PEARL HARBOR COMRADES & NEIGHBORS VETERANS WILL NEVER FORGET THE DAY.Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY Dennis McCarthy may refer to:
They were a couple of young sailors serving on the same battleship battleship, large, armored warship equipped with the heaviest naval guns. The evolution of the battleship, from the ironclad warship of the mid-19th cent., received great impetus from the Civil War. at 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. - the USS California Six ships of the United States Navy have been named USS California in honor of the 31st state.
Today, they're a couple of retirees cresting crest·ing n. An ornamental ridge, as on top of a wall or roof. 80, living less than a mile from each other on the same street in Reseda - Hesperia Avenue. It wasn't planned that way, Joe Mariani and Ray Kuhlow say. They're not lifelong war buddies who moved to the same block to stay close. They never even knew each other on the USS California. That wasn't unusual, though. Not with 1,200 men serving on the ship when it went down at Pearl - along with most of America's fighting naval fleet - on the ``date which will live in infamy Notoriety; condition of being known as possessing a shameful or disgraceful reputation; loss of character or good reputation. At Common Law, infamy was an individual's legal status that resulted from having been convicted of a particularly reprehensible crime, rendering him ,'' Dec. 7, 1941. ``No, we didn't meet until about 10 or 12 years ago, when I walked into a VFW See Video for Windows. hall in Burbank as a new member and noticed Ray was wearing the same USS California cap I was,'' Joe said. It was the second Sunday of the month, which meant the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. chapter of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association The Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, founded in 1958 and recognized by the United States Congress in 1985,[1] is an organization whose members were at or in the vicinity of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii during the Japanese attack of December 7, 1941. took over the hall for its meetings. There were about 100 men in the room. Today, there are about 30. ``We're all getting up in our 80s,'' Joe said. He didn't feel a need to explain further. It's pretty obvious. The Pearl Harbor survivors are dying off. ``I saw his cap from the California, and we started talking,'' Ray said. ``That's when we found out we both had lived on the same street in Reseda for more than 40 years, and never knew it.'' The men retired to a private corner that day, and got to know each other better. Really know each other - the way only men who have faced death together can. The kid's last name was Menter, Joe said. He couldn't remember his first name because all the guys usually called each other by their last names only. He still remembered his face, though. ``Menter saved my bacon that day,'' Joe said. ``Our anti-aircraft gun had jammed, and a crew of us were sent below to hand out ammunition. ``A bomb hit on deck, and all hell broke loose as the ship started to list. It was so smoky below, we couldn't breath or see anything. ``There was one open hatch, and Menter pushed me up through it. When I made it through, I reached down for his hand to pull him up, but it wasn't there anymore. The ship listed again. He was gone.'' One of 265 sailors who died on the USS California that day. One of more than 3,300 total U.S. casualties at Pearl Harbor, where 18 American war ships were sunk or severely damaged, and almost 200 planes destroyed. ``I was trapped below B deck for five hours with five guys in a small ammunition compartment,'' Ray said. ``The escape trunk had flooded and there was no way out. ``When the third torpedo hit us, one of the seams ruptured and water was coming in through the ventilation system ventilation system Public health An air system designed to maintain negative pressure and exhaust air properly, to minimize the spread of TB and other respiratory pathogens in a health care facility ,'' he said. ``Pretty soon, we were ankle deep, then thigh deep in salt water. We were chest deep when they finally got to us, and we swam for shore with the rest of the guys. I lost a lot of good friends that day, buried at sea.'' You think about the Menters left behind at Pearl a lot, Joe and Ray say, especially on anniversaries like this. Each made it home to marry his sweetheart, drive a car, buy a home and raise a family, the men say. The Menters didn't. So, on this 59th anniversary of a date that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt promised would never be forgotten, a couple of old Pearl Harbor survivors take a walk down Hesperia Avenue to remember some old war buddies. We don't have to remember them - the survivors - the men say, but we should never forget all the Menters who died in war saving this country's bacon. CEREMONY American Legion American Legion, national association of male and female war veterans, founded (1919) in Paris. Membership is open to veterans of World Wars I and II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. Post 193 in Van Nuys will host the fifth annual Pearl Harbor Day remembrance ceremonies beginning at 10 a.m. today at the Veterans Memorial in Van Nuys-Sherman Oaks Park, 14201 Huston St., Van Nuys. CAPTION(S): photo, box Photo: (color) Joe Mariani, left, and Ray Kuhlow are Pearl Harbor survivors who ended up living on the same street in Reseda. Evan Yee/Staff Photographer Box: CEREMONY (See text) |
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