~ JACK CARSON ~
on the USS Henley

Pearl Harbor Survivor Jack Carson’s Review of His Navy Duty At Start Of World War II This review of Jack Carson’s time in the Navy from 1940 pre-Pearl Harbor attack to the end of his enlistment in August 1946 was written by Jack as briefs to help him later write a book. Except for a couple minor changes in punctuation and spelling, the printed story is presented as he wrote it. While in correct sequence, his statements are short and were not intended to be a final draft, but as a thread for him to follow and later flesh out with many side stories and insights of what he saw, heard and experienced. In reading the first page, it sounds as if Jack had a couple pages written before, possibly on his enlistment. However, no other pages were found and what you read, is what was what Jack had stapled together.

We went from San Diego to Pearl Harbor in November 1940. We met the rest of our Squadron, Squad Dog 4, Division 7. We had the Commander on the Henley.

We operated with Battleships and some Cruiser Task Forces. We usually stayed at sea for a week and in port for a week.

We fired our 5” Main Guns and once in awhile, we’d fire our torpedos, the chase them and pick them up. We did all kinds of training during 1941,and we were fairly good sailors.

I knew Verl Heater was on the Arizona and we met on the beach in November 1941. I was to meet him at the Fleet Landing on Dec. 7th. Verl was killed when the Japs bombed.

I had made Seaman 1st Class in November and was the Gig Boat Coxswain. I had the boat duty December 7th.

The Petty Officer of the Watch, came running and said “belay that” as he had pulled the wrong alarm lever. We all settled down to wait when the General Alarm went off again.

We all ran to the top side again, only this time we could see the airplanes dropping bombs on Ford Island. We seen a plane real close off our Port Quarters with a torpedo hanging down with a big rising sun on it’s side

It dropped the torpedo and we watched the torpedo head for either the Utah or the cruiser Detroit.We then knew it was the real thing and manned our Battle Stations.

Approximately half of our crew were ashore and my gun only had about 6 men of a crew of about 20. My Battle Station was gun #4 and I was the powder loader to make the shells explode at an airplane’s height.

The shells have to be cranked in, and as we didn’t have anyone to crank, we fired the shells anyway. They would go up and come down in Honolulu and explode.We fired approximately 70 rounds on my gun so may have killed some civilians in the city.

We had gotten our steam up and orders came to get under way. We took axes and chopped our lines loose from the ships we were tied to. We were the second ship out of the harbor because of the mistake of the Petty Officer of the Watch. As we went by the USS Utah, it was still rolling over and I remember the men running on the bottom, staying with the rolling ship.

The Destroyer in front of us was dropping depth charges on a midget submarine and we almost hit her. We were strafed twice going out, but no one was hit. Our Captain and Executive Officer were on the shore and a Lieutenant J.G.Fleck took us out. We didn’t know what to do and we were real jumpy. Some one thought Venus was an airplane and to be safe we fired about 10 rounds of 5” at it.

The Captain and Exec. came out of the harbor and on an old 4 stack Destroyer and as we didn’t have any boats, we tied a line to a life raft, lowered it over the side and trailed it behind us,

The old Destroyer came to the raft and the Capt. and Exec. climbed down into the raft. We then started to retrieve the raft and the line parted. It took almost an hour for the green J.G. to get our ship alongside the raft and pickup our Capt. and Exec.

The other ships that weren’t sunk or damaged were by then coming out of the harbor and we formed up a Task Force and headed S.W at about 30 knots. We were going so fast that we couldn’t stand on our open gun mount. The fan tail was almost under water. We ran till after dark at that speed.

The Exec. came back and told us, the main body of the Japanese fleet was 250 miles SW of f Pearl and we expected to make contact at dawn. All I could think of was 20 battleships, 40 cruisers, 15 aircraft carriers. We had 4 light and heavy cruisers and 7 destroyers. Things didn’t look too good.

The next morning, just at break of dawn, a tall forked mast came over the horizon; thank God it turned out to be the USS Chicago. The Jap fleet turned out to be N.W. of Pearl. We cruised all day and the next morning, headed back to Pearl Harbor.

Coming back They told us that the damage was light and that our battleships would all be out later. The devastation was unbelievable. As you go into Pearl Harbor, Hickam Field is on your right. It was completely blown up. You then came up on Ford Island and it was just as bad. We then began to see the damaged ships In the Harbor The Nevada was grounded and sunk on our left. A couple cruisers sunk on our right, also the Utah was bottom side up and we hadn’t seen the battleships yet. We again tied up to a buoy, our boat came alongside and we got a sound contact. I was then told to go in the whaleboat, was given a line with a grappling hook on it. A signalman then got into the boat and a signalman on the bridge told us which way to go.

