The Fires of Pearl Harbor: MM2c Martin Shew

Ken Harbaugh:

I’m Ken Harbaugh, host of Warriors In Their Own Words. In partnership with the Honor Project, we’ve brought this podcast back at a time when our nation needs these stories more than ever.

Warriors in Their Own Words is our attempt to present an unvarnished, unsanitized truth of what we have asked of those who defend this nation. Thank you for listening, and by doing so, honoring those who have served.

Today, we’ll hear from GM3 Donald Gay Stratton. Stratton was on the USS Arizona directing 5-inch guns during the attack on Pearl Harbor. When a bomb hit his ship, he suffered serious burns on nearly 60% of his body. After an escape into the water couldn’t be found, crew from another vessel tossed a rope to Stratton and his allies. They tied it to the Arizona and for 60ft, swung hand-over-hand to reach safety.

Today, we’ll hear from Captain Frank Guidone. Guidone served in World War II with the Marine Raiders, a special ops force that specialized in amphibious guerilla warfare. In this interview, he recounts his service in the Solomon islands, including the Battle of Edson’s Ridge, the New Georgia campaign, and the Matanikau Offensive.

MM2c Martin Shew:

I finished bootcamp in San Diego in the latter part of 1937 in January. They sent us back on boot leave after that, 30 days. And then I went aboard the Arizona in January 1938.

Well, the shipmates on the Arizona were really gung ho for the Arizona. They loved it. And I did myself almost immediately on going aboard. They scared me because people tried to scare me about regulations on a big ship like that because I'd been told to get a destroyer or something smaller. But after bootcamp I asked for a destroyer or something smaller, I got to Arizona. And this kind of scared me. But when I first took a look at it, it looked like home. And the spirit of the crew was, they loved the ship. I mean, the crew loved the ship. We all did. They had the spirit, a sort of a ship spirit that I didn't see on any of the ships after that. Myself, after I went aboard the sixth division, then I stayed in the sixth division for two years and then I transferred to the A division. While I was in the sixth division, I was in a 40-foot motor launch that we handled supplies and crew going ashore and coming back. And I really liked that job because I was kind of freeing away from a whole bunch of it and got to know so many of the crew. And then later, a little later on I got in, pulling a racing cutter and that was another oar in a racing cutter. And this was another thing that the crew was all behind it, sports minded.

Well, I knew that we was going to get into war. There's no question about that, reading the newspapers about sinking ships, going to the East Coast and sinking German submarine. So instead of getting out, I shipped over for two years. And this was what really saved me because I went back on 30-day shipping overleaf and coming back I rode the USS Neosho, an oil tanker, back to Pearl Harbor. And we got into Hickam Field on Saturday, the 6th of December and offload aviation gas there. And that night at midnight we couldn't get transportation. There's seven of us on there from the Arizona. We couldn't get transportation back to the Arizona.

So that night at midnight they moved to Fort Island between the Oklahoma and California, which is just a few feet apart. And the next morning at eight o'clock, just before eight, a friend of mine that I'd went to school with back home, Robert Sang, he and I was up on deck with our bag and baggage looking for... He was going to the New Orleans, which was over in the yard and I'm trying to get back to the Arizona when the raid hit. Now all of a sudden Robert and I were sitting there talking and here come these planes then. And I said, "Boy, Robert, they sure are getting realistic here these days. And look, they're even dropping torpedoes." And we've seen six of them hit the Oklahoma and from right the stern of us. And from the first one it started listing and got right on over and there was three hit the California, which was just ahead of us. And she didn't go down but rolled over, but she listed kind of heavy to port. And later on they scuttled it down straight and patched the hole in it and then they pumped it out and salvaged it. About that time, here comes the Nevada pulling out and she got abreast of us, which is only a couple of hundred feet away.

One of the big bombs hit on the faux hole and threw anchor chain all over Pearl Harbor. And I said, "Robert, this is no place for me. I'm going to go down to the Arizona," because it was tied up there to Fort Island because she's going to be right behind the Nevada. And as we left the gangway, we noticed the guys from the Oklahoma was helping each other out of the water. And one of the planes had dropped a torpedo come by and scrape these guys in the water. Kind of leaves you wondering. You can't hardly explain it that this is happening. It kind of numbs you.

Well, we caught a firetruck heading down the dock and I told the driver to drop us off at the Arizona because Robert wanted to go, he'd go out with the Arizona. And we got down there just in time for the forward magazines to blow up. And I was about 50 foot from Arizona getting ready to swim out when it blew up. I had just jumped down off of the firetruck. And she went straight up in the air, straight up so you could see the bilge keels and went straight back down. And on the way back down the secondary magazines had went up because it sounded like a big long string of firecrackers. And the first ones, the main magazines, it had done the damage. It was just one big roar.With planes overhead all the time, scared I don't think I was. Just an awesome thing is all to see that much ship go straight up in the air. I think that happened when the bottom must have blown out too, to raise it up straight up to where you can see the bilge keel and then go down and one time, no, just quiver. You feel the concussion but not heat. The heat was either down or at.

