A few moments later we cast off, and as we were backing out I happened to look up through the open turret of the gun and saw two white torpedo streaks coming straight at us just under the surface of the water. Luckily for us, Dale was due to tie up at the tender on Monday, so we were low on everything and only drawing about nine feet of water. Those torpedoes streaked right underneath us and blew up on Ford Island.

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Schneider: We figured out later how the miniature Jap submarines managed to sneak past the submarine nets into Pearl Harbor. That Saturday we escorted Lexington out to sea, picked up the old Utah and then followed her back into the harbor. There was quite a bit of room between Utah and Dale going in. Those little subs must have just jumped in line between the two of us and followed the sound of the Utah’s screws as she worked her way up into the harbor.

Miller: One torpedo came whizzing by our bow, but missed us by a few feet. Another came from the stern and went under us, hit the beach, exploded and tore the beach up for yards around.

By 8:30, the first wave of attacking Japanese airplanes had spent themselves and were winging their way north to the carriers. A lull settled in over Pearl Harbor as sailors and soldiers prepared for further attacks.

During this lull in the action, Nevada, the one battleship capable of getting up steam, got underway and began moving slowly down the channel toward the harbor entrance and the open sea. The sight of this towering battleship moving along amid the flames and smoke brought hope to those trapped in the flaming hell of Pearl Harbor. But before Nevada could move very far, it was jumped by the second wave of Japanese attackers. Pilots of this wave saw Nevada as a target of opportunity that, if sunk in the channel, could bottle up Pearl Harbor for weeks. In a few frenzied moments, the Japanese pilots dropped five armor-piercing bombs onto the lumbering giant. Nevada then received orders from the harbor control tower to stay clear of the channel, leaving only one possible course of action, to beach the battleship and thereby prevent it from sinking.

Harris: When we got underway, the first ship we passed was Monaghan, which was stuck in the mud after making a high-speed depth-charge run on a Japanese submarine. Eight Jap planes were attacking her, and she was shooting back at them like mad. We could see her screws backing furiously trying to get her off that mud.

Miller: As we passed Monaghan, guys on both ships waved a friendly goodbye.

Harris: Then we passed by the old Utah, which was rolling over and going under. All this time I was just a standing there in the hatchway of the radio shack, a-gawkin’ at all this like some old country boy.

Ernest Schnabel: As we left our berth and got underway, the deck force was still engaged in getting ready for combat. One young bosun named Fuller had the job of clearing the deck of all the wooden objects that collected in port. And there was a lot of it, because in port we had all these awnings rigged to keep the tropical sun off the decks. You also had to get rid of all the wooden swabs, buckets, and boxes because if a machine gun bullet from a Japanese plane were to strike any of it, slivers would fly all over the place just like shrapnel.

So Fuller was making his way aft, just tossing stuff like a madman when he came to the wooden ice cream gedunk. He grabbed it and was just starting to push it over the side when one of the guys said, “Hey, wait a minute!”

Back in 1941, ice cream was a mighty precious commodity in the destroyer Navy. Today you can find ice cream and sugar candy on almost any street corner. But back then, we tin can sailors had to get our ice cream off the bigger ships that had the equipment to make it. They almost always figured out ways to make us pay for it, too! So that young bosun struck a nerve when he made moves to toss all the ship’s ice cream over the side.

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