*Work in progress.*
************
Pearl Harbor Survivor
*USS Pennsylvania
USN, 8 yrs., CHPCLK
Enlisted: 7/1938
Training:
*Great Lakes
*San Diego
1940-1941:
*Pacific Maneuvers.
Also Served On:
*USS USS Franklin
************
************
Pearl Harbor:
Quoted as saying:
"And then came the words that none of us ever wanted to hear ... 'All hands, man your battle stations! This is not a drill!' I never heard those words before. We knew right away we were in for a long time."
His recollections IN HIS OWN WORDS of the 'days of Pearl Harbor' before, during & after as given in a presentation by Bill to the Kiwanis Club in Dec. 2012:
**The Pennsylvania was on Pacific Maneuvers then went back to Long Beach, then sent to Pearl for 9 mo's., then back to the Pacific, then went back to Pearl 9 mo's. before the attack of the 7th. However, they originally were not supposed to be in Pearl at that time but the USS California had to take the Pennsylvania's original turn in dry dock b/c the California had received damage in a collision w/ the Pennyslvania (that didn't have damage themselves) during manuvers in the Pacific...so the California went to Pearl...received repairs in dry dock instead...then the Pennsylvania went to Pearl for their scheduled maintenance in dry dock. Jim credited this situation as the reason that the Pennsylvania survived b/c otherwise they still would have been at Pearl, however, their maintenance would have been completed & they would have been anchored in slot [10-10] instead of in dry dock & the ship that WAS in that slot was hit & overturned.
**On 12/6/1941 the Pennsylvania competed in the "Tournament of Bands" & won w/ the Arizona coming in 2nd...later the 1st place trophy was transferred after 12/7/1941 to the Arizona b/c by 8:00 am on 12/7/1941 all of their band aboard the Arizona would be fallen.
**The Morning of 12/7/1941:
He said word-for-word: ""I was watching out a porthole from the supply office that morning about 8 o'clock with a man named Sturgis ... we called him Sturge. He just happened to look out and saw this plane come over and he said, 'That's an odd looking plane' and I said 'Well, that's a Jap plane.' It had the rising sun on the fuselage. And he said, 'What's going on?' Just then it flew low over Ford Island, dropped something and it hit the ground and it exploded. We knew it was a bomb.
Sturge said 'Let's go topside and see what's going on.' I said 'I think we better get to our battle stations.' Just then, they sounded air defense then general quarters. It went 'Bong! Bong! Bong! Man your battles stations! All hands, man your battle stations!'
"The planes kept coming over ... I don't know how many of them there were ... but they hit just about every ship in the harbor. All the battleships were hit, except the Pennsylvania. And they tried to put a torpedo into the gate of the Pennsylvania. And if they had, it would've really damaged the Pennsie, because we were standing 30,000 tons up on wooden scaffolding, and no water under the ship. There were two destroyers ahead of us, the Cassin and the Downes. They were later hit, and when they flooded the dry dock they were hit so badly they didn't come up. They stayed on the deck.
"We went immediately to our battle stations. I probably set a record that day getting there in a hurray. My battle station was on ... the third or fourth deck. We were sending up five-inch shells, which we felt we couldn't use sitting up on scaffolding, we were afraid they would make the ship fall off the scaffolding.
"The machine guns opened up immediately. The Pennsylvania fired 50,000 machine gun bullets that day. In the entire rest of the war, she only fired about 6,000 more.
"We had very little communication, we didn't really know what was going on. But before Sturge and I left the porthole we saw some of the ships being hit. I believe I saw the Arizona hit. There was an awful lot of smoke, even before we got to our battle stations.
"Everybody was wondering what was going on. I know one guy had his wife over there. But there were very few of us had our wives or anybody in Pearl Harbor, because there just wasn't room for them, for one thing. And most of us couldn't afford to have them brought over anyway. At that time the Navy didn't do any transportation until you got to be a second class petty officer.
"We finally got some word down. We heard the Oklahoma turned over. The Arizona had been sunk. The California was sinking. Every battleship was sinking. We really didn't know too much down below what was going on. The lights went out -- and I'll tell you, on the third or fourth deck, whichever it was, it's really dark when the lights are out on a battleship -- they weren't out for too long, because the emergency lights came back on and we were able to see what was going on.
"One guy, a guy by the name of Macintosh, a good friend of mine, went by the compartment where we were, hollered in and said 'I'll see ya!' He was going topside. A man had got scared on the gun and left his battle station. That's the only time during the war I knew that to happen.
"Mac was going topside. He stuck his head up through a hatch just as a plane came over strafing. Took a bullet in the head. As far as I know, that was the first good friend of mine that was killed in the war.
"We started getting a little better word. The Nevada was able to get under way, which was the first battleship in history to get under way without the use of tugs. They thought it couldn't be done, but she did it. But then they beached her, because they were afraid she would get sunk in the harbor and we wouldn't be able to get our ships out.
"It wasn't too long ... it seemed like a long time ... but it wasn't too long until we were secured from general quarters partially. Because the ships were gone. The first planes had gone, and it was really quite calm for awhile. Although there was still a lot of noise around, but there were no guns going.
"The harbor, when I got topside, was, as I recall, completely burning. That's one thing they don't show in the movie 'Pearl Harbor.' They don't show the harbor burning. But there was oil all over, it was burning completely. You could see boats going through the fire, trying to pick men up. You could see a man stick his head up from under the water once in a while. A lot of them drowned, a lot of them were picked up. I don't know how many we lost that way. We lost roughly 2,500 that day. The Pennsylvania, as I recall, lost 19. We were lucky being in dry dock.
"Then came the second wave of planes. And this time the Pennsylvania took a bomb. It landed in a Marine galley section. We were going to have chicken for dinner that day. And you can imagine chicken for 1,200 or 1,500 men scattered around all over. That and coffee grounds were all over.
"After they were hit, they asked for volunteers to carry stretchers. Because they weren't sending any [shells] up, I was able to get away and I went up. We had one man on the stretcher. We had to get down the gangway to put him in the truck. In the Navy we used what were called Stokes stretchers. They weren't a piece of canvas with a couple sides to them. They were made of molded wire and they more or less flipped the man, and he wasn't as apt to fall out.
"Anyway, we got down there and were shoving this man into a meat truck or a bread truck, I don't know, they were using everything, because they didn't have enough ambulances. Somebody hollered 'Hit the deck!' We shoved him on in and all four of us hit the deck.
"Something hit me in the shoulder and I thought 'Oh God, I've been hit!' Laid there for a minute or two and nothing happened so I got up. A few days later, or a day later probably, I noticed I had a bruise on my shoulder, probably a piece of chipped concrete.
