~ WARREN LAW ~
on the USS Reid

Warren Law, 1944 Honolulu, Hawaii

My Pearl Harbor Story By Warren Law, SKCS, USN (Ret.) On December 7th, 1941 I was a 2nd Class Storekeeper serving in the USS REID (DD369) a MAHAN Class destroyer built in 1936. At the time of the attack I was still in my bunk but awake and thinking about going ashore for an afternoon liberty. When the General Alarm sounded I started to get up and the fellow in the bunk just forward of mine was also getting up when he said, “What time is it?” I looked at my watch and told him. “About five to eight.” His next remark was to the effect that they must be testing the General Alarm which was usually tested at eight every morning except Sundays and Holidays, and it would sometimes be tested on these days if the Gangway Watch forgot what day it was. With this in mind we both started to lie back down when we heard one of our machine guns firing. That told us it was no drill.

I put on my pants and shoes, grabbed my shirt and headed for my Battle Station on the 5” Gun Director on the flying bridge. My bunk was in the after living quarters and the ladder to the main deck opened facing aft which had me looking at Ford Island as I came up. There were already fires showing but I couldn’t see anything else except an airplane going by which had a big red ball on the side and knew it was Japanese. My first thoughts were that this couldn’t be happening as there were peace talks going on in Washington D.C. Since I personally couldn’t do anything to stop what was going on, I did what my 3 plus years of training taught me - go to your battle station. On my way forward I had to pass the torpedo tubes and had the thought that there was a lot of explosive power in them which probably made me move even faster to get past them.

As we got the gun director manned we tried to get a firing solution as the two after guns reported being manned and ready. But we had a problem with the fact that the director could only go 5 degrees past dead astern. This meant if we picked up a plane coming across our stern from left to right we would hit the stop at 185 degrees and would haft to slew around to the other side to pick up the target and by the time we did this he was gone. So after a few tries we gave up trying to use the director with the 5” guns and told the after guns to use local control. We soon found this to be useless as the guns couldn’t be trained around fast enough to keep up with a plane traveling well over 200 mph. That left us with just our two after .50cal. machine guns. This was because we were tied up to the USS WHITNEY a destroyer tender in the middle of a two weeks maintenance and upkeep period along with four other destroyers. We were the second ship out from the WHITNEY which limited our ability to fight back.

Because we were in the middle of our maintenance and upkeep period we were partially torn down in the engineering spaces. Fortunately most of the crew was onboard and the engineers worked hard and fast to get enough equipment back together so we could get underway. This situation made those of us on the gun director spectators - uncomfortable spectators - but still spectators. From our location in the nest of ships we could not see the battleships so we didn’t know what was happening to them. Many of the planes came right by us after they had made their runs on “Battleship Row.” We did see what was happening to Ford Island but most of what we saw were fires all over the Island. We did hear and feel the blast when the ARIZONA blew-up, but at the time we didn’t know what it was.

At one point I saw a fellow that probably didn’t weigh over 170 lbs., at the most, coming from the Tender carrying a huge valve that weighed about 150 lbs. all by himself. I found out later he was from our ship and it was a valve that we had to have installed before we could get underway. At one point the Engineering Officer, Lt N.C. Johnson, who was the senior officer on board, called up to us on the director and said he was sending a boat to the Officers Landing for the Captain and anybody else that might be there and we would get underway when the boat returned whether the Captain was aboard or not. When it returned it not only had the Captain but all the missing officers and a couple of enlisted men who had been granted overnight liberty. We got underway and headed out the Harbor. (We didn’t know it at the time but all the raids were over.) When we got out of the harbor we took up patrol in areas around the island of Oahu.

On the 10th we had to come back into the harbor to get fuel.

To get to the fuel docks we had to go past “Battleship Row” and we did this at a very slow speed as rescue operations were in progress. On the Gun Director I got a clear view of all the damage. I have never seen anything like it, before or since. Huge pieces of steel bent and twisted in unimaginable ways. And, of course, the bent foremast of the USS ARIZONA. There were still fires burning and lots of oil on the water. The effect was devastating and one that I will never forget. I had been in the Navy for three years and eleven months and all the training was with the thought that the Battleships were the “KING” of the seas and everything else was just to support them. How wrong that thinking was. But with that thought in mind, seeing the battleships, some sunk and all of them badly damaged, I felt we were whipped. I don’t know if the other guys felt the same way or not but I do know we all felt that we would make them pay. It took a long time but we got the job done and I’m happy to be still alive.

The USS REID went on to serve in the Pacific steaming 220,000 miles, sank one submarine, participated in 13 landings, 18 shore bombardments, shot down 12 enemy planes, captured 8 Jap prisoners, expended over 10,000 rounds of 5-inch projectiles. She earned 7 battle stars. She was finally sunk by a concentrated attack of 10 Kamakazi planes. She sank in less that two minutes with the loss of 104 lives which was 42% of the crew. I’m happy to have been one of the survivors, though I often think about those that were lost.

Warren Law served in the Navy from January 1938 to July 1959. His Duty Stations included: USS DOWNES (DD-375), USS REID (DD-369), Naval Air Station KLAMATH FALLS, OR, NROTC NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY, and the USS DENEBOLA (AF-56).

Read a story sent in by Warren Law entitled LIFE ON A NAVAL SHIP by Rufus C. Porter.