'41 MEMORY UNDIMMED WWII SAILOR MARVELS AT SURVIVING PEARL HARBOR ATTACK.Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer LANCASTER - When bombs began dropping on Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor, land-locked harbor, on the southern coast of Oahu island, Hawaii, W of Honolulu; one of the largest and best natural harbors in the E Pacific Ocean. In the vicinity are many U.S. military installations, including the chief U.S. on Dec. 7, 1941, Ken Creese was a 17-year-old seaman looking forward to Sunday liberty ashore and getting dressed down in his quarters aboard the light cruiser A light cruiser is a warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armoured cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armour in the same way as an armoured cruiser; a protective belt and deck. USS Detroit USS Detroit may refer to:
Running up on deck when fire alarms sounded, he saw flames burning on nearby Ford Island, a speck of land in the middle of the harbor where his ship was moored. He got put to work passing cannon shells to the gunners firing at Japanese planes flying in low overhead. ``I was getting ready to go on liberty. I was going to take a trip around (Oahu). I never did. I never took a trip around (it) until 1971, during one of our Pearl Harbor reunions,'' said Creese, now 80 and a retired aerospace worker living in Lancaster. The sneak attack sank or damaged nine battleships The list of battleships includes all battleships since 1859, listed alphabetically. The list also contains battlecruisers which share most of the characteristics of a battleship or have otherwise been referred to as battleships. and killed nearly 2,400 Americans. A torpedo passed beneath the USS Detroit and bombs narrowly missed it, but - in what seemed like a miracle - Creese's cruiser emerged unscathed. ``The good Lord was looking after us,'' Creese said. The Detroit evaded another torpedo fired by a submarine as it headed out of the harbor to hunt for Japanese transport ships believed - incorrectly - to be landing soldiers on Oahu. Creese had joined the Navy eight months earlier after dropping out of high school. He didn't like English class, he said, and his was another mouth for his widowed mother to feed during the lingering Great Depression. His father had served in the Army, but Creese, who grew up in San Diego San Diego (săn dēā`gō), city (1990 pop. 1,110,549), seat of San Diego co., S Calif., on San Diego Bay; inc. 1850. San Diego includes the unincorporated communities of La Jolla and Spring Valley. Coronado is across the bay. , didn't want anything to do with foxholes. ``I always felt that as long as the ship was afloat I had a place to eat and sleep,'' he said. ``If it wasn't afloat it didn't matter.'' Creese can't remember being afraid during the attack, though he admits feeling distracted while he and other sailors were ordered, during a lull between the attacking waves of planes, to cut down canvas shades erected over the deck. ``I kept looking over my shoulder to see if those guys were coming back,'' he said. The first time he can remember being afraid, he said, was when the Detroit and other ships were searching for the Japanese fleet, which they never found. In a rain squall, Creese was posted as a lookout. ``I thought, man, I'm going to be the first one to see these guys and the first one who's going to be hit,'' Creese said. In 1944, Creese left the Detroit, which went on to serve at Iwo Jima Iwo Jima (ē`wō jē`mə, ē`wô), Jap. Io-jima, volcanic island, c.8 sq mi (21 sq km), W Pacific, largest and most important of the Volcano Islands. Mt. and Okinawa and to steam into Tokyo Bay Tokyo Bay Inlet, western Pacific Ocean. Located off the east-central coast of Honshu, Japan, it is about 30 mi (48 km) long and 20 mi (32 km) wide. It provides a spacious harbour area for several Japanese cities, including Tokyo, Yokohama, and Kawasaki. in 1945 for the Japanese surrender. After 48 months of sea duty without leave, Creese spent the rest of the war in San Diego as a radio man. After the war, Creese earned a radio license, worked for radio stations as a combination announcer and engineer, got married and then got into the aircraft industry. He worked on aircraft that included the X-15 rocket plane rocket plane n. 1. An aircraft powered by one or more rocket engines. 2. An aircraft designed to carry and launch rockets. and the B-2 stealth bomber before retiring from Northrop in Palmdale in 1991. In 1974 he and other veterans founded a Mojave Desert Mojave or Mohave Desert, c.15,000 sq mi (38,850 sq km), region of low, barren mountains and flat valleys, 2,000 to 5,000 ft (610–1,524 m) high, S Calif.; part of the Great Basin of the United States. chapter of the Pearl Harbor Survivors. The chapter disbanded in 1987 because most members died or moved away. He belongs to the Burbank chapter now. A past national commander and national vice commander of the Pearl Harbor Survivors, he got to meet President George H.W. Bush Noun 1. George H.W. Bush - vice president under Reagan and 41st President of the United States (born in 1924) George Herbert Walker Bush, President Bush, George Bush, Bush in 1990 at the White House and invited him to the 50th anniversary commemoration of the Pearl Harbor attack Pearl Harbor attack (Dec. 7, 1941) Surprise aerial attack by the Japanese on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu island, Hawaii, that precipitated U.S. entry into World War II. In the decade preceding the attack, U.S. . Charles F. Bostwick, (661) 267-5741 chuck.bostwick(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): 3 photos Photo: (1 -- color -- ran in Valley edition only) In a painting of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Ken Creese, 80, points to the ship he was on as a U.S. sailor Dec. 7, 1941. (2 -- ran in AV edition only) Ken Creese, one of the U.S. sailors who survived the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, salutes the flag in front of his home in Lancaster. Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer (3 -- ran in Valley edition only) Ken Creese was a 17-year-old sailor when under fire at Pearl Harbor. |
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