"I reached over to help the guy beside me up, and the two of us went to help the men in front up. But they weren't getting up, they were both dead. They were practically cut in two by machine gun bullets.
"The second wave, as I recall, did not last as long as the first wave, and we soon secured from general quarters. I was ordered to open the ship's store, which seemed odd to me, but that was my main job aboard ship at the time, selling cigarettes and candy and almost anything. I was only there about 15 minutes, nobody had time to come buy anything, they were all too busy of course. So I got permission to secure, and the supply officer sent me ashore to arrange to get several hundred flashlights, they wanted every man to have a flashlight. After the lights had gone out they realized they needed them. I made arrangements for them, but know we never got them.
"We had a little difficulty getting back aboard ship, because they were replacing the ammunition that had been used. Eventually, we did start firing our five-inch shells ... I don't know, I think 200 and some of them we fired. The thing with the scaffolding that way, that ship really shook when that happened.
"They were replacing our ammunition, and it took about a half hour for me to get back aboard. About all we could do then was take care of the wounded and try to start cleaning up and whatnot. They started putting the [propellers] back aboard.
"All day long we got rumors of this and that, they were landing troops, they were doing everything. We really didn't know what was going on, and neither did anybody else.
"That evening, we listened to the radio, and I remember hearing the sheriff talking about somebody up in a church steeple waving a lantern. Why? I don't know, unless they were trying to guide somebody in, another plane or something. Anyway, I'll never forget, he said 'Shoot him out of there! Don't give him the chance!' And I guess they did.
"About 2 o'clock that morning they sounded general quarters again. The Japs were landing troops. They told everybody to go down to the armory and pick up a rifle. There were 1,200 to 1,500 men aboard, and they had 150 rifles. When I got down there they were gone, I didn't get one. I thought, 'Oh my God, I'm going to have to throw rocks!'
"But that was the attitude everybody had. If they didn't have a gun they'd do something. I never once ... in all the time of the war ... I never once heard anybody say "if we win this war." It was always 'when we win' or 'when this is over' ... it was never 'if.' Nobody ever had any doubts, though there were some rough times.
"The dry dock, for a week they flooded it. Every time you got a rumor they'd flood it then they'd have to pump it out and try to put the propellers back on. They'd get the screw wells cleaned out ... they'd have to flood it again. That went on for several days. We finally got them on.
"This all happened on a Sunday. On the next Saturday ... each man got two hours, grab a cab for a quarter and get into Honolulu, send a message and get back. That's about all the time you had. I remember sending a message. We were allowed 10 words. The message they finally got at home -- they didn't get until eight days later in the 21st -- was 'am fine, notify all.'
"I did finally get a newspaper. It reported that a friend of mine, Jack ... who had been on the California was missing in action. Jack grew up here in Cambridge, on Madison Avenue. And he actually went into the Navy because I had gone in. He hadn't thought of it, then I went in and he thought it'd be good.
"I felt pretty bad. I was working at my desk one day. I heard someone say 'Hi Bill.' I turned around and there was Jack. They had a pretty rough time, the California had sunk, it was sitting on the bottom. He had on part of a Marine uniform and part of a Navy uniform. He didn't have any money, he was dirty, no place to take a shower. I went down to the galley, got him some food. I gave him some money and said 'Jack, have you written home?' he said 'No.' So I sat down and wrote my mother a letter right away telling her that Jack was all right. And I got the supply officer to censor it and send it out right away. And I could just see my mother, when she got that, run down the back alley ... to tell Jack's mother. That's was the first they knew that he was all right.
"Finally, on the 21st, the ship got so we could get under way. All these people on these ships they were working on, cheered us on. We were going to fight the Japs. We got outside the harbor so they couldn't hear, the band started up 'California, Here We Come.' That's been my favorite song ever since.
"We went back to San Francisco. We were there the best part of a year getting repairs and modifications. We had guns setting there, but we didn't have anything in front of them. You'd fire a gun, you didn't have anything to protect you. They got things put in front of the guns to protect you from shrapnel.
"We took a very minor part in the Battle of Midway and the Battle of the Coral Sea. We didn't see a Jap. We were only on the outskirts, but if they escaped we maybe could have stopped them. But they didn't escape.
"We went up, in the spring of 1943, and took back the Aleutian Islands. That was the first real action that we had had since Pearl Harbor. By that time I had made chief petty officer, and I was transferred from the ship, eventually ending up on the Franklin.
"The Pennsylvania was a very special ship. She was the only ship that took part in every landing in the Pacific. She was the only capital ship to receive the Presidential Unit Citation. She fired more shells, more ammunition than any ship during the war. She was just a great ship. And I'm real proud to have been on her.
"There wasn't much more. I went aboard the Franklin and we were hit when Jack was out there with us. They lost 700 men one day. Eventually, the war came to the end. I was in New York at that time, down on Times Square ... I had a big time that night, believe me!
"That's the story of Pearl Harbor, as I recall it.""
END PRESENTATION
************
**In 2008 he & Peggy donated a WWII scrapbook to the Guernsey Co. Dist. Public Library. The scrapbook was created by Peggy's Sis, Fannie Alberta Larrick Mem# 68927637.**
S/O:
John Wm. Shepard & Edna McManus Shepard
[Both Linked.]
B/O:
(He was 1 of 7 kids.)
*Alice Shepard
*Rich. Shepard
*Warren J. Shepard
*Marg. Shepard Stranathan Mem# 106195286
H/O:
Wilda "Peggy" Evelyn Larrick Shepard
(11/17/1919-22/23/2007) [Linked.]
SIL/O:
Walt. Morrow Larrick Mem# 13160710 &
Barb. Jane Wagonseller Larrick Mem#13160212
{For Sis-IL & BIL's see Walt's & Barb's pgs.}
He was an Uncle, GU & 2GU.
{Living fam. member info w/held for privacy.}
He died in a nursing facility.
----
Graduate 1933:
*Brown H.S.
Branch Mgr.:
*Ohio Plate Glass Co. (Dayton)
Member of:
*Kiwanis Club (Cambridge)
*VFW Post 2901 (Cambridge) [Member 30 yrs.]
Also Member of:
*Alpha Pi Frat.
Fan of:
*Cincinnati Reds
*Cincinnati Bengals
*The Ohio State University Buckeyes
Other Hobbies/Intersts:
*Traveling
*Making Holiday Fudge & Peanut Brittle
He was a Methodist by Faith.