We trailed the grappling hook over the side and all of the sudden we started to go backwards. We had hooked a midget sub. As our ship couldn’t drop depth charges, we tied a buoy to the line and the sub took it under a hospital ship nearby. When the sub came out again, I believe a Torpedo Boat dropped charges on it and sank it.

Out of the Harbor
We got underway in a couple days with a Task Force and the carrier Saratoga. We weren’t too far out and hardly cleared the Hawaiian Islands when my ship (Henley) got a sound contact. The skipper asked for flank speed and to drop one depth charge. He got his depth charge dropped but no flank speed. It almost blew us out of the water. We lost all power for about 10 seconds. Then the sub fired torpedos at the Sara and she took one amidships and went dead in the water for about a minute, then went right up to twenty knots.

We escorted her back to Pearl, lay around for a couple of days, then went out with the Enterprise headed for Wake Island.We also had a couple transports with Marines. We hit the International Dateline, so we had two Xmas eves.

The Japs were there ahead of us so we brought the Enterprise back to Pearl. It seemed as if five subs were waiting as torpedos went everywhere. We patroled outside and made short runs.

We finally loaded some Army Airforce men, supplies and were off for Canton Island. It is about a thousand miles southwest of Pearl. It would have to be the worst place in the world. It’s about 3 or 4 miles long, a mile wide and don’t look like it sits out of the water 10 feet. I really felt sorry for those guys when we dropped them on the beach.

We went back to Pearl again. Operated in and out (for) till Feb. We then formed up with the Helm and the Shaw. The Shaw had her bow blown off on the 7th and they put a false bow on that looked like a sled. We escorted her to Mare Island, then went alongside the Dixie.

Remodel at Mare Island
They chopped off our mast and my old crows nest and put on Radar. We also had new depth charge Y-guns and 20 mm guns put on. We were in San Francisco for a week, then the Henley and Helm formed up with a huge convoy. There were about 10 large transports and we had hardley got lined up and the Farrolon(sp) were still in sight when we got a sound contact.

Coral Sea Battle
We had only been in Caledonia about a week and we were sent into the Coral Sea to pick up survivors off ther USS Sims, a DD and the USS Neosha, a fleet tanker.The had gotten in between the two airfleets and the Japs put it to them.

The Sims was sunk and the Neosho was stopped and was listing about 25 degrees. Most of the men off the Sims tried to take a boat and some rafts and make land. Only a couple of the guys made it. They were at sea quite awhile. Many men were burned off the Neosho and we put them in one of our sleeping quarters. God how they smelled. I was helping bathe one guy in ice water when he died. First time I had ever seen someone die.

Brisbane
We sank the Neosho with our 5” and took the survivors into Brisbane, Australia. What a welcome we got in Brisbane. We were the first warship they had seen since the Coral Sea battle and they thought we had run the Japs off, ..and maybe we did. The women tried to tear off our buttons and the people were wonderful.

We stayed in Brisbane for a couple of weeks waiting for our division to form up. We then joined the Australian fleet, two heavy cruisers and four light.; approximately eight destroyers. We then started convoying in the Great Barrier Reef to New Guinea. We would take a convoy to the New Guinea area. Shell some beaches and some nights go along the New Guinea coast sinking landing barges then going through the men dropping depth charges.

We had one real scary night, when the Henley went into Milne Bay where two Jap cruisers or Destroyers were shelling the beach. It was a real narrow opening in there and as we came around one turn, there was a destroyer that turned out to be one of the Australians.

New Zealand
In July 1942 we formed up with the Australian Canberra and the rest of the Australian fleet.Our Squadron finally got topgether. We all went to New Zealand where we picked up many, many transports carrying the 1st Marine Division and headed for Guadalcanal.

Guadalcanal
We were the lead ship in on August 7th 1942 and we took some ships to the Tulagi side, where we shelled the beach and got in real close at times. On the second day, we had 3 or 4 big air raids. We finally shot down two airplanes. They were large ‘Betty’ torpedo planes.

