Firsthand Accounts from the Crew of USS Dale’s Escape From Pearl Harbor

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Sturgill: There were two crews aboard Dale that night. One crew was made up of all of us trying to fix the burned-out pinion bearing. The other crew was made up of those waiting for the bearing to get fixed. I’m glad I was one of the fixers, because the waiters really had it tough that night!

Harris: We were under radio silence all night long, but that didn’t keep us from monitoring the traffic. And there was a lot of it to monitor. All night long, we got plain language broadcasts out of Pearl. Some broadcasts said Pearl was being attacked again. Others said the Jap fleet was steaming in for another attack. It was all panic gossip, but since we were under orders not to use our radio, we just had to sit there and listen all night.

Brewer: We were the perfect target for the Japanese subs that seemed to be just about everywhere that day. Why heck, we had been dropping depth charges on them all day long, and now it was night, and we were dead in the water! But maybe even worse than the Japanese subs were our own ships, which were shooting first and asking questions later. Someone got the bright idea to drape our largest American flag over the torpedo tubes so our own forces wouldn’t shoot us up. But that sure didn’t solve our submarine problem!

Cruce: Dale’s decks were crowded with crew that night, because nobody wanted to be caught down below if we were going to be torpedoed. The only sailors down below were those trying to fix the bearing. Everyone else stayed topside and watched for submarines.

“Dutch” Smith: I had been without sleep for thirty hours and was still too afraid to go below. Sometime, way deep in the early hours, I finally just curled up on the deck and fell asleep.

Reichert: It hit me hard that night we were laying to outside Pearl Harbor. We were at war! And I just knew it was going to be a long, long war. Where would it take me? Would I survive? Would I ever get to see home again? And I knew the war was going to be just like that day, December 7, had been. We simply would never know what was going to happen to us next.

Sturgill: We pulled the pinion bearing out, saw that it was scoured pretty badly and took it up to the machine shop. We had a lot of help up there. Too much help! Nobody liked being dead in the water with all those enemy subs out there, so everyone wanted to help fix the bearing.

Gaddis: We caught sight of the task force returning in the pre-dawn light and were very frightened. We had no radar and were under orders to maintain radio silence, so we had no way to signal our position to task force. The chief quartermaster “suggested strongly” to Ensign Radell that we break radio silence and call out our position before the task force blasted us out of the water. Much to the relief of everyone on the bridge, Radell picked up the mike and called us in. We soon formed up on the task force. Boy, was that ever a good feeling after a night of being dead in the water!

Rorschach, Captain’s Log: Rendezvoused with Task Force at dawn but as full repairs to the engine were impossible without the assistance of the tender, Dale could not maintain her assigned screening station. Under orders of Commander Destroyers, Battle Force, Dale established offshore patrol in sector one until the entrance of Task Group 8.4.

Reichert: When we went into Pearl that night with the task force it was very dark. We could barely make out the fires still smoldering on Ford Island, but couldn’t see much more. We’d move up the channel thirty yards, drop anchor, get our bearings, wait our turn and then move up another thirty yards.

Huntley: The harbor was a mess. The battleship Nevada was partially sunk and grounded, nearly blocking the harbor entrance. As a result, the ships in the task force entering the harbor had to anchor in the neck and wait for orders to proceed. Everyone aboard and ashore was very nervous. Any sudden movement or flashes of light justified a few exploratory rounds of fire from the jittery guards posted all around the harbor.

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Tags: Historical Conflicts, Historical Figures, Sea-Air Operations, World War II

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