If Memorial Contributions are made,
they're requested to be made to:
Hospice of Guernsey
P.O. Box 1165
Cambridge, OH 43725
Military Funeral Graveside Rites By:
Guernsey Co. Veterans Council
************
Pearl Harbor Survivor
*USS Pennsylvania
USN, 8 yrs., CHPCLK
Enlisted: 7/1938
Training:
*Great Lakes
*San Diego
1940-1941:
*Pacific Maneuvers.
Also Served On:
*USS USS Franklin
************
************
Pearl Harbor:
Quoted as saying:
"And then came the words that none of us ever wanted to hear ... 'All hands, man your battle stations! This is not a drill!' I never heard those words before. We knew right away we were in for a long time."
His recollections IN HIS OWN WORDS of the 'days of Pearl Harbor' before, during & after as given in a presentation by Bill to the Kiwanis Club in Dec. 2012:
**The Pennsylvania was on Pacific Maneuvers then went back to Long Beach, then sent to Pearl for 9 mo's., then back to the Pacific, then went back to Pearl 9 mo's. before the attack of the 7th. However, they originally were not supposed to be in Pearl at that time but the USS California had to take the Pennsylvania's original turn in dry dock b/c the California had received damage in a collision w/ the Pennyslvania (that didn't have damage themselves) during manuvers in the Pacific...so the California went to Pearl...received repairs in dry dock instead...then the Pennsylvania went to Pearl for their scheduled maintenance in dry dock. Jim credited this situation as the reason that the Pennsylvania survived b/c otherwise they still would have been at Pearl, however, their maintenance would have been completed & they would have been anchored in slot [10-10] instead of in dry dock & the ship that WAS in that slot was hit & overturned.
**On 12/6/1941 the Pennsylvania competed in the "Tournament of Bands" & won w/ the Arizona coming in 2nd...later the 1st place trophy was transferred after 12/7/1941 to the Arizona b/c by 8:00 am on 12/7/1941 all of their band aboard the Arizona would be fallen.
**The Morning of 12/7/1941:
He said word-for-word: ""I was watching out a porthole from the supply office that morning about 8 o'clock with a man named Sturgis ... we called him Sturge. He just happened to look out and saw this plane come over and he said, 'That's an odd looking plane' and I said 'Well, that's a Jap plane.' It had the rising sun on the fuselage. And he said, 'What's going on?' Just then it flew low over Ford Island, dropped something and it hit the ground and it exploded. We knew it was a bomb.
Sturge said 'Let's go topside and see what's going on.' I said 'I think we better get to our battle stations.' Just then, they sounded air defense then general quarters. It went 'Bong! Bong! Bong! Man your battles stations! All hands, man your battle stations!'
"The planes kept coming over ... I don't know how many of them there were ... but they hit just about every ship in the harbor. All the battleships were hit, except the Pennsylvania. And they tried to put a torpedo into the gate of the Pennsylvania. And if they had, it would've really damaged the Pennsie, because we were standing 30,000 tons up on wooden scaffolding, and no water under the ship. There were two destroyers ahead of us, the Cassin and the Downes. They were later hit, and when they flooded the dry dock they were hit so badly they didn't come up. They stayed on the deck.
"We went immediately to our battle stations. I probably set a record that day getting there in a hurray. My battle station was on ... the third or fourth deck. We were sending up five-inch shells, which we felt we couldn't use sitting up on scaffolding, we were afraid they would make the ship fall off the scaffolding.
"The machine guns opened up immediately. The Pennsylvania fired 50,000 machine gun bullets that day. In the entire rest of the war, she only fired about 6,000 more.
"We had very little communication, we didn't really know what was going on. But before Sturge and I left the porthole we saw some of the ships being hit. I believe I saw the Arizona hit. There was an awful lot of smoke, even before we got to our battle stations.
"Everybody was wondering what was going on. I know one guy had his wife over there. But there were very few of us had our wives or anybody in Pearl Harbor, because there just wasn't room for them, for one thing. And most of us couldn't afford to have them brought over anyway. At that time the Navy didn't do any transportation until you got to be a second class petty officer.
"We finally got some word down. We heard the Oklahoma turned over. The Arizona had been sunk. The California was sinking. Every battleship was sinking. We really didn't know too much down below what was going on. The lights went out -- and I'll tell you, on the third or fourth deck, whichever it was, it's really dark when the lights are out on a battleship -- they weren't out for too long, because the emergency lights came back on and we were able to see what was going on.
"One guy, a guy by the name of Macintosh, a good friend of mine, went by the compartment where we were, hollered in and said 'I'll see ya!' He was going topside. A man had got scared on the gun and left his battle station. That's the only time during the war I knew that to happen.
"Mac was going topside. He stuck his head up through a hatch just as a plane came over strafing. Took a bullet in the head. As far as I know, that was the first good friend of mine that was killed in the war.
"We started getting a little better word. The Nevada was able to get under way, which was the first battleship in history to get under way without the use of tugs. They thought it couldn't be done, but she did it. But then they beached her, because they were afraid she would get sunk in the harbor and we wouldn't be able to get our ships out.
"It wasn't too long ... it seemed like a long time ... but it wasn't too long until we were secured from general quarters partially. Because the ships were gone. The first planes had gone, and it was really quite calm for awhile. Although there was still a lot of noise around, but there were no guns going.
"The harbor, when I got topside, was, as I recall, completely burning. That's one thing they don't show in the movie 'Pearl Harbor.' They don't show the harbor burning. But there was oil all over, it was burning completely. You could see boats going through the fire, trying to pick men up. You could see a man stick his head up from under the water once in a while. A lot of them drowned, a lot of them were picked up. I don't know how many we lost that way. We lost roughly 2,500 that day. The Pennsylvania, as I recall, lost 19. We were lucky being in dry dock.
"Then came the second wave of planes. And this time the Pennsylvania took a bomb. It landed in a Marine galley section. We were going to have chicken for dinner that day. And you can imagine chicken for 1,200 or 1,500 men scattered around all over. That and coffee grounds were all over.
"After they were hit, they asked for volunteers to carry stretchers. Because they weren't sending any [shells] up, I was able to get away and I went up. We had one man on the stretcher. We had to get down the gangway to put him in the truck. In the Navy we used what were called Stokes stretchers. They weren't a piece of canvas with a couple sides to them. They were made of molded wire and they more or less flipped the man, and he wasn't as apt to fall out.
"Anyway, we got down there and were shoving this man into a meat truck or a bread truck, I don't know, they were using everything, because they didn't have enough ambulances. Somebody hollered 'Hit the deck!' We shoved him on in and all four of us hit the deck.
"Something hit me in the shoulder and I thought 'Oh God, I've been hit!' Laid there for a minute or two and nothing happened so I got up. A few days later, or a day later probably, I noticed I had a bruise on my shoulder, probably a piece of chipped concrete.
