at the time, thousands of service personnel and civilian residents knew about the disaster, it received very little publicity then or later. The incident was cloaked in secrecy, and by the time it was declassified in 1960, most had forgotten about it completely. Even many sailors on duty nearby on the island knew little about it. My dad, Frank Dolan, was stationed onboard the USS Hector* in another area of Pearl Harbor. At the moment of the explosion, he and a few of his buddies were at the recreation area at Aiea Landing, about 4 miles away. From a high ridge they witnessed the LST’s blowing up and the spreading fire that followed. He had all but forgotten the disaster until a few years ago it was brought to mind in a documentary about the discovery of the remains of a fifth Japanese midget submarine used in the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack.

For the Sailors, Marines, and Soldiers present at West Lock on today's date, however, few of them would ever forget the "Second Pearl Harbor Disaster."

The rusted hulk of USS LST-480 still visible at West Loch. The remains honor
the 163, sailors, marines, and soldiers who died and 396 wounded in a fuel
and ammunition explosion on May 21, 1944.
Source: Star Bulletin

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Only 2 months later, on July 17, 1944, there was another disastrous explosion at a Navy yard, this one in the San Francisco Bay area. At Port Chicago Naval Magazine, 320 men were instantly killed when ammunition that they were handling blew up. Nearly 400 others were injured. The majority of the dead were African American sailors, at that time serving in the racially segregated military.

Navy crews were loading 2 naval vessels bound for the Pacific Theater with active munitions when the explosives ignited in a horrific series of blasts. Felt throughout the area, the explosions broke windows 30 miles away, hurled debris thousands of feet into the air, and obliterated both ships. Tragically, the blast instantly killed everyone killed at the waterfront—Sailors, Marines, Navy Armed Guard, Coast Guardsmen, Merchant Marines, and working civilians. It was WWII's worst home front disaster.

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* While stationed at Pearl Harbor during this period, Dad performed welding repairs to many of these LSTs for the upcoming campaign.

Sources: United States LST Organization; "Pearl Harbor's Second Disaster Remembered," US Navy; LST-225 War Diary, May 1944

USS Hector arrives at Pearl Harbor

On today's date in 1944, my dad's repair ship, USS Hector, arrived in Pearl Harbor after sailing from California on April 3rd. The ship was assigned to Service Squadron Two. She will remain at Pearl effecting repairs on various ships, primarily landing craft for the June Mariana and Palau Islands campaign, until she departs on June 5th for the recently captured Eniwetok Atoll.

During this time, Hector's crew was granted leave. For some of this period at Pearl, Vestal was also present, and Dad met up with some of his old shipmates, although never visiting on board. It was also during his stay at Pearl that he and some of his buddies providentially encountered Gen. Douglas MacArthur while on the golf course.

A memorable leave experience for one of Hector's sailors is reported as an anecdote in the War Diary for the USS Griswold. On April 21st, as the destroyer escort was steaming for the states, 11 miles off Diamond Head it spotted a man on a surfboard adrift in the water. After performing a rescue, they learned that the surfer was an unnamed crewman from the Hector who somehow got stranded too far from shore. No further mention of the incident is made. Too bad, because it would have made quite a story!

Dad and some of his Hector buddies in Honolulu, 1944
L to R: Percy Hunt, Bruce Cabbot, Cal Falcon, & Frank Dolan

Hector remained at Pearl until departing on June 5th for the forward naval base at Eniwetok.

Sources: USS Vestal War Diary, April 1944;  USS Hector AR7- Ship’s Log (WWII); USS Hector Muster Roll, March 1944; USS Griswold War Diary, April 1944

Hector sets sail for Pearl Harbor

On today's date in 1944, the recently commissioned repair ship, USS Hector, finally gets underway for Pearl Harbor and action in the Pacific. My dad, Frank Dolan, having served on the USS Vestal in the Pacific Fleet since 1941, is a metalsmith on this newest of the fleet repair vessels. Compared to conditions on his old ship, he remembered the accommodations on Hector as almost luxurious.

This will be Dad's second trip to the Hawaiian Islands. He was there serving on the USS Vestal in 1941, when he witnessed firsthand the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. His ship, though seriously damaged herself, was instrumental in repairing many of the other ships and installations damaged in that attack.

Now passing through California's Channel Islands on this day in 1944, Hector began its zig-zagging course across the Pacific Ocean, arriving at Pearl Harbor on April 9th. It will stay there for several weeks repairing various vessels, primarily LSTs and other amphibious assault ships needed for amphibious landings in "Operation Forager," the June campaign for the Mariana and Palau Islands. 

Hector will remain at Pearl until departing on June 5th for the forward naval base at Eniwetok.

Sources: Frank L. Dolan Service Records; USS Hector War Diary, April 1944; USS Hector AR7- Ship’s Log (WWII); Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships; 

Pearl Harbor: A sailor's first-hand account of that infamous day

My dad, Frank L. Dolan, was an 18-year old U.S. Navy Sailor aboard the auxiliary repair ship USS Vestal during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor 71 years ago on today's date in 1941. I am reprinting the original post about his experience on that fateful day.