Jap Fleet
The second night we were retired with the transports but about midnight, a Jap fleet that wasn’t supposed to get there before dawn, came in early and had 4 of our heavy cruisers sunk and others badly damaged. We somehow got right in the middle of the bigger ships and didn't know who was who. We were straddled with shells once but were very lucky. Of all the battles, the night sea battle is the worst, as all the shells light up from friction and they look like they are going to hit you.

Losing the USS Blue
We left with the transports the next day for New Caledonia, stayed for a week, then left with the USS Blue and two supply ships for Guadalcanal.

Our first night in there, we had changed our Division Commander to the Blue and as she led us in, a Jap destroyer, fired two torpedos and one hit the Blue’s stern and the fantail hung down.The Henley tried to tow the Blue, but with the stern hanging down, it couldn’t be done.

We did lay overnight next to Tulagi in one of the scariest nights of the war. The next day the Japs were coming in one end , so we took the crew off and sank the Blue.

Australia again
We returned to New Caledonia and from there, back to Australia and the Australian fleet. We lost the Canberra, a heavy cruiser, one light cruiser and our Squadron lost 5 of 9 Destroyers.

We started to make landings along the New Guinea coast for the next year. Occasionally,we were sent to Sidney, Australia.

There we would go alongside the Dobbin for Destroyer Tender. We also made a couple of trips to Melbourne. One time to escort the Queen Mary, Ackwiania and the Isle of France, three very large transports returning the Australian Army from Europe.

The Queen Mary was the lead ship and as we pulled in front to escort, our Captain didn’t realize the ships were doing 30 knots, and we were almost run down.

McArthur’s Navy
We always returned north to New Guinea. They had taken the remnants of two or three Squadrons that were beat up in Guadalcanal and made one. Our new Squadron and the Australian fleet were now called McArthur’s Navy and we were under his jurisdiction.

We also had some L.S.T.’s and L.C.I.’s. We usually anchored in Buna and made numerous run’s north along the New Guinea coast. In Sept 1942, we landed Australian troops at Finchhaven. The Japs sent approximately 40 planes down from Rabaul. Eleven of them made torpedo runs on the ships, five of them were shot down by our ship. The best shooting I had seen during the war.

They were all large ‘Betty’torpedo bombers. We returned to Buna and on the 6th of October 1943, we were sent north late in the afternoon. We were searching for a submarine.

Henley gets sunk
We had just passed ‘Last Chance Rock’. (Last chance to go to the bathroom before you went to general-quarters), when a submarine lying in near the beach fired a spread of five torpedos. We were the trailing Destroyer of three and we were making twenty five knots. Two torpedos crossed our bow and two crossed our stern. The fifth hit us in the forward fire room, killing everyone in there. The ship was blown almost in two and rolled way over to starboard.

I was on the after deckhouse and hung on to keep from going over the side. The ship was broke in two and sinking and also going in circles. When word came to abandon ship, I had seen one life raft float by that someone up front had thrown overboard. So when I seen another coming, I jumped down to the main deck, stepped out on the starboard screw shroud and then stepped in the raft and hardly got my feet wet.

In the life raft
I floated away and then almost got scared because I was all alone. About this time I think someone came swimming out to my raft, including my old buddy Steve Wozniak. He couldn’t swim much better than me but he sure made it to my raft with haste. I think we ended up with at least 20 guys on my raft and we had to stand up as the raft was under water.

Henley goes under
The ship started going down immediately after she was hit and except for the bow, it went down in two minutes. There were two large explosions when the stern went down and everyone thinks it was two depth charges. Several men died later from the explosion and one was a good friend, Dick Schroeder.

We tied all the rafts together and almost immediately it got dark. We floated around for almost nine hours before we were picked up. We were fairly sure we’d be picked up as we had two Destroyers with us.

We were floating in a lot of fuel oil and had it in our eyes, nose, ears and also swallowed some. Early the next morning, the USS Reid came back to us and we did have to swim about 150 feet to a life net hung over the side. As I was so tired, but some strong-armed guy reached down and pulled me up over the side. Boy that felt good.

We had about 8 men that were blown or jumped over the side and they were in the water 18 hours with no life rafts. One of them was my buddy, Dick Schroeder. The USS Reid took us back to Buna where we were put on an old converted 4 stack Destroyer. It then took us either to Cairons or Townville, Australia. We then got on board a little old train that looked like a Toonerville Trolly.

Brisbane
We then went to Brisbane where we laid over for a couple days, then put aboard another train of a different gauge, to Sydney.