"I reached over to help the guy beside me up, and the two of us went to help the men in front up. But they weren't getting up, they were both dead. They were practically cut in two by machine gun bullets.
"The second wave, as I recall, did not last as long as the first wave, and we soon secured from general quarters. I was ordered to open the ship's store, which seemed odd to me, but that was my main job aboard ship at the time, selling cigarettes and candy and almost anything. I was only there about 15 minutes, nobody had time to come buy anything, they were all too busy of course. So I got permission to secure, and the supply officer sent me ashore to arrange to get several hundred flashlights, they wanted every man to have a flashlight. After the lights had gone out they realized they needed them. I made arrangements for them, but know we never got them.
"We had a little difficulty getting back aboard ship, because they were replacing the ammunition that had been used. Eventually, we did start firing our five-inch shells ... I don't know, I think 200 and some of them we fired. The thing with the scaffolding that way, that ship really shook when that happened.
"They were replacing our ammunition, and it took about a half hour for me to get back aboard. About all we could do then was take care of the wounded and try to start cleaning up and whatnot. They started putting the [propellers] back aboard.
"All day long we got rumors of this and that, they were landing troops, they were doing everything. We really didn't know what was going on, and neither did anybody else.
"That evening, we listened to the radio, and I remember hearing the sheriff talking about somebody up in a church steeple waving a lantern. Why? I don't know, unless they were trying to guide somebody in, another plane or something. Anyway, I'll never forget, he said 'Shoot him out of there! Don't give him the chance!' And I guess they did.
"About 2 o'clock that morning they sounded general quarters again. The Japs were landing troops. They told everybody to go down to the armory and pick up a rifle. There were 1,200 to 1,500 men aboard, and they had 150 rifles. When I got down there they were gone, I didn't get one. I thought, 'Oh my God, I'm going to have to throw rocks!'
"But that was the attitude everybody had. If they didn't have a gun they'd do something. I never once ... in all the time of the war ... I never once heard anybody say "if we win this war." It was always 'when we win' or 'when this is over' ... it was never 'if.' Nobody ever had any doubts, though there were some rough times.
"The dry dock, for a week they flooded it. Every time you got a rumor they'd flood it then they'd have to pump it out and try to put the propellers back on. They'd get the screw wells cleaned out ... they'd have to flood it again. That went on for several days. We finally got them on.
"This all happened on a Sunday. On the next Saturday ... each man got two hours, grab a cab for a quarter and get into Honolulu, send a message and get back. That's about all the time you had. I remember sending a message. We were allowed 10 words. The message they finally got at home -- they didn't get until eight days later in the 21st -- was 'am fine, notify all.'
"I did finally get a newspaper. It reported that a friend of mine, Jack ... who had been on the California was missing in action. Jack grew up here in Cambridge, on Madison Avenue. And he actually went into the Navy because I had gone in. He hadn't thought of it, then I went in and he thought it'd be good.
"I felt pretty bad. I was working at my desk one day. I heard someone say 'Hi Bill.' I turned around and there was Jack. They had a pretty rough time, the California had sunk, it was sitting on the bottom. He had on part of a Marine uniform and part of a Navy uniform. He didn't have any money, he was dirty, no place to take a shower. I went down to the galley, got him some food. I gave him some money and said 'Jack, have you written home?' he said 'No.' So I sat down and wrote my mother a letter right away telling her that Jack was all right. And I got the supply officer to censor it and send it out right away. And I could just see my mother, when she got that, run down the back alley ... to tell Jack's mother. That's was the first they knew that he was all right.
"Finally, on the 21st, the ship got so we could get under way. All these people on these ships they were working on, cheered us on. We were going to fight the Japs. We got outside the harbor so they couldn't hear, the band started up 'California, Here We Come.' That's been my favorite song ever since.
"We went back to San Francisco. We were there the best part of a year getting repairs and modifications. We had guns setting there, but we didn't have anything in front of them. You'd fire a gun, you didn't have anything to protect you. They got things put in front of the guns to protect you from shrapnel.
"We took a very minor part in the Battle of Midway and the Battle of the Coral Sea. We didn't see a Jap. We were only on the outskirts, but if they escaped we maybe could have stopped them. But they didn't escape.
"We went up, in the spring of 1943, and took back the Aleutian Islands. That was the first real action that we had had since Pearl Harbor. By that time I had made chief petty officer, and I was transferred from the ship, eventually ending up on the Franklin.
"The Pennsylvania was a very special ship. She was the only ship that took part in every landing in the Pacific. She was the only capital ship to receive the Presidential Unit Citation. She fired more shells, more ammunition than any ship during the war. She was just a great ship. And I'm real proud to have been on her.
"There wasn't much more. I went aboard the Franklin and we were hit when Jack was out there with us. They lost 700 men one day. Eventually, the war came to the end. I was in New York at that time, down on Times Square ... I had a big time that night, believe me!
"That's the story of Pearl Harbor, as I recall it.""
END PRESENTATION
************
**In 2008 he & Peggy donated a WWII scrapbook to the Guernsey Co. Dist. Public Library. The scrapbook was created by Peggy's Sis, Fannie Alberta Larrick Mem# 68927637.**
S/O:
John Wm. Shepard & Edna McManus Shepard
[Both Linked.]
B/O:
(He was 1 of 7 kids.)
*Alice Shepard
*Rich. Shepard
*Warren J. Shepard
*Marg. Shepard Stranathan Mem# 106195286
H/O:
Wilda "Peggy" Evelyn Larrick Shepard
(11/17/1919-22/23/2007) [Linked.]
SIL/O:
Walt. Morrow Larrick Mem# 13160710 &
Barb. Jane Wagonseller Larrick Mem#13160212
{For Sis-IL & BIL's see Walt's & Barb's pgs.}
He was an Uncle, GU & 2GU.
{Living fam. member info w/held for privacy.}
He died in a nursing facility.
----
Graduate 1933:
*Brown H.S.
Branch Mgr.:
*Ohio Plate Glass Co. (Dayton)
Member of:
*Kiwanis Club (Cambridge)
*VFW Post 2901 (Cambridge) [Member 30 yrs.]
Also Member of:
*Alpha Pi Frat.
Fan of:
*Cincinnati Reds
*Cincinnati Bengals
*The Ohio State University Buckeyes
Other Hobbies/Intersts:
*Traveling
*Making Holiday Fudge & Peanut Brittle
He was a Methodist by Faith.
If Memorial Contributions are made,
they're requested to be made to:
Hospice of Guernsey
P.O. Box 1165
Cambridge, OH 43725
Military Funeral Graveside Rites By:
Guernsey Co. Veterans Council
*Work in progress.*
************
Pearl Harbor Survivor
*USS Pennsylvania
USN, 8 yrs., CHPCLK
Enlisted: 7/1938
Training:
*Great Lakes
*San Diego
1940-1941:
*Pacific Maneuvers.
