Purl Harder!

One of the more unusual propaganda posters published after the attack on Pearl Harbor has to be the one below.

It is trying to encourage the women of America to do their part by knitting wool socks and sweaters for the fighting men. You will notice that the knitting needles form the “V for Victory”.

The poster above is part of the collection of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.

A True Hero From December 7, 1941

“Battleship Row in Flames” by John Hamilton

In looking for material for today’s post on the 72nd anniversary of the Imperial Japanese Navy’s attack on Pearl Harbor, I came across the story of Wesley Ruth. Mr. Ruth lives in Matthews, North Carolina and is one of the older survivors of that day at age 100. At the time, he was a young Navy ensign assigned to an unarmed photography squadron as a pilot. He was having breakfast that Sunday morning when the attack began. When he saw the Japanese bombers, he jumped into his convertible and drove to the north end of Oahu to get a handle on what was happening.

“I was about a quarter-mile from the Arizona and I saw the Arizona bombed. There were powder pellets about the size of my finger that flew that distance, from the ship to me, coming down on me just like snow.”

Worried the Japanese would spot his convertible and strafe him, Ruth said, he headed for the airfield and passed the clinic on his way. “I could see a number of dead bodies on the lawn.”

After arriving at the airfield, Ruth was assigned to a reconnaissance mission:  find the Japanese fleet. His plane was a Silkorsky S-43 which the Navy had renumbered as the JRS-1. The S-43 or Navy JRS-1 amphibian was primarily used as a passenger plane by Pan American Airlines for trips to Cuba and Latin America. It was nicknamed the “Baby Clipper”. Ruth was to fly 250 miles north and 10 miles east along with a copilot and three observers to find the Japanese. His armament for this mission were three bolt-action Springfield rifles given to the guys in the back of the plane. The JRS-1 would have been easy pickings for any Japanese Zero but Ensign Ruth had a mission and he did it.

For this mission, Ensign Ruth was award the Navy Cross. His citation reads as follows:

The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Wesley H. Ruth, Lieutenant, Junior Grade [then Ensign], U.S. Navy, for extraordinary heroism in operations against the enemy while serving as Pilot of an airplane, and for extraordinary courage and disregard of his own safety during the attack on the Fleet in Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, by Japanese forces on 7 December 1941. Although contact with the enemy meant almost certain destruction and despite lack of armament in this type of plane, Lieutenant, Junior Grade, Ruth voluntarily piloted a JRS amphibian plane, with only Springfield rifles, in search of and to obtain information of the enemy forces. At a point two hundred miles north of Oahu, Lieutenant Ruth did contact an enemy aircraft and only through prompt and extremely skillful handling of his plane did he succeed in escaping and returning to Pearl Harbor. Lieutenant, Junior Grade, Ruth’s outstanding courage, daring airmanship and determined skill were at all times inspiring and in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.

While his citation says they encountered an enemy aircraft, Ruth in his interview says they didn’t encounter anything. It really doesn’t matter in the long run. Taking off in an unarmed plane – I don’t count the guys with the Springfield rifles – and completing his mission knowing the whole time he was a sitting duck is heroic enough for me.

Ensign Ruth went on to complete a Navy career of 20 years and retired as a Commander.  I can only hope that his final few years are easy ones because he already did the hard part 72 years ago.

A Date That Will Live In Infamy

Today marks the 71st anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. I like to honor this day by remembering those veterans – Army, Navy, and Marine – who were there on that fateful day as well as those stationed on Wake Island and in the Philipines. These vets are dying out daily and the time will shortly come when no one who faced the waves of Japanese bombers will still be alive. So if you know one of these vets, take the time today to thank them for their service.

A Day That Will Live In Infamy, Year Two

On the 70th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, let us remember those that died in the sneak attack.

We should also remember those veterans that survived the attack on it as well as those who enlisted in response to the attack. My Uncle John Sheridan was a freshman in college. He and a bunch of his friends skipped class on December 8, 1941 and joined the Navy. While most of his war was spent stateside, he finished WWII aboard the USS Bennington CV-20 as an ETM 3rd Class. Unlike many who enlisted that day, he survived the war, eventually got married, raised three sons, and passed away in 2008 at the age of 83.

My father’s draft papers from October 1940 say he was drafted for Army service in the “Hawaiian Department”. This was one of the War Department’s pre-WWII overseas units. As it was, my father never served in Hawaii but was assigned to what became the Caribbean Defense Command.

The generation that actually served in Pearl Harbor on that fateful day are rapidly passing away. The Pearl Harbor Veterans Survivors Associations estimates that only 2,700 veterans who served there that day are still alive out of the original 60,000 sailors, soldiers, and airmen stationed there on December 7th. 100 of these survivors will attend the ceremonies in Hawaii today.

For a good selection of pictures from Japanese and US Naval Archives, go here.

UPDATE: The Pearl Harbor Veterans Survivors Association will shut down at the end of this year according to a story in the New York Times. It is actually rather sad that what the Japanese Navy couldn’t do, the ravages of time will do.

UPDATE II: Bitter at Shall Not Be Questioned has some nice pictures from Pearl Harbor as well as links to actual AP news bulletins from Dec. 7, 1941.

A Day That Will Live In Infamy

On the 69th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, let us remember those that died in the sneak attack.

We should also remember those veterans that survived the attack on it as well as those who enlisted in response to the attack. My Uncle John Sheridan was a freshman in college. He and a bunch of his friends skipped class on December 8, 1941 and joined the Navy. While most of his war was spent stateside, he finished WWII aboard the USS Bennington CV-20 as an ETM 3rd Class.

UPDATE: The Boston Globe has an excellent series of pictures from that day.