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Carl
Carson, Survivor, USS Arizona Excerpted
from interviews taken for the National Geographic program, Pearl Harbor: Legacy
of Attack, on the National Geographic Channel.
Deceased January 14, 2001
| I
need to tell this, so that young people will understand…I lost a lot of good,
dear friends over there. .. it’s just awful hard to even think about them. And
almost lost my own life…They were really my family. I was just a young kid, and
it...was hard to lose all of those people. It’s hard, hard for people to realize...
what it does… |
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Photo: Courtesy of
Carl Carson
| Well,
I was out on deck doing the morning chores, which you did every morning…
all of a sudden, this plane come along, and [I] didn’t pay much attention
to it; because planes were landing at Ford Island all the time. And all of a sudden,
the chips started flying all around me and the plane – it was strafing me…They
went between the ship and Ford Island, and I could look up and I could see the
meatball on the wings and I could see the pilot sitting up there…I ran forward
and tried to get under cover. And the officer of the deck, which was one of my
division officers, ordered me back out to close the hatches on the thing…and
then another came around about the same direction and strafed us. But I don’t
think anybody that was out there working at the time got hit.
…I
went forward and went inside the ship, and then started back to my battle station
and a bomb went off. I learned later it was back about turret number 4 –
about where I’d been working about 10, 15-minutes before. And evidently it
knocked me out, ruptured both my lungs…And all the lights went out…I
don’t know how long I laid there. But when I woke up, I picked up a flashlight…and
started down, into my battle station…They wouldn’t let me in the door-the
water tight door which you’re not supposed to open in battle conditions-but
I managed. It seemed like it was about 20 minutes…and I finally outlasted
the guy on the other side.
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| And when
I got into the turret, it was totally dark in there except the flashlight. And
one of my division officers...said, “boy you’re a good boy Carson.”
And he said that’s exactly what we needed. And it was, it was no panic down
there or anything. But there was smoke and water knee deep. ...and the senior
division officer…told us to all come out on deck & help…fighting
fire & so forth…but there was nothing we could do. The ship was a total
loss and the commander…said well we just as well abandon ship. But before
I did, I run into a friend of mine…he was crying and, and asking me for help.
And I looked at him in horror. And the skin on his face & his arms and everything
was just hanging like, like a mask or something. And I took hold of his arm. Skin
all came off in my hand. And there, there was just nothing in this world I could
do for that boy. And that has bothered me all my life…But he died. He did
die later.
Well, they gave the word “abandon ship” and we just
practically stepped off on the quarter deck into the water...I didn’t know
how bad I was hurt. And I got out there about 10 feet and I guess I must have
passed out. (I) went down in the water and everything was just as peaceful and
nice, that it would have been so easy to just let go. And I saw this bright light
and something made me come to. And so I got back up to the surface of the water
and…the oil was a fire all around…the fire was approaching me, wasn’t
but two feet from me and he reached down and pulled me up out of the water. And
that man saved my life. And a motor launch came along and I either jumped or fell
into the motor launch…And they took me over to Ford Island. (I) walked down
to the barracks with the rest of the crew…I guess I must have passed out
because my…friends and shipmates took me over to the sick bay at Ford Island…later
there was a dead shell hit right in the center of the sick bay, and it kind of
brought me to and I looked over. Another shipmate[was] laying across from me in
I guess the bulk head and he was holding his intestines in with his hands. And
he looked up at me, and he said… “war sure is hell isn’t it, shipmate.”
And I said, “yah it is.” And I wasn’t bleeding anywhere so I got
up and walked out of there.
More
Pearl Harbor and World War II Stories
Excerpted
from interviews taken for the National Geographic program, Pearl Harbor: Legacy
of Attack, on the National Geographic Channel.
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