Also Served On:
*USS USS Franklin
************
************
Pearl Harbor:
Quoted as saying:
"And then came the words that none of us ever wanted to hear ... 'All hands, man your battle stations! This is not a drill!' I never heard those words before. We knew right away we were in for a long time."
His recollections IN HIS OWN WORDS of the 'days of Pearl Harbor' before, during & after as given in a presentation by Bill to the Kiwanis Club in Dec. 2012:
**The Pennsylvania was on Pacific Maneuvers then went back to Long Beach, then sent to Pearl for 9 mo's., then back to the Pacific, then went back to Pearl 9 mo's. before the attack of the 7th. However, they originally were not supposed to be in Pearl at that time but the USS California had to take the Pennsylvania's original turn in dry dock b/c the California had received damage in a collision w/ the Pennyslvania (that didn't have damage themselves) during manuvers in the Pacific...so the California went to Pearl...received repairs in dry dock instead...then the Pennsylvania went to Pearl for their scheduled maintenance in dry dock. Jim credited this situation as the reason that the Pennsylvania survived b/c otherwise they still would have been at Pearl, however, their maintenance would have been completed & they would have been anchored in slot [10-10] instead of in dry dock & the ship that WAS in that slot was hit & overturned.
**On 12/6/1941 the Pennsylvania competed in the "Tournament of Bands" & won w/ the Arizona coming in 2nd...later the 1st place trophy was transferred after 12/7/1941 to the Arizona b/c by 8:00 am on 12/7/1941 all of their band aboard the Arizona would be fallen.
**The Morning of 12/7/1941:
He said word-for-word: ""I was watching out a porthole from the supply office that morning about 8 o'clock with a man named Sturgis ... we called him Sturge. He just happened to look out and saw this plane come over and he said, 'That's an odd looking plane' and I said 'Well, that's a Jap plane.' It had the rising sun on the fuselage. And he said, 'What's going on?' Just then it flew low over Ford Island, dropped something and it hit the ground and it exploded. We knew it was a bomb.
Sturge said 'Let's go topside and see what's going on.' I said 'I think we better get to our battle stations.' Just then, they sounded air defense then general quarters. It went 'Bong! Bong! Bong! Man your battles stations! All hands, man your battle stations!'
"The planes kept coming over ... I don't know how many of them there were ... but they hit just about every ship in the harbor. All the battleships were hit, except the Pennsylvania. And they tried to put a torpedo into the gate of the Pennsylvania. And if they had, it would've really damaged the Pennsie, because we were standing 30,000 tons up on wooden scaffolding, and no water under the ship. There were two destroyers ahead of us, the Cassin and the Downes. They were later hit, and when they flooded the dry dock they were hit so badly they didn't come up. They stayed on the deck.
"We went immediately to our battle stations. I probably set a record that day getting there in a hurray. My battle station was on ... the third or fourth deck. We were sending up five-inch shells, which we felt we couldn't use sitting up on scaffolding, we were afraid they would make the ship fall off the scaffolding.
"The machine guns opened up immediately. The Pennsylvania fired 50,000 machine gun bullets that day. In the entire rest of the war, she only fired about 6,000 more.
"We had very little communication, we didn't really know what was going on. But before Sturge and I left the porthole we saw some of the ships being hit. I believe I saw the Arizona hit. There was an awful lot of smoke, even before we got to our battle stations.
"Everybody was wondering what was going on. I know one guy had his wife over there. But there were very few of us had our wives or anybody in Pearl Harbor, because there just wasn't room for them, for one thing. And most of us couldn't afford to have them brought over anyway. At that time the Navy didn't do any transportation until you got to be a second class petty officer.
"We finally got some word down. We heard the Oklahoma turned over. The Arizona had been sunk. The California was sinking. Every battleship was sinking. We really didn't know too much down below what was going on. The lights went out -- and I'll tell you, on the third or fourth deck, whichever it was, it's really dark when the lights are out on a battleship -- they weren't out for too long, because the emergency lights came back on and we were able to see what was going on.
"One guy, a guy by the name of Macintosh, a good friend of mine, went by the compartment where we were, hollered in and said 'I'll see ya!' He was going topside. A man had got scared on the gun and left his battle station. That's the only time during the war I knew that to happen.
"Mac was going topside. He stuck his head up through a hatch just as a plane came over strafing. Took a bullet in the head. As far as I know, that was the first good friend of mine that was killed in the war.
"We started getting a little better word. The Nevada was able to get under way, which was the first battleship in history to get under way without the use of tugs. They thought it couldn't be done, but she did it. But then they beached her, because they were afraid she would get sunk in the harbor and we wouldn't be able to get our ships out.
"It wasn't too long ... it seemed like a long time ... but it wasn't too long until we were secured from general quarters partially. Because the ships were gone. The first planes had gone, and it was really quite calm for awhile. Although there was still a lot of noise around, but there were no guns going.
"The harbor, when I got topside, was, as I recall, completely burning. That's one thing they don't show in the movie 'Pearl Harbor.' They don't show the harbor burning. But there was oil all over, it was burning completely. You could see boats going through the fire, trying to pick men up. You could see a man stick his head up from under the water once in a while. A lot of them drowned, a lot of them were picked up. I don't know how many we lost that way. We lost roughly 2,500 that day. The Pennsylvania, as I recall, lost 19. We were lucky being in dry dock.
"Then came the second wave of planes. And this time the Pennsylvania took a bomb. It landed in a Marine galley section. We were going to have chicken for dinner that day. And you can imagine chicken for 1,200 or 1,500 men scattered around all over. That and coffee grounds were all over.
"After they were hit, they asked for volunteers to carry stretchers. Because they weren't sending any [shells] up, I was able to get away and I went up. We had one man on the stretcher. We had to get down the gangway to put him in the truck. In the Navy we used what were called Stokes stretchers. They weren't a piece of canvas with a couple sides to them. They were made of molded wire and they more or less flipped the man, and he wasn't as apt to fall out.
"Anyway, we got down there and were shoving this man into a meat truck or a bread truck, I don't know, they were using everything, because they didn't have enough ambulances. Somebody hollered 'Hit the deck!' We shoved him on in and all four of us hit the deck.
"Something hit me in the shoulder and I thought 'Oh God, I've been hit!' Laid there for a minute or two and nothing happened so I got up. A few days later, or a day later probably, I noticed I had a bruise on my shoulder, probably a piece of chipped concrete.
