WW II PHOTOS

Our Weakley County Veterans
 



  
Elmer Clark HEATH - Veteran - U.S. NAVY WWII
Son of Elmer Allen HEATH - Veteran of WWI

Elmer Clark HEATH later in life
   
Rectorite truly does 'Remember Pearl Harbor'
Stationed on the USS Pennsylvania
By Elizabeth Baker
Democrat News Staff
Wednesday, August 15, 2001


With the release this year of the Hollywood movie “Pearl Harbor,” many people have gone to the theaters to see a director's idea of what Pearl Harbor was like.  However, those who would like to know what it was really like don't even have to leave town.  Rector Healthcare resident Elmer Heath was on the USS Pennsylvania when it was bombed Dec. 7, 1941, and 60 years later, he still remembers what life was like during the biggest war in history.

“A recruiting officer when I went into the Navy said it would be the equivalent of a college education-I would see the world.  I was in the Navy for six years-Aug. 30, 1940, through Aug. 30, 1946.  I was oversees for four years, I was out at sea, but I didn't go to any foreigh ports but once,” the 80-year-old veteran said.

“The first ship I was on was the flagship of the U.S. Pacific fleet, the USS Pennsylvania.  I was one of the youngest men on the ship.  They called me, 'The Kid.'  I was in a peacetime Navy at first.  We had been out on maneuvers and were in drydock at Pearl Harbor because we were going to overhaul and modernize the ship.  That next Sunday morning, Dec. 7, the war started.

“When something happens and the word spreads, you don't know if everything you hear is true.  But I was there.  We did lose over 3,600 men in that attack.  The Arizona was the worse hit.  They lost all their men.  On our ship-all the ships had torpedoes in the bow except the Pennsylvania-it was bombed on the boat deck.  The bomb went down to the main deck and exploded on the broadside gun manned by sailors.  We lost over 40 men.

“I was in the number two fire room when we were hit.  That was the boiler that was keeping the ship utilities and everything going.  I was water tender, and I controlled the amount of water that the ship needed.  If they sped up, I gave them more water, and if they slowed down I gave them less.

“The guns on the battleship are so loud and make such a vibration that I didn't know exactly when the ship was hit.”

Heath said the men were completely unprepared for the attack.  “An aircraft fleet came towards Midway Island.  At the time they were coming over, we were eating breakfast.  By the time the attack came, the Honolula Star Bulletin newspaper had come and guys were in their apartments reading the newspapers.

“After the attack, the yard workers and sailors started putting the ship back together.  The screws were off because we had been in drydock for modernization.  They worked day and night for a week getting the ship ready to go under its own power to San Francisco to Hunter's Point for repairs and modernization.

“We had orders not to tear anything up or disassemble anything if it couldn't be put back together in a short length of time.”

After the ship was repaired, Heath said, they traveled up the Pacific coast towards Alaska.  “On the California coast they have oil wells.  An oil well was shelled, which indicated that the Japanese had submarines in the area.

“There was a Russian submarine tender, a ship that services Russian submarines, out there in the fog along the coast.  The southern Alaska coast has a lot more fog than Seattle.  The oil wells kept being attacked by submarines, so they investigated further and it was a Japanese submarine tender under Russian Flags.

“A battleship has 12 inch guns.  They hit that Japanese submarine tender with 12-inch guns, then they spotted this Japanese military installation on an Aleutian Island, so they blasted that with a 12-inch gun.

“I was only on the Pennsylvania for a short time after that.  Since we were trained already, when they wanted to make room for new recruits to train, they moved us onto other ships.

“They sent some of us to fleet salvage in Pearl Harbor.  The job I was on was lifting the USS Oklahoma up on even keel and afloat so it could be towed back to the states by a sea-going tug.  They had bad luck on it.

“It was in five-mile-deep water.  Everything was going well until there was a bad storm.  The sea got too rough and they had to untie it.  It sank in that five-mile-deep water.

“By that time a lot of men had over four years overseas, and the suicide rate was getting so high that people were concerned back in the States that the cause of the suicide rate was because their sons had been overseas too long.  So they sent us to the States and gave us a month's leave and travel time.

“When I got back to the States, I had the job of getting the destroyer Robert K. Huntington back in commission.  We went to the Pacific from the Marshall Islands to the Aleutian and northeast of Japan.

“That may not be 100 percent accurate, but it's close.  It's been a long time, but if I remember right, we were losing the war the first 18 months.  The Japanese had the advantage with a good strong submarine fleet and we were short on cargo ships.  They were sinking too man.

