I had been out there long enough. I had not seen my family for four years.

I was 20 years old at Pearl Harbor. I was in the Navy about a year and four months before the war.

All we had aboard the ship that morning was one Annapolis graduate and three reserves.

I was standing on the deck of the USS Blue, a destroyer. We were all alone out there at this buoy, tied up.

We got orders to strike the Marshall and Gilbert Islands. We had a task force with the Enterprise. We had two or three cruisers and probably eight or 10 destroyers.

Our duty was to try and find the Japanese fleet. We never did find the Japanese fleet and I am awfully glad, because they had attacked us there with six carriers, three battleships, 10 or 15 cruisers, and about 20 destroyers.