"I reached over to help the guy beside me up, and the two of us went to help the men in front up. But they weren't getting up, they were both dead. They were practically cut in two by machine gun bullets.
"The second wave, as I recall, did not last as long as the first wave, and we soon secured from general quarters. I was ordered to open the ship's store, which seemed odd to me, but that was my main job aboard ship at the time, selling cigarettes and candy and almost anything. I was only there about 15 minutes, nobody had time to come buy anything, they were all too busy of course. So I got permission to secure, and the supply officer sent me ashore to arrange to get several hundred flashlights, they wanted every man to have a flashlight. After the lights had gone out they realized they needed them. I made arrangements for them, but know we never got them.
"We had a little difficulty getting back aboard ship, because they were replacing the ammunition that had been used. Eventually, we did start firing our five-inch shells ... I don't know, I think 200 and some of them we fired. The thing with the scaffolding that way, that ship really shook when that happened.
"They were replacing our ammunition, and it took about a half hour for me to get back aboard. About all we could do then was take care of the wounded and try to start cleaning up and whatnot. They started putting the [propellers] back aboard.
"All day long we got rumors of this and that, they were landing troops, they were doing everything. We really didn't know what was going on, and neither did anybody else.
"That evening, we listened to the radio, and I remember hearing the sheriff talking about somebody up in a church steeple waving a lantern. Why? I don't know, unless they were trying to guide somebody in, another plane or something. Anyway, I'll never forget, he said 'Shoot him out of there! Don't give him the chance!' And I guess they did.
"About 2 o'clock that morning they sounded general quarters again. The Japs were landing troops. They told everybody to go down to the armory and pick up a rifle. There were 1,200 to 1,500 men aboard, and they had 150 rifles. When I got down there they were gone, I didn't get one. I thought, 'Oh my God, I'm going to have to throw rocks!'
"But that was the attitude everybody had. If they didn't have a gun they'd do something. I never once ... in all the time of the war ... I never once heard anybody say "if we win this war." It was always 'when we win' or 'when this is over' ... it was never 'if.' Nobody ever had any doubts, though there were some rough times.
"The dry dock, for a week they flooded it. Every time you got a rumor they'd flood it then they'd have to pump it out and try to put the propellers back on. They'd get the screw wells cleaned out ... they'd have to flood it again. That went on for several days. We finally got them on.
"This all happened on a Sunday. On the next Saturday ... each man got two hours, grab a cab for a quarter and get into Honolulu, send a message and get back. That's about all the time you had. I remember sending a message. We were allowed 10 words. The message they finally got at home -- they didn't get until eight days later in the 21st -- was 'am fine, notify all.'
"I did finally get a newspaper. It reported that a friend of mine, Jack ... who had been on the California was missing in action. Jack grew up here in Cambridge, on Madison Avenue. And he actually went into the Navy because I had gone in. He hadn't thought of it, then I went in and he thought it'd be good.
"I felt pretty bad. I was working at my desk one day. I heard someone say 'Hi Bill.' I turned around and there was Jack. They had a pretty rough time, the California had sunk, it was sitting on the bottom. He had on part of a Marine uniform and part of a Navy uniform. He didn't have any money, he was dirty, no place to take a shower. I went down to the galley, got him some food. I gave him some money and said 'Jack, have you written home?' he said 'No.' So I sat down and wrote my mother a letter right away telling her that Jack was all right. And I got the supply officer to censor it and send it out right away. And I could just see my mother, when she got that, run down the back alley ... to tell Jack's mother. That's was the first they knew that he was all right.
"Finally, on the 21st, the ship got so we could get under way. All these people on these ships they were working on, cheered us on. We were going to fight the Japs. We got outside the harbor so they couldn't hear, the band started up 'California, Here We Come.' That's been my favorite song ever since.
"We went back to San Francisco. We were there the best part of a year getting repairs and modifications. We had guns setting there, but we didn't have anything in front of them. You'd fire a gun, you didn't have anything to protect you. They got things put in front of the guns to protect you from shrapnel.
"We took a very minor part in the Battle of Midway and the Battle of the Coral Sea. We didn't see a Jap. We were only on the outskirts, but if they escaped we maybe could have stopped them. But they didn't escape.
"We went up, in the spring of 1943, and took back the Aleutian Islands. That was the first real action that we had had since Pearl Harbor. By that time I had made chief petty officer, and I was transferred from the ship, eventually ending up on the Franklin.
"The Pennsylvania was a very special ship. She was the only ship that took part in every landing in the Pacific. She was the only capital ship to receive the Presidential Unit Citation. She fired more shells, more ammunition than any ship during the war. She was just a great ship. And I'm real proud to have been on her.
"There wasn't much more. I went aboard the Franklin and we were hit when Jack was out there with us. They lost 700 men one day. Eventually, the war came to the end. I was in New York at that time, down on Times Square ... I had a big time that night, believe me!
"That's the story of Pearl Harbor, as I recall it.""
END PRESENTATION
************
**In 2008 he & Peggy donated a WWII scrapbook to the Guernsey Co. Dist. Public Library. The scrapbook was created by Peggy's Sis, Fannie Alberta Larrick Mem# 68927637.**
S/O:
John Wm. Shepard & Edna McManus Shepard
[Both Linked.]
B/O:
(He was 1 of 7 kids.)
*Alice Shepard
*Rich. Shepard
*Warren J. Shepard
*Marg. Shepard Stranathan Mem# 106195286
H/O:
Wilda "Peggy" Evelyn Larrick Shepard
(11/17/1919-22/23/2007) [Linked.]
SIL/O:
Walt. Morrow Larrick Mem# 13160710 &
Barb. Jane Wagonseller Larrick Mem#13160212
{For Sis-IL & BIL's see Walt's & Barb's pgs.}
He was an Uncle, GU & 2GU.
{Living fam. member info w/held for privacy.}
He died in a nursing facility.
----
Graduate 1933:
*Brown H.S.
Branch Mgr.:
*Ohio Plate Glass Co. (Dayton)
Member of:
*Kiwanis Club (Cambridge)
*VFW Post 2901 (Cambridge) [Member 30 yrs.]
Also Member of:
*Alpha Pi Frat.
Fan of:
*Cincinnati Reds
*Cincinnati Bengals
*The Ohio State University Buckeyes
Other Hobbies/Intersts:
*Traveling
*Making Holiday Fudge & Peanut Brittle
He was a Methodist by Faith.
If Memorial Contributions are made,
they're requested to be made to:
Hospice of Guernsey
P.O. Box 1165
Cambridge, OH 43725
Military Funeral Graveside Rites By:
Guernsey Co. Veterans Council
************
Pearl Harbor Survivor
*USS Pennsylvania
USN, 8 yrs., CHPCLK
Enlisted: 7/1938
Training:
*Great Lakes
*San Diego
1940-1941:
*Pacific Maneuvers.
