Vestal Report for December 7, 1941

AR4/L11-1/(066)          U.S.S. Vestal        10-trb

                                                                    December 11, 1941

From:          The Commanding Officer.
To:              The Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet.
Subject:       Report of action on December 7, 1941,
                    in accordance with references (a) and (b).*
Reference:  (a) Art. 840 Navy Regs.
                   (b) Cincpac conf. desp. 102102 of Dec. 1941. 

a.      The USS Vestal was struck by two bombs at about 0805 December 7, 1941, while moored port side to port side of the USS Arizona berthed at Fox 7, Pearl Harbor, T.H. One bomb struck the starboard side at frame 44 penetrating three decks, passing through the upper crew space, GSK stores A-16½, A-14½, and exploding in GSK stores lower hold A-9. The fire main and electric cables in crew space were cut. W.T. hatch to A-14½ buckled and stores in GSK stores and lower hold set on fire and wrecked. As far as can be ascertained there are no indications that this bomb or fragments caused any rupture in the hull.

b.          The second bomb struck at frame 110 port side, passed through the carpenter shop, shipfitter shop, shipfitters locker room (D-1½), fuel oil tanks D-80-P-F and D-82-P-F and left an irregular hole in the hull about 5 feet in diameter just inboard of the bilge keel. The above spaces (D-1½) flooded up to the level of the carpenter shop with fuel and water.

c.          Due to the bomb explosion forward and fire and water in GSK stores, practically all stores are damaged, the extent cannot be ascertained until completion of removal. Heat from this fire necessitated the flooding of the forward magazine containing 100 rounds of target and approximately 580 rounds of service 5" ammunition.

d.          Damage as a result of the magazine explosion on the Arizona and the resultant fires on the Vestal were three life rafts, 6 mooring lines, 1 gangway, rigging and blocks and paintwork burned, stanchions bent, port lenses and windows broken.

1.          At about 0820 a torpedo was seen to pass astern of the Vestal and it apparently hit the Arizona whose bow extended about 100 feet beyond the Vestal. The Arizona also received a bomb hit forward almost simultaneously. Immediately following these the Arizona's forward magazine exploded. This explosion started fires aft and amidships on the Vestal. Shortly after the Arizona was observed to be settling and the fuel oil between Vestal and Arizona was ignited.

2.          At 0830 orders were given to make preparations for getting underway – this had been anticipated by the Engineer Officer. At 0845 the forward lines were cut, the Arizona's quarterdeck was awash, and Vestal got underway on both engines, no steering gear. Tug pulled Vestal's bow away from the Arizona. The Vestal started to list to starboard and was taking water aft. She was maneuvered to position with south end of McGrew's Point bearing 30°, distance 910 yards and at 0910 anchored in 35 feet of water.

3.          Soundings and draft readings were taken continuously; these showed the ship was settling aft and continuing to list to starboard. Draft aft increased to 27 feet and the list to 6 ½°. Because of the unstable condition of the ship due to large amount of free surface, the knowledge that we had two holes in the hull – subsequent inspections showed only one - ship being on fire in several places and the possibility of further attacks, it was decided to ground the ship. At 0950 got underway and maneuvered to position with Old Aiea Railroad Station bearing 73° true and West Tangent of McGrew's Point bearing 320° true; ship grounded. Number 2 white spar buoy close aboard on starboard side amidships. Ship's head 092° true. Depth of water forward 11 feet, amidships 18 feet, aft 27 feet. Draft forward 15 feet, aft 29 feet.

4.          Offensive measures.

a.          At 0755 sounded general quarters. Manned the 3" anti-aircraft and 4 - 5" broadside and 2 - 30 caliber machine guns. At about 0805 opened fire with 3" anti-aircraft gun and both machine guns. After firing three rounds, 3" anti-aircraft gun breech jammed; breech was cleared and one additional round was fired when blast from Arizona magazine cleared gun station killing one man. Machine guns continued firing on enemy planes until they withdrew.

b.          3" anti-aircraft and after machine gun both fired at plane which released torpedo at Arizona and turned toward Vestal. This plane was seen by crew of the machine gun to burst into flame and disappear over Ford Island, this was substantiated by others in the vicinity. Whether the plane was hit by gun fire from Vestal or adjacent ships is not known.

5.          Identified dead - Six Unidentified dead - Three, one from 3" anti-aircraft gun platform and two from stern of Vestal. These men may have been either Arizona personnel blown over by magazine blast or members of Vestal after gun crews; they were burned beyond recognition.

Missing - Seven.

Hospitalized - Nineteen. About twenty per cent of those hospitalized are seriously injured suffering primarily from burns and fractures.

6.          The conduct of all officers and enlisted personnel was exemplary and of such high order that I would especially desire to have them with me in future engagements.

Copy to: Combasefor.

[signed]
C. YOUNG.

*For additional action reports from other ships present, see Pearl Harbor Action Reports, 7 December 1941, from the Naval History and Heritage Command site.

The Aftermath at Pearl, 2

Our carpenter and pipe shops both had large cargo ports, which were either open or were opened by the initial attack. The cargo port in the carpenter shop was just above a camel, which is a large wooden planking structure floating between ships to keep them [Vestal and Arizona] apart. Oil-soaked, burned, and dazed men from the Arizona were climbing from the burning oil and water between the blazing ship and our ship onto the camel. Our men rescued them by pulling them up aboard the Vestal where they were put on cots in our shops. I assisted in the weld shop. I do not remember any of these men having on clothing, except for some who had on “skivvies” (shorts). Their clothes had been burned off, and most suffered from burned flesh and hair…

Where it came from I do not know, but morphine was given when available. When it was administered, the needle was stuck in the earlobe of the victim, bent over and left attached. This was done in order to let someone know down the line that the victim had been given morphine...

