A retired California Superior Court judge, he was aboard the Sumner, a hydrographic survey ship, on Dec. 7, 1941.
I was in the officers' mess ((when)) the officer of the deck came flying in to say planes were dropping bombs. Within 100 yards was a plane with a big red dot on it. I thought it must be a war game -- the reds against the blues.
We were given credit for shooting down the first Japanese aircraft of the war. One of our old blunderbuss antiaircraft guns lined up one of the planes and hit him. A bomb hit near...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
