The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1942-12-03
Troy Youne.Man In
Bitter Fighting In
Southwest Pacific
Was at PeorI Horbor During jap
Attack and Later Took Part in
CoroI and Jovo Secs and Midway Bottles

"a battleship, name undisclosed
city. ut had everything, even to
laundries and tailor shop. / was
at sea for as long as So days at
time, and toward the last, we were
getting beans three times day"
Bert joined the gunnery branch,
where he mentioned he had ex-
perience in firing 16-inch guns.
which fire 400 pound shells. He
said he would certainly advise any
young fellow who is in danger OF
getting drafted to join the navy
there are SO many different trades
you can get into
He went via ship to northern
waters. OF the trip he said, 1T was
the first time lots of us had been ON
ship. Some of the fellows were
really sick. didn't get as sick as
thought would, but it was pretty
rough riding for a while"
His ship went to Seattle for re-
pairs, then to Long Beach, Calf.
for about month, and then headed
for Honolulu Winslow said he, like
lot of other people, had always
wanted to 60 to the Hawaiian
Islands. He mentioned that the
mountains there were no higher
than the ones we see around here.
and the climate was wonderful, but
he preferred change of seasons.
And as for the famed Hawaiian
girls-aWell, some of them were
pretty with raise of his eye
broWs) land some were otherwise"
Bert was at Pearl Harbor Dec. Z.
and gave wildly dramatic account
of his experience there. His ship
was fastened to cement dock, with
another ship beside it. He had
been ashore, he said, returning to
his ship at | o'clock. Only two Of
ficers--the gunnery officer and the
navigator--Were ON board. He was
finishing his bteakdsst when ne
heard tire racket overhead. II
went to the gallery deck outside"
he said, and noticed that the
planes were flying lower than us
ual. | heard the machine guns
| the Jap machine guns were very
lsloW-firing, different from ours. I
saw the red wing-tips then, and
knew what they were. There were
! l7O0 men on board, and all of us
had our battle stations, and went to
them, except the new fellows, or
boots They didn't know what to
do. They seemed to be frozen where
they were standing and you almost
had to hit some of them pretty hard
to wake them up After that they
were 0. K, though.
First the dive bombers came
over-then the torpedo bombers,
and finally the high bombers. One
of the Japs's two-man subs, which
had been cruising around the har-
/ Dor two days before the attack, was
captured. There was a whole lay
out in it of radios, maps, and SO
forth, directing the planes for the
attack.
THE torpedo bombers, which
came first, were over us before we
even knew it, They were behind
the hills, SO we couldn't see or hear
| them--and when they got there,
they really raised cain. The reason
we weren't prepared on our ship
was because we were preparing for
an admirars inspection. We had all
our equipment put away, and pots
of paint sitting around. 1t made
some of us pretty sore-We didn't
| like the inspections anyhow.
We had quite scrap there.
was on three different ships, and
| finally came out on plane
He said that probably the smoke
from the burning paint on the ship
saved the men by covering them
with a thick smokc-screen, which
could not be seen through by the
enemy The navy's great for paint
ing things" he said. There must
eighth of an inch thick over the
whole ship, and when it got started,
/ it burned like gasoline You couldn't
see anything, and they couldn't see
US"
He spoke shortly of seeing ships
bombed around him. In describing
the battle and the damage and
casualties he said simply, You
can't imagine how it was and
I'm not going to try to tell you"
1t was while he was on duty in
the Coral Sea that he had the ex-
perience of floating at sea on life
raft for three days. He described
the method of fastening the RATS to
the ship which makes it possible
for the spring catch to be released.
swinging the RATS down int ,rn-
water easily and in few seconds
| Inside the rubber raft were emer-
gency rations for 10 men for a pc
Rod Of eight days. He said they
had to watch out for the sharks,
hllf fba water was warm and ff
wasn't too uncomfortable, other
than being wet" He described how
the men took turns sleeping on the
raft, in six inches of water.
Of the Coral Sea battle, he said
there was plenty of action He
was at Java Sea, which he said
they left pretty well afire."
He was at Midway Island, where
he was one of landing party. Each
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