Here we were put aboard the USS United States. Our largest luxury liner before the war. We then went all by ourselves to San Francisco, arriving Nov. 1st, 1943.

We were sent to Treasure Island and given new clothes, then in a couple days we were given 30 day Survivor Leave. I hadn’t been home in almost 3 years, needless to say, it sure was great. I wasn’t real sure where we lived in Sherwood and hadn’t told anyone I was coming, so I really surprised my mother, brother and younger sister.

Henley Recap
The USS Henley was in 5 major battles and too many landings, scrimmages and air raids to count. She shot down 7 airplanes, possible two subs and sank two ships, both of them ours.We picked up numerous pilots, escorted many ships, but generally were very lucky to not gotten killed or hurt.

USS Ross, DD563
I was sent from treasure Island to Seattle and put the Ross in commission. I was now Boatswain Mate 3rd class and was put in charge of the mess hall. The Ross was a much larger destroyer and was a very sophisticated ship electronically. Had five 5” dual purpose guns, where the Henley had 95% regular Navy, the Ross had about 95% Reserves.

Crew Member Attitudes
I couldn’t believe the difference. I think all Seamen on the Ross had been in a Chicago jail or had just gotten out. I had told the mess cooks to hold Field-day and to shine all the brightwork. One of my mess cooks told me,”if you want them shined, do it yourself”! I had never been talked to like that before and it took some thinking of what if my old Boatswain Mate on the Henley would have done if you ever had even thought of such talk. Anyway, he paid. I had further satisfaction when the Ross started out of the Straits of Juan de Fuca in the northwest area of the State of Washington, coming from from the Puget Sound Navy Yard.

Sea Sick
The ship didn’t make 10 jumps in the Pacific before all but one of my mess cooks was sick. I gave each a bucket and very little sympathy. We also had been told by the Exec. to serve Night Rations at 2200 (10 PM). As I only had one messcook that wasn’t sea sick, we took sandwiches and coffee and started out. I have never been called so many names, especially from gun one on the bow. It’s hard enough getting up there without all the insults. We finally ended up on the Bridge and hadn’t given out one sandwich and maybe one cup of coffee.

I asked if anyone wanted a sandwich or a cup of coffee. Amid all the groans and threats, we heard the Captain, Commander Cole say “I don’t want a sandwich, but I will have a cup of coffee.”

Initiating A Novice Crew
The Ross was a strange ship in that we had a lot of slick armed (no hash marks) Chiefs; and most of the Officers had never seen a ship, let alone a war ship. The Skipper had never been on a Destroyer and was as sick as anyone else.

When we went across the equator on the Ross, there were only about 20 Shellbacks and the rest were Polywogs. When we went across the equator, I was King Neptune and damned near got killed. I had a beautiful beard growing and the Polywogs shaved half of it off.

We had a very loud Chief Boatswains Mate that had done a cruise in peace time and had gotten out as a Seaman First and worked for a wire splicing outfit. So when he went back into the Navy, naturally they made him a Chief. They did send all of the Boatswain Mates from the Henley, and so we did get by. We went from Seattle to San Diego where we trained for a month or so to study the ship.

The Ross Gets Ready
Within the months training in San Diego, I was assigned my battle station on the Ross and became Pointer on Gun #2. I was later made Gun Captain of the Mid 20 millimeter guns... From San Diego, we went to Pearl Harbor. We had hardly tied up when 3 or 4 LST’s loaded with ammunition blew up.... (the ships that blew up were probably the ships of the 2nd Marine Division who had just massed their unit for the assault on Saipan. The ships were loaded with fuel, artillery shells, tanks, amphibian tanks and other related materials needed in an assault mission. The Marine assault proceeded as scheduled. The main fleet was scattered around Oahu, in P.H. and at the Honolulu docks.)

It really shook things
We then escorted ships to the South Pacific. I can’t remember all the islands we went to but one was Guadalcanal. The first action we seen was at Kwajalein atoll, where a couple of Jap planes attacked the anchorage. I was still pointer on gun #1 and I fired the gun when it was pointed near the bridge. The flash from the gun burned the Exec. Officer. He had looked over the side just as we fired. It was just a flash burn.

Escorting Ships
We escorted ships all over, and in July or August of 1944, we landed Marines and Army at Peleleu. We were firing our guns just over the heads of the Marines and we went in to under 2000 yards. I have never seen so much gun fire on landing troops. It was looked like rain coming down on them. From Peleleu, we took a fast transport, a heavy Cruiser and 4 or 5 Destroyers and made a fast run to Ulithi Islands.