And from what I found out later, that this explosion pushed all three protective six inch bulkheads back in the engine room and everything in between. And my battle station was in that area. So I was lucky that I didn't... A few more minutes and I'd have been aboard the Arizona. But by this time there was fire all along the beach and there's nothing I could do there because there was confusion around the part of the ship we could see. I figured on swimming out to the Arizona. And the driver of the truck asked us if we wouldn't stay with it and put the fire out along the dock because it was getting down underneath the fuel docks. There's several whale boats that was in there. I think about three or four whale boats, and they were all on fire and we had enough pressure on it from that hose that cut these whale boats. We practically just destroyed them, take the side right out of them. And so we fought fire there for about two hours and got all of those out and we noticed a PBY on a ramp there for the air station and it was spewing green gas, aviation gas on the ramp. And Robert says, "Well, let's just fill it up with water." So we did.

And then we decided that all the fires was out, we went in the mess hall there on Fort Island and that's a big one. And there was either dead or dying on every table. And so while we were there, we got called to run a truck, a state party truck full of wounded up to IE hospital. So we made two trips there, carried the dead and the dying, and we come back in for the third load. I noticed that the Neosho had moved from the time I had left it, over to the sub base. And I told Robert, I said, "I'm going to drop the truck here and go back aboard the Neosho and get my suitcase and orders." And he says, "Well..." He said, "I got to get back to the New Orleans anyhow." It was over getting repairs in the Navy yard. So we parted then and I never seen Robert again until here just two or three years ago down in Texas. And he remembered the whole thing just like I did, pretty well.

No, when I went back aboard to Arizona, I mean Neosho, by the time we got there it was almost dark and I got my suitcase and everything and went to get my orders so I could go back to receiving station. They were getting ready to go out and part of our fleet was... There was heavy cruisers and tin cans just outside the harbor. And we went out then and fueled them and I figured, "Well, now when it comes in I'll get back to receiving station." But it didn't go back in after we went out and fueled these, oh, half a dozen cruisers and the carrier. Then we come in close to... I think we come in close to the Pearl Harbor at the end and then we got orders. The tanker also got orders to go back to San Pedro and pick up a load of fuel, cargo, so.

After we got through fueling these ships, we went out so far with the task force that was going to go out and look for the Jap fleet and see what they could do, I guess see what they could do with them. And they left us steaming around out there for two or three days by ourself and you could slap the bulkhead and go to general quarters. Everybody was real jumpy. But then on the way back to... When we come back and got a load of cargo on oil and on the way back out, the chief engineer asked me if I'd like to have permanent duty on there. He says, "You're on here now for temporary duty." I say, "No, I will volunteer for it, but I don't want a tanker on a fighting ship." So he says, "If you're not willing to go and stay on here permanent, we'll get you to the receiving station." So when I got off of it, two hours, two or three hours later, they got underway and got, I think it was the midway, not midway... They got into a big battle down in the South Pacific and the Neosho didn't make it. I was kind of lucky to get off of that one.

So I got into the receiving station and they asked me what I wanted. I told them I wanted a battleship because I liked that kind of duty and because I don't think anybody else would volunteer for it, but I did. I liked it. Especially I liked the Arizona, but I got a tank destroyer, Shaw. And I don't know, you've probably seen where it blew up in a floating dry dock, lost 125 foot of bow. But they put a temporary bow on it and we steamed it back to Merry Island and by the time we got to Merry Island, they had a skeleton bow already in the dry dock there and they put us in and pumped the dry dock out and we went down and married onto that bow that they've made for us. And it took about, oh, two and a half, three months to get it all outfitted and ready for action again.

That was a good crew. We got into 13 major engagements with the Japs and some of those was real tight from Guadalcanal, Santa Cruz battle, all the way through the Philippines and Mariana and even got up to Point Barrow, Alaska one night. But we had a good ship in the Shaw. And you live without... You still have that feeling for the [inaudible].

I never did go out to the memorial. I just didn't feel like I could stand it. 1,177. We planned on going out this year, this last December, but then we found out that they're having a 60th anniversary next year and so we canceled last year and we're going to make the next one. The first time to the memorial itself. I've been in and out of Pearl many times after that.

I would say it's a turning point in anybody's life that was out there. I don't know. It just leaves you with a hollow feeling to try to get over losing a ship and knowing just about everybody aboard. I was fortunate enough to be on the athletic mess there. I think most of the time I was in the deck force either pulling an oar in a racing cutter, a wrestling team. And I've got pictures of the crew here, the wrestling team here. And this way I got acquainted with just about everybody, that and running a boat. And it was just hard to take and it's still is hard to take. And I think anything that can be done to preserve her the way she is, is a wonderful thing.

I found out you could do duty on another ship, but it just never was the same. You did a gun hole for the ship, but it's just... Something was missing.

Ken Harbaugh:

That was Machinist Mate 2nd Class Martin Shew.

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Warriors In Their Own Words is a production of Evergreen Podcasts, in partnership with The Honor Project.

Our producer is Declan Rohrs. Brigid Coyne is our production director, and Sean Rule-Hoffman is our Audio Engineer.

Special thanks to Evergreen executive producers, Joan Andrews, Michael DeAloia, and David Moss.