Richard Fiske in uniform, age 19
“I was a Marine bugler, assigned to the battleship USS West Virginia, and on that Sunday morning, had just finished playing my bugle for the raising of the colors. It was just an ordinary day. I had the rest of the day off, and was looking forward to a date with my girlfriend in Honolulu.
But in the next few seconds, the world changed, and America was under attack. I was on the bridge of the West Virginia, which is high above the main deck, about 16 stories above the water. I had a ringside view as the Japanese torpedo planes suddenly attacked the side of my ship. They came in very low, only about 25 feet above the water, because the channel isn’t very deep, and the torpedoes were specially designed for shallow water.
After they released their torpedoes, the pilots would quickly climb and zoom past their target, looking back to see if they had been successful. The Japanese pilots had their cockpits open in case they needed to bail out, and I had a very close look at one of the pilots as his plane flew past, barely missing the bridge where I was standing in total shock and disbelief. Can you imagine how it felt to see that pilot roar by, and then to feel your ship rocked by torpedoes smashing into its side?
One torpedo was aimed wrong. It went too deep, and buried itself in the bottom over by the USS Oklahoma. It was found many years later, in May of 1991. It was still “alive,” but was detonated and you can see the remains on display at the USS Arizona Memorial Visitor Center.”
(Editor’s note: you can read Richard’s full account in our Pearl Harbor Child book, along with true stories from other survivors)