Also Served On:
*USS USS Franklin
************
************
Pearl Harbor:
Quoted as saying:
"And then came the words that none of us ever wanted to hear ... 'All hands, man your battle stations! This is not a drill!' I never heard those words before. We knew right away we were in for a long time."
His recollections IN HIS OWN WORDS of the 'days of Pearl Harbor' before, during & after as given in a presentation by Bill to the Kiwanis Club in Dec. 2012:
**The Pennsylvania was on Pacific Maneuvers then went back to Long Beach, then sent to Pearl for 9 mo's., then back to the Pacific, then went back to Pearl 9 mo's. before the attack of the 7th. However, they originally were not supposed to be in Pearl at that time but the USS California had to take the Pennsylvania's original turn in dry dock b/c the California had received damage in a collision w/ the Pennyslvania (that didn't have damage themselves) during manuvers in the Pacific...so the California went to Pearl...received repairs in dry dock instead...then the Pennsylvania went to Pearl for their scheduled maintenance in dry dock. Jim credited this situation as the reason that the Pennsylvania survived b/c otherwise they still would have been at Pearl, however, their maintenance would have been completed & they would have been anchored in slot [10-10] instead of in dry dock & the ship that WAS in that slot was hit & overturned.
**On 12/6/1941 the Pennsylvania competed in the "Tournament of Bands" & won w/ the Arizona coming in 2nd...later the 1st place trophy was transferred after 12/7/1941 to the Arizona b/c by 8:00 am on 12/7/1941 all of their band aboard the Arizona would be fallen.
**The Morning of 12/7/1941:
He said word-for-word: ""I was watching out a porthole from the supply office that morning about 8 o'clock with a man named Sturgis ... we called him Sturge. He just happened to look out and saw this plane come over and he said, 'That's an odd looking plane' and I said 'Well, that's a Jap plane.' It had the rising sun on the fuselage. And he said, 'What's going on?' Just then it flew low over Ford Island, dropped something and it hit the ground and it exploded. We knew it was a bomb.
Sturge said 'Let's go topside and see what's going on.' I said 'I think we better get to our battle stations.' Just then, they sounded air defense then general quarters. It went 'Bong! Bong! Bong! Man your battles stations! All hands, man your battle stations!'
"The planes kept coming over ... I don't know how many of them there were ... but they hit just about every ship in the harbor. All the battleships were hit, except the Pennsylvania. And they tried to put a torpedo into the gate of the Pennsylvania. And if they had, it would've really damaged the Pennsie, because we were standing 30,000 tons up on wooden scaffolding, and no water under the ship. There were two destroyers ahead of us, the Cassin and the Downes. They were later hit, and when they flooded the dry dock they were hit so badly they didn't come up. They stayed on the deck.
"We went immediately to our battle stations. I probably set a record that day getting there in a hurray. My battle station was on ... the third or fourth deck. We were sending up five-inch shells, which we felt we couldn't use sitting up on scaffolding, we were afraid they would make the ship fall off the scaffolding.
"The machine guns opened up immediately. The Pennsylvania fired 50,000 machine gun bullets that day. In the entire rest of the war, she only fired about 6,000 more.
"We had very little communication, we didn't really know what was going on. But before Sturge and I left the porthole we saw some of the ships being hit. I believe I saw the Arizona hit. There was an awful lot of smoke, even before we got to our battle stations.
"Everybody was wondering what was going on. I know one guy had his wife over there. But there were very few of us had our wives or anybody in Pearl Harbor, because there just wasn't room for them, for one thing. And most of us couldn't afford to have them brought over anyway. At that time the Navy didn't do any transportation until you got to be a second class petty officer.
"We finally got some word down. We heard the Oklahoma turned over. The Arizona had been sunk. The California was sinking. Every battleship was sinking. We really didn't know too much down below what was going on. The lights went out -- and I'll tell you, on the third or fourth deck, whichever it was, it's really dark when the lights are out on a battleship -- they weren't out for too long, because the emergency lights came back on and we were able to see what was going on.
"One guy, a guy by the name of Macintosh, a good friend of mine, went by the compartment where we were, hollered in and said 'I'll see ya!' He was going topside. A man had got scared on the gun and left his battle station. That's the only time during the war I knew that to happen.
"Mac was going topside. He stuck his head up through a hatch just as a plane came over strafing. Took a bullet in the head. As far as I know, that was the first good friend of mine that was killed in the war.
"We started getting a little better word. The Nevada was able to get under way, which was the first battleship in history to get under way without the use of tugs. They thought it couldn't be done, but she did it. But then they beached her, because they were afraid she would get sunk in the harbor and we wouldn't be able to get our ships out.
"It wasn't too long ... it seemed like a long time ... but it wasn't too long until we were secured from general quarters partially. Because the ships were gone. The first planes had gone, and it was really quite calm for awhile. Although there was still a lot of noise around, but there were no guns going.
"The harbor, when I got topside, was, as I recall, completely burning. That's one thing they don't show in the movie 'Pearl Harbor.' They don't show the harbor burning. But there was oil all over, it was burning completely. You could see boats going through the fire, trying to pick men up. You could see a man stick his head up from under the water once in a while. A lot of them drowned, a lot of them were picked up. I don't know how many we lost that way. We lost roughly 2,500 that day. The Pennsylvania, as I recall, lost 19. We were lucky being in dry dock.
"Then came the second wave of planes. And this time the Pennsylvania took a bomb. It landed in a Marine galley section. We were going to have chicken for dinner that day. And you can imagine chicken for 1,200 or 1,500 men scattered around all over. That and coffee grounds were all over.
"After they were hit, they asked for volunteers to carry stretchers. Because they weren't sending any [shells] up, I was able to get away and I went up. We had one man on the stretcher. We had to get down the gangway to put him in the truck. In the Navy we used what were called Stokes stretchers. They weren't a piece of canvas with a couple sides to them. They were made of molded wire and they more or less flipped the man, and he wasn't as apt to fall out.
"Anyway, we got down there and were shoving this man into a meat truck or a bread truck, I don't know, they were using everything, because they didn't have enough ambulances. Somebody hollered 'Hit the deck!' We shoved him on in and all four of us hit the deck.
"Something hit me in the shoulder and I thought 'Oh God, I've been hit!' Laid there for a minute or two and nothing happened so I got up. A few days later, or a day later probably, I noticed I had a bruise on my shoulder, probably a piece of chipped concrete.