“A battleship can hold a lot of crude oil in the storage tanks on the side.  They were so short of cargo ships that they sent us to Long Beach Harbor and we stayed there for three days and took on fuel and provisions.  Then we went back out there and went alongside other ships and gave it to them.

“A destroyer is like the front line of the army.  In the center are the battleships, cargo ships and cruisers, and on the outside are the destroyers.  They are the front line protecting the fleet.

“The submarines were after us day and night.  There were several submarines that attacked us.  We dropped a depth bomb to hit them.  You never know exactly where it is.  You've got to just drop the bomb and do the best you can.  If oil bubbles up to the top of the water, that's evidence that you sank it.  That's the only was you can know anything.

“I stayed on the R.K. Huntington the rest of the time I was out at sea over there and we had begun to win the war.  Our last job was to patrol the Japanese coast.  We escorted the battleship Missouri into Tokyo Bay.  There were a lot of men with President Truman and the Japanese came out there and signed the treaty.

“We were there three days and they had three sections of leave.  Some of the men went to Yokosuka, Japan's second largest naval base.  Some of the men caught the train and went into Tokyo.  I thought, 'There's a language barrier and I'd probably be better off staying in the naval town where there's more English spoken.'  There were souvenir stands everywhere and I had heard that what people wanted the most was soap.  So I brought a bunch of soap with me when I went ashore, I stuffed it in my socks, my blouse-I had it all over me,” he laughed.

“I never will forget when I showed them that soap, they were really interested.  I traded all that soap for souvenirs.  One guy wanted a pack of cigarettes.  He had a Japanese navy suit on.  He said in English, 'How much do I owe you?' and I said, 'You don't owe me anything.'

“I lacked one day having enough time to go back to Japan, so they put me on a repair ship in San Diego Bay and that's when I had a chance to go across the border and visit Mexico.  I did enjoy some visits to Mexico and I brought back some of Mexico with me.

“When I was on that supply ship and it was finished, there wasn't much to do.  It was really nice of them to give me six weeks to go up to Oregon and visit my Aunt Lizzie.  When I got there, there was a shortage of help picking beans.  I spent most of my time picking beans with the little kids and the elderly people and anybody they could get out there.

“When my service was up, I went to Seattle and was discharged.  I stayed in Oregon and got a job in Oregon City working for Crown Paper Company.  I was on the night shift, and I was so skinny and run down and nervous.  That night shift was getting the best of me and I thought I'd better go back to my home in Brinkley County, Tenn., and get some rest.  And that was the end of my naval career.

“One thing I can say is that I didn't get injured.  I didn't get a scratch.  But I didn't get enough sleep and rest and that's what got the best of my nerves.

“On the R.K. Huntington, our Chief Petty Officer's nerves cracked up.  He was walking up and down the deck that evening and he was going to destroy the men.  I saw what was happening and I went and got the Petty Officer.  I said, 'We've got a sick man walking back and forth on the deck up there.  His nerves are cracked up and he wants to kill the crew.'  So we went to the Engineering Officer and he brushed it off.  We went back and he was getting worse.  We went to the doctor and he brushed us off.  We told him, 'Doctor, you'd better come out here and see this man because he is very sick, and if you don't, you may be sorry.'  So he went out there and it wasn't 10 or 15 minutes before he was on a helicopter to a hospital ship.  Just a few weeks later, he died.  He was just too far along to make it.

“That's the only man we ever had whose nerves completely cracked up.  We were all shaky and nervous, but we got the job done.

“I think the worst thing that happened that caused men's nerves to crack up and suicides was overwork and not enough rest and we didn't go into any port for recreation.  It was just a little more than some men could take.”

Although he has had many harrowing experiences that many could never dread of, Heath has not lost his sense of humor.  “I forgot to get a tattoo when I was out there,” he laughed.  “Most men you see my age with a tattoo were sailors.  When I found out it was a terrible pain to get off, I changed my mind.”

Heath said that although he has been a part of war, he does not condone it.  “Most of the wars in the history of mankind could have been prevented by peaceful negotiations.” He said.  “A lot of lives could be saved.”  Heath and his wife, Melissa, who resides with him at Rector Healthcare, will celebrate their 45th anniversary in December.  He has one daughter and two grandchildren.



Photos and Article Submitted by Don Heath & Shirley Caudle Miller

 

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