Ulithi Islands
We fired at the one island and someone said we killed the Chief’s daughter. The Japs had already left. Ulithi Turned out to be one of the best anchorages in the Pacific.When the ammunition ship USS Mt.Hood blew up, I was 10 or 12 miles away on the beach and it blew me on my face. We then went to the Marshall Islands. This time we escorted some small Aircraft Carriers, also fired starshells for two or three nights. They found a Jap fleet in the China Sea and sent all of our aircraft to their maximum range. When they came back, they were almost all out of fuel and everywhere we looked, there were planes falling into the water. We picked up about 15 pilots and crewmen. That night was terribly dark and we happened to see a light in the water. It turned out to be another pilot. He was really lucky.

The Ross Hits A Mine
Some time in early October 1944, we were sent to Leyte to protect about 40 small mine sweepers from aircraft. It two or three days before they landed. At about midnight, our first night in there, we hit a mine. I was sleeping in a hammock near midship guns and the explosion blew me out of my hammock behind a ready ammunition locker. I could tell it was a bad hit as the ship took an immediate list.

My crew manned the guns but there was nothing to shoot at. I couldn’t get anyone on the phones, so I told my crew I thought we were hit by a torpedo, and if we were hit by another, we would launch a nearby liferaft.

Almost immediately there was a tremendous explosion right under us. The ship listed way over and as we couldn’t get any instructions, we launched our life raft and got in it. We were then told to come back aboard and I was told to help launch the whale boat and to coxswain it.

There was a large seagoing tug that got ahold of us and pulled us out of the mine field. They pumped out some of the compartment and got the ship leveled off. We only had about a foot of freeboard and the ship stayed that way for a month.

The next morning a Jap plane came over our island to which they had towed us next to. It dropped a couple of bombs and killed a couple more men. That afternoon, one of our airplanes came over the same island and we shot him down.

Limping Along
When the landing fleet came in the next morning, they towed us in among all the ships where we stayed a month. We were so badly hit that we could only use our forward two 5” guns. We did shoot down 3 Jap planes while in that condition. The ship had two large holes in the bottom and 30 ft. was gone out of the keel in the forward hole and 20 ft out of the after hole. When a ship went by too fast, it would make waves and our ship would ride them like a piece of paper.

A bad typhoon hit us and I think it was the longest night I have ever had. Our sleeping quarters were all under water as was our mess hall and we had to eat and sleep up on deck. There were approximately 30 men in the fire and engine rooms and we could always smell them. We had no fresh water and we had to take salt water baths. We rigged up an outdoor toilet over the fan tail.

We stayed there for a few weeks and then an old, slow Liberty ship took us in tow.

We went on a real southern route, stayed in warm weather and when ever they would see a rain squall, they would head for it so that we could all wash clothes and take showers. We stopped a few days in Pearl Harbor, then left for the States.

A fleet tug finally got ahold of us and towed us to Mare Island Ship Yard. They were waiting for us when we got there and went right into drydock, We slept in barracks on the station and also given 30 day survivor leave, and once again I didn’t tell anyone I was coming and once again I was a big surprise.

After my leave, I turned in at the Bremerton Naval Ship Yard. I was then sent to Treasure Island Naval Receiving Station to go to a Destroyer School, after riding them for five years. So while I was there, they asked for Boatswain Mates for Ships Company. I was given duty there one day after the war was over.

I was made Master at Arms of the Transit Chiefs Quarters. I met Fran at a dance in Oakland on a Saturday night and two weeks later we were married. I was then made the Master of Arms of Personnel office and made 1st Class Boatswain Mate while there.

The End of WWII
The Closing Years
I met Captain Robert Hall Smith while there. He was the Captain of the Henley and later became Division Commander. I was his Boat Coxswain for a couple years. He was in charge of the Destroyer school on the base. My term was almost over and he told me he would make me a Chief and could guarantee me at least a year and a half shore duty. I would have had to extend my enlistment for two years but I was very tired of the Navy and had already decided to go out of the service.

I had some terrible times and I had some enjoyable times. Thank God the good out weighed the bad.

WWII (circa 1944) - In their casual dungaree uniforms, three Sherwood, Oregon sailors on leave seem to be having a good time at home. (left to right) Jack Carson, Earl Parrott, Steve Wozniak