Navy vet recalls Pearl Harbor

Many shipmates

died in attack

By FRITZ BUSCH

Journal Staff Writer

HANSKA -- While the drums of another Persian Gulf war are being beaten, a little more than 61 years ago, 87-year-old Pearl Harbor survivor Walter "Bud" Anderson still remembers with vivid detail the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that claimed the lives of 110 of his U.S. Navy shipmates on the battleship USS Nevada.

With bombs and torpedoes exploding all around him, killing many of his shipmates, Anderson survived the Dec. 7, 1941, attack without a scratch.

Anderson signed a six-year enlistment in the Navy on Nov. 27, 1940. He attended boot camp near Chicago before reporting aboard the USS Nevada at Bremerton, Wash.

As a seaman, he rode the ship to Long Beach, Calif., for a few days of recreation before sailing west to Pearl Harbor in April of 1941.

The Nevada was part of a task force that included the battleships USS Arizona and Oklahoma and several destroyers. In Pearl Harbor, the Nevada joined the battleships California, Tennessee, West Virginia and Maryland, among other ships.

In Honolulu, Anderson had Cinderella liberty, meaning he had to be back on ship by midnight. Only officers and those with passes could stay in town overnight.

The day before the attack, the gun powder for the Nevada's 14-inch guns was taken ashore in ammunition barges. The move saved the ammunition from being blown up during the bombing.

Anderson went ashore on liberty the evening of Dec. 6. At 5:30 a.m. Sunday, his gun turret crew went to the boat deck to stand a 5-inch anti-aircraft gun watch.

Anderson ate breakfast and was thinking about writing a letter home when he went to the No. 1 turret on the ship's shell deck.

Then the chaos began.

"About the time I got there, another sailor came down," Anderson said. "He was all shook up and said Japanese planes were bombing the ships."

The Nevada's general quarters alarm sounded, and Anderson went to his battle station in the right powder upper with two other sailors. When the ship was steaming, gunpowder was brought to them before they opened the door in the turret bulkhead. The guns were not to be fired in port.

Anderson got word that he was to go to the gun room, then to the ship's canteen (food store) and report to Chief Warrant Officer Hill. An enlisted sailor with many years of service, Hill later died that day on the ship.

The Nevada tried to get under way even though its big guns couldn't be fired because there was no powder for them. Anderson went to the bridge to report all lines were clear.

As he was leaving the bridge, a Japanese bomb fell on it, killing a captain. Another bomb went through the bridge, hit an ammunition ready box and exploded, driving shrapnel in all directions.

Anderson witnessed the gruesome injuries suffered by the sailors. A first-class gunner's mate sitting in a chair was hit. His intestines protruded from a large hole in his stomach. He was still conscious, but near death.

Anderson went on deck and saw a sailor minus a leg sitting on a chair. A chaplain tried to stop the bleeding with a tourniquet. He put Anderson in charge of helping him until he was taken to the rear of the ship and transported to the hospital.

Anderson was told to abandon ship, but instead he chose to ride it down the harbor, past a bombed ship in dry dock.

"We were so close to the burning ship, we could feel the heat," Anderson said.

A Marine officer told him to help him with a fire hose, attempting to put out some of the nine fires on the Nevada. A water main was broken. No water ever got to the hose.

A fire tug pulled alongside the Nevada, which was near the USS Shaw that was destroyed in the most spectacular explosion of that day. Anderson felt the heat of the Shaw explosion.

The Nevada bow can be seen in the popular Pearl Harbor attack photo of the Shaw explosion that sent parts of the ship flying in many directions.

One of the most horrifying memories for Anderson was seeing a Nevada gun deck boat crew. They wore shorts and undershirts. Some of the men were burned so badly, they were screaming in pain as they manned their guns.

The Nevada took so many bombs and torpedoes from Japanese planes, it had to be beached. It was a much better fate than sinking in the harbor and blocking it.

Anderson went back to the same gun mount, since the Nevada's main crew was killed or wounded. Just after dark, planes from U.S. aircraft carriers were flying towards Ford Island.

"It was stupid because when the planes got to Pearl, our gunners thought they were Japanese planes and fired on them until an officer told us they were friendly planes," Anderson said.

With no place to eat on ship, what was left of the Nevada crew went ashore for food, standing in a half-mile long line. Anderson was offered the chance to strike for gunner's mate on the Nevada, but she was taken out of commission Dec. 10.

He was sent to the light cruiser St. Louis that escorted military families back to San Francisco. The ship was known in the Navy as the "Lucky Louie" because it narrowly escaped disaster several times.

The duty was arduous at times. He spent 72 consecutive days and nights aboard ship during the Battle of Okinawa. He stood duty watches every four hours with air raids in between.

Anderson had no bunk on the St. Louis, but he found a place on the ship's deck to sleep. He later got a bunk four decks below and kept it for nearly five years. He became a crane operator on the ship. His his new job was picking planes out of the water.

During his tour on the St. Louis, a Japanese kamikaze pilot hit the ship and killed 17 sailors. The Japanese pilot was given a burial at sea with the U.S. sailors that died.

Another notable event occured after the war was actually over but the news had not yet reached his ship.

"Most Americans were celebrating the end of the war on the beach , but we were at battle stations because a Japanese submarine was nearby," Anderson said. "I saw one of its torpedoes go past our fantail as we were making a turn to avoid it. It was close."

Anderson later served at Bremerton, Wash., on a tug in Portland, Ore., then back in Pearl Harbor on a yard craft. The only injury he sustained was a bruised toe that turned black and blue when a piece of flat iron fell on it during a South Pacific sea battle.

He was discharged from the Navy in December 1946 after six years of service. He married his wife Norma in San Francisco in 1946. She died 2 1/2 years ago. They owned and operated Hanska Meats for 27 years.

Anderson hand wrote his most memorable war stories on seven pages of paper. He receives quarterly newsletters from shipmates from Pearl Harbor and his former ships. He attended the 40th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack 21 years ago.