USS Arizona ablaze and sinking

Boats came alongside our ship, and their men volunteered to come to the aid of the victims. We lowered the burned Arizona men into these boats. From there they either went to the hospital ship, Solace, or to beach hospitals. We could not give them much hope of surviving the day since they were in such bad condition...

I do not remember the next meal I ate after the attack as I was not too hungry for a while. However, I do remember the meat was either chicken or turkey. As I looked at that undercooked meat, I nearly threw up. It was just too much of a reminder of all the burned human flesh I had seen. I think I was a vegetarian for over a week. Later I began to eat normally with little or no effects.

For quite some time, the odor of fuel oil was a reminder of what we had experienced. When we began to clean up the fuel oil that was all over the lower compartments, the odor there was a constant reminder. Even weeks later, when the ship took on fuel oil and some spilled on the deck, we were reminded. Eventually that too, subsided.

US Vestal's position at the time of the attack

—From Frank L. Dolan's personal account, Pearl Harbor: As I Remember

The Aftermath at Pearl

It was all over by 10:00 AM except for a few diehard Jap pilots with a few more bullets they had not used up… Everything else we saw was smoke, smoke, and more smoke from blazing ships. The Vestal was solidly grounded, but she was down aft and with a starboard list of eight degrees and stable in the mud.

All of my belongings were in a locker below the boiler deck. Everything was ruined by oil and water, except for my shoes and the clothes on my body. It was several days before I was issued extra clothing. The clothes I had on were a mess, but they were all I had. Oh, yes, I had to buy these newly-issued clothes. In fact, they took the cost of the clothes out of my pay. The Navy at that time gave you the first issue of clothing in boot camp. After that, we bought clothing as needed.

Frank L. Dolan, USS Vestal, from his account, Pearl Harbor: As I Remember

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

My dad Frank Dolan, a weldor on the repair ship USS Vestal, which was tied alongside the battleship USS Arizona, 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.

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's 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 burning

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.”

When the Arizona exploded, more than 100 sailors on the Vestal were blown overboard into the flaming, oil-covered water. 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. Having been blown overboard himself, Young swam back to the ship and retook command, calling his men back to their battle stations. To prevent the loss of his ship, Commander Young ran Vestal aground on a coral reef at Aiea. Young became 1 of 15 men to receive the Medal of Honor for bravery in the attack.

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.

While effecting her own repairs, Vestal's crewmen immediately went to work resurrecting the sunken fleet at Pearl Harbor.

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 extraordinary 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 Christ. I wrote about my experience in the post, Meeting God's Samurai.

Alongside the Arizona

My dad, Frank Dolan, remembered that his repair ship, the Vestal, moved alongside the USS Arizona on this date, a Friday in 1941, in preparation for work to begin the following Monday.

We tied up to her, portside to portside, meaning that the Arizona as well as all of the other battleships faced south, and we faced north. All of these huge battleships with 14-inch or 16-inch guns were a sight to behold. After our lines were tied, the weldors threw their welding ground leads over to the Arizona where they were clamped securely, ready for Monday.

Of course, the infamous Japanese attack on Sunday morning will change everyone's plans.

"Battleship Row" on December 7, 1941

Source: Frank L. Dolan's account

Happy Veterans Day, Dad!

My dad, a Pearl Harbor survivor, told us many inspiring and hair-raising stories about his WWII experiences. Over the years, I’ve tried to record as many of these as I could coax him to remember, many of which I'm blogging about here. I also decided to document his war service in manuscript. It was a delight to go back and forth with him in writing and editing over the past few years. Sadly, the work was still in process when he was taken from us last April. But even in his last weeks in the hospital he was still recalling interesting details.

The last tidbit about the war that I remember him relaying was, that while in Hawaii, probably in  1944, he and some buddies one day were pretending to hit a few balls around the golf course. They were taken by complete surprise when a U.S. Army general approached them. After introductions and making a few observations with the sailors, the general played on through their group. Dad had no idea at that moment who he was. A few months later, though, he and the rest of the world recognized General Douglas MacArthur famously wading onto the shore at Leyte in the Philippines declaring, "I have returned."

Source: Naval History & Heritage Museum

President Roosevelt had summoned Gen. MacArthur and Adm. Nimitz to meet with

him in Hawaii to make a decision about the next phase of action against Japan. Nimitz

made the case for attacking Formosa, while MacArthur stressed America's moral obli-

gation to liberate the Philippines. The meeting took place on board USS Baltimore at

Pearl Harbor, on July 26, 1944.

Scary things to do this Halloween

Vision Forum reminds us of what America is missing—fear—the fear of the Lord in particular.  "As a people, we no longer fear God.  Because we do not fear God, we no longer hate evil (Proverbs 8:13)."  The "Five Scariest Things You Can Do This Halloween" is a timely and worthwhile article to read today.

On the Passing of Steve Jobs

A thoughtful reflection by Doug Phillips (Vision Forum Ministries) on the Death of Steve Jobs

Liberty and State Education

Place the lives of children in their formative years, despite the convictions of their parents, under the intimate control of experts appointed by the state, force them then to attend schools where the higher aspirations of humanity are crushed out, and where the mind is filled with the materialism of the day, and it is difficult to see how even the remnants of liberty can subsist. 

J. Gresham Machen (Christianity and Liberalism, 1923)

Daily Life at Pearl, 1941

At Pearl, before the war, we worked on ships that needed their portholes welded up, by taking out the old glass and inserting a circular metal plate that we welded in its place. This was done in case of war for the watertightness of ships and completed mostly on our World War I destroyers… Saturday was the usual ‘captains’ inspection,’ then liberty to Honolulu for those in the liberty section.

—Frank L. Dolan, USS Vestal, 1941