"I reached over to help the guy beside me up, and the two of us went to help the men in front up. But they weren't getting up, they were both dead. They were practically cut in two by machine gun bullets.
"The second wave, as I recall, did not last as long as the first wave, and we soon secured from general quarters. I was ordered to open the ship's store, which seemed odd to me, but that was my main job aboard ship at the time, selling cigarettes and candy and almost anything. I was only there about 15 minutes, nobody had time to come buy anything, they were all too busy of course. So I got permission to secure, and the supply officer sent me ashore to arrange to get several hundred flashlights, they wanted every man to have a flashlight. After the lights had gone out they realized they needed them. I made arrangements for them, but know we never got them.
"We had a little difficulty getting back aboard ship, because they were replacing the ammunition that had been used. Eventually, we did start firing our five-inch shells ... I don't know, I think 200 and some of them we fired. The thing with the scaffolding that way, that ship really shook when that happened.
"They were replacing our ammunition, and it took about a half hour for me to get back aboard. About all we could do then was take care of the wounded and try to start cleaning up and whatnot. They started putting the [propellers] back aboard.
"All day long we got rumors of this and that, they were landing troops, they were doing everything. We really didn't know what was going on, and neither did anybody else.
"That evening, we listened to the radio, and I remember hearing the sheriff talking about somebody up in a church steeple waving a lantern. Why? I don't know, unless they were trying to guide somebody in, another plane or something. Anyway, I'll never forget, he said 'Shoot him out of there! Don't give him the chance!' And I guess they did.
"About 2 o'clock that morning they sounded general quarters again. The Japs were landing troops. They told everybody to go down to the armory and pick up a rifle. There were 1,200 to 1,500 men aboard, and they had 150 rifles. When I got down there they were gone, I didn't get one. I thought, 'Oh my God, I'm going to have to throw rocks!'
"But that was the attitude everybody had. If they didn't have a gun they'd do something. I never once ... in all the time of the war ... I never once heard anybody say "if we win this war." It was always 'when we win' or 'when this is over' ... it was never 'if.' Nobody ever had any doubts, though there were some rough times.
"The dry dock, for a week they flooded it. Every time you got a rumor they'd flood it then they'd have to pump it out and try to put the propellers back on. They'd get the screw wells cleaned out ... they'd have to flood it again. That went on for several days. We finally got them on.
"This all happened on a Sunday. On the next Saturday ... each man got two hours, grab a cab for a quarter and get into Honolulu, send a message and get back. That's about all the time you had. I remember sending a message. We were allowed 10 words. The message they finally got at home -- they didn't get until eight days later in the 21st -- was 'am fine, notify all.'
"I did finally get a newspaper. It reported that a friend of mine, Jack ... who had been on the California was missing in action. Jack grew up here in Cambridge, on Madison Avenue. And he actually went into the Navy because I had gone in. He hadn't thought of it, then I went in and he thought it'd be good.
"I felt pretty bad. I was working at my desk one day. I heard someone say 'Hi Bill.' I turned around and there was Jack. They had a pretty rough time, the California had sunk, it was sitting on the bottom. He had on part of a Marine uniform and part of a Navy uniform. He didn't have any money, he was dirty, no place to take a shower. I went down to the galley, got him some food. I gave him some money and said 'Jack, have you written home?' he said 'No.' So I sat down and wrote my mother a letter right away telling her that Jack was all right. And I got the supply officer to censor it and send it out right away. And I could just see my mother, when she got that, run down the back alley ... to tell Jack's mother. That's was the first they knew that he was all right.
"Finally, on the 21st, the ship got so we could get under way. All these people on these ships they were working on, cheered us on. We were going to fight the Japs. We got outside the harbor so they couldn't hear, the band started up 'California, Here We Come.' That's been my favorite song ever since.
"We went back to San Francisco. We were there the best part of a year getting repairs and modifications. We had guns setting there, but we didn't have anything in front of them. You'd fire a gun, you didn't have anything to protect you. They got things put in front of the guns to protect you from shrapnel.
"We took a very minor part in the Battle of Midway and the Battle of the Coral Sea. We didn't see a Jap. We were only on the outskirts, but if they escaped we maybe could have stopped them. But they didn't escape.
"We went up, in the spring of 1943, and took back the Aleutian Islands. That was the first real action that we had had since Pearl Harbor. By that time I had made chief petty officer, and I was transferred from the ship, eventually ending up on the Franklin.
"The Pennsylvania was a very special ship. She was the only ship that took part in every landing in the Pacific. She was the only capital ship to receive the Presidential Unit Citation. She fired more shells, more ammunition than any ship during the war. She was just a great ship. And I'm real proud to have been on her.
"There wasn't much more. I went aboard the Franklin and we were hit when Jack was out there with us. They lost 700 men one day. Eventually, the war came to the end. I was in New York at that time, down on Times Square ... I had a big time that night, believe me!
"That's the story of Pearl Harbor, as I recall it.""
END PRESENTATION
************
**In 2008 he & Peggy donated a WWII scrapbook to the Guernsey Co. Dist. Public Library. The scrapbook was created by Peggy's Sis, Fannie Alberta Larrick Mem# 68927637.**
S/O:
John Wm. Shepard & Edna McManus Shepard
[Both Linked.]
B/O:
(He was 1 of 7 kids.)
*Alice Shepard
*Rich. Shepard
*Warren J. Shepard
*Marg. Shepard Stranathan Mem# 106195286
H/O:
Wilda "Peggy" Evelyn Larrick Shepard
(11/17/1919-22/23/2007) [Linked.]
SIL/O:
Walt. Morrow Larrick Mem# 13160710 &
Barb. Jane Wagonseller Larrick Mem#13160212
{For Sis-IL & BIL's see Walt's & Barb's pgs.}
He was an Uncle, GU & 2GU.
{Living fam. member info w/held for privacy.}
He died in a nursing facility.
----
Graduate 1933:
*Brown H.S.
Branch Mgr.:
*Ohio Plate Glass Co. (Dayton)
Member of:
*Kiwanis Club (Cambridge)
*VFW Post 2901 (Cambridge) [Member 30 yrs.]
Also Member of:
*Alpha Pi Frat.
Fan of:
*Cincinnati Reds
*Cincinnati Bengals
*The Ohio State University Buckeyes
Other Hobbies/Intersts:
*Traveling
*Making Holiday Fudge & Peanut Brittle
He was a Methodist by Faith.
If Memorial Contributions are made,
they're requested to be made to:
Hospice of Guernsey
P.O. Box 1165
Cambridge, OH 43725
Military Funeral Graveside Rites By:
Guernsey Co. Veterans Council
Family Members
Sponsored by Ancestry
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