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My dad, Frank Dolan, was a weldor on the repair ship USS Vestal, tied alongside the battleship USS Arizona, when the surprise Japanese attack came.* He remembered the events that unfolded at Pearl Harbor on this date in 1941 like this...

Sunday was "holiday routine"… a no-work day. The officers and men would ‘sleep-in,’ but not me. I was eager to get my ratings. So, after morning chow, I went to the foc’sle… which was an upper deck in the forward part of the ship, to do my studying… Noise! A loud noise! A loud, booming noise came! Then came the roar of airplanes. I looked over the starboard (right) side of the ship and saw planes—many planes. Some were overhead, but many were just a few feet above the water. They were launching what I thought were “dummy” torpedoes. "Neat, real neat!" I thought. But when the first one exploded against a battleship’s side, I thought some dumb American pilot dropped a real live torpedo by accident.

Japanese aerial photo of the attack 

Even as torpedoes were exploding on impact against the sides of the battleships, I told myself there must be some mistake. The planes were so close we could easily see the pilots. Then the red ball designation of the Japanese on the sides of the planes came into view. Immediately I was off the foc’csle down the port passageway aft on the main deck and onto the starboard side to watch. Again, I was not really believing what I was witnessing. More torpedo planes, and then came the dive bombers. I had no battle station as at this time we were at peace with Japan, and had only one 3-inch anti-aircraft gun, and a couple of Thompson machine guns on board. Our 5-inch broadside guns were for use against surface craft.

My next move was to head for the weld shop. To get there I had to go down a ladder through the carpenter shop and then amidships to the weld shop. No sooner had I got down the ladder when a bomb came through the carpenter shop hitting the ladder I had just come down. There were numerous casualties in the carpenter shop. One shipmate was decapitated. Immediately, I went to the weld shop. Half of the men there had been sleeping or were just awakening and were asking, "What was up?" The other men and I told them the Japs were here. I looked toward the small hatch opening that I had just come through to get to our shop. "Ski," a shipmate, had just come into the shop looking very pale and wobbly. We grabbed him and laid him on a cot, face-down, as we discovered that both cheeks of his backside were torn off and hardly any flesh remained. This was the result of the bomb that had come through the carpenter shop. In the meantime, another bomb hit the forward part of our ship on the starboard side near where I had been studying a few minutes earlier.

USS Arizona

Dad recalled that at about the time the second bomb hit the forward part of the Vestal, on the starboard side near where he had been studying a few minutes earlier, was when the Arizona exploded. While he was below decks at that moment, he did not then know what had happened, although it was a “shaking experience” for him. “When the Arizona blew up and was broken in two, my first thought from below deck was that our acetylene and oxygen cylinders, which were topside and near the great explosion, had blown up. Soon afterward, we learned that it was the Arizona. And, later on, with all of the burned survivors, we knew for sure what had happened.”

Amazingly, of the 400 men on the Vestal, only 6 were lost, although many were seriously injured. Among the many deeds of brave men, the Vestal’s captain, Cassin Young, received the Medal of Honor for his courageous actions that day. On the other hand, the losses to the Arizona were horrific. More than 1,100 Sailors and Marines still lie entombed within its sunken hull. Over 50 Sailors lie within the submerged Utah.

Dad recounted his experience of this “date which will live in infamy” in his narrative, Pearl Harbor: As I Remember.

* A profound experience from my childhood was to personally meet Captain Mitsuo Fuchida, the Japanese commander who led the first attack wave on Pearl Harbor, and who immortalized the words, Tora, Tora, Tora. When I was about 10, my dad insisted that I go with him to a Youth for Christ meeting in San Diego, where this remarkable man and former enemy of the United States was speaking. Years after the Pearl Harbor attack, Fuchida became a Christian in a remarkable conversion to the Christian faith. I wrote about the experience in the post,  Meeting God's Samurai.

The Death of Capt. Cassin Young

Cmdr. Cassin Young commanded my father's ship, the USS Vestal, during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. For his actions that day he was awarded the Medal of Honor. He also was promoted to Captain in February 1942, and soon was given command of the heavy cruiser, USS San Francisco. Young commanded San Francisco in the Battle of Cape Esperance and the subsequent Naval Battle of Guadalcanal on this date in 1942, with great distinction. During the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, Young guided his ship into action against a superior Japanese force. Sadly, while closely engaging the enemy battleship Hiei, a direct hit to the San Francisco's navigation bridge killed Young, Rear Adm. Daniel Judson Callaghan, and almost all of the officers there on today's date in 1942. Captain Young was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for his actions during the campaign, and San Francisco received the Presidential Unit Citation.

Dad remembered Commander Young as a personable man who earned his respect and that of the entire crew. He always spoke highly of Young over the years after the war. Since his personal gear onboard the Vestal was stowed near the captain’s deck, Dad said that he saw and saluted Cmdr. Young often.

Capt. Cassin Young receives his Medal of Honor from
Adm. Chester W. Nimitz, while commanding the USS Vestal
April 1942
Source: NavSource

Captain Young's name is inscribed on the Tablets of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial (Fort William McKinley Cemetery) in Manila, Philippines. The cemetery contains a total of 17, 201 graves, the largest number of graves of our military dead of World War II.

Sources: Frank L. Dolan's personal account; NavSource; Find A Grave