My Moustache by Gordon Elmer Douglass
Eighty four men were in my division – all of them dead. (I learned later that 34 men in “C” Division had died in the attack). Nine days ago I had a warning of a sneak attack by the Japanese. The warning had been top secret and neither I nor my commanding officer had done anything about it. Now I’m in a motor launch looking at the capsized USS Oklahoma. I feel like jumping over the side to go down below to be with my men. I am the Assistant Division Officer for the “C” (communications) division. In all my life, this experience was the worst. I am in shock and in deep despair. It will take years for the United States to recover from this loss. The USS Arizona is sending out billows of black smoke. All of our battleships are either sunk or heavily damaged.
Yesterday as I left the ship, Ensign Stern was playing one of our few phonograph records, “Perfidia”. Perfidy means treachery. It
is difficult to think of anyone or any nation to be so devoid of moral
principles as to perpetrate such a sneak attack in peacetime. All is fair in war, but we are not at war. Tojo is in trouble. I am mad and I am an American. I know that all Americans or at least most Americans are as angry as I am.
Earlier this morning, December 7, I went to an early morning Japanese-Mormon Sunday School. These people are a gentle, vigorous people. It is difficult to associate them with the evil Japanese Empire and I don’t. These people are Americans. Also they are brothers and sisters in the gospel. There is nothing more beautiful than a testimony from someone of Japanese ancestry.
When I learned by radio of the attack on Pearl Harbor, I commandeered a taxi and went out to the navy base. Just as I arrived, I heard one sailor yell to another that the Arizona was on fire and the Oklahoma was sunk. I saw a mast through the smoke so I thought that the Okie was still afloat. I jumped on a motor launch that was taking officers out to their ships. Not till I was at the sunken ship did I realize that it, the Okie, was sunk and it was the mast of the Maryland that I had seen.
There is a drunken officer on our launch. His ship’s OOD won’t accept him aboard in his drunken condition. The drunk keeps on saying over and over again “why, the dirty rotten SOBs” about the Japanese. In spite of the dreadful sight before me, I can’t help smiling at the humor of the situation. I personally don’t use foul language, but I guess I am just as he is, as I agree with everything that he says.
CINCPAC’s coding room is my new assignment. I guess that I can stay here till the war ends, but I am mad. Lt. Branson of the USS Oklahoma is working in the fleet pool office. I told him that I want to get on the next aircraft carrier that is available. People shouldn’t do things when they are angry. I can stay here at this ‘Country
Club’ if I want, but I want action. Also while I am angry, I make a vow to not shave off my moustache until I get a good strike back at this enemy. This was a huge mistake. Of course, it wasn’t until March or April that anyone even noticed that I had started one. I was angry with myself, because I had done nothing about the warning we had received. My hands were tied though. I couldn’t say anything to anyone about top-secret material. I
was angry with the captain, because he had paid so little attention to
the message that he had even left the voids open down below. (Grandson:
He explained to me that the voids were compartments that could be closed
to compartmentalize flooding or fire so it was only local and wouldn’t
sink the whole ship. Leaving them open would’ve allowed the ship to fill with water more quickly). This allowed the Okie to sink in just 11 minutes. The
only warning he had given the crew was a warning about wearing proper
uniforms and keeping their compartments clean for inspections.
On about January 5, 1942 I was transferred to the flag allowance of the USS Enterprise. A real fighting admiral (Admiral William F. Halsey) is my boss. On February 1, 1942 we hit the Marshall-Gilbert islands. On Feb 24 we hit Wake Island and on March 4, we hit Marcus Island. Then on April 18th, we hit Tokyo. I was sorely tempted to shave off my so-called moustache, but these attacks were all things that the aviators had done. My vow was for me to do something. On the 8th of May we were on our way to the Coral Sea Battle, but the battle was over before we could get there. We lost the USS Lexington there and the USS Yorktown was damaged. Orders from CINCPAC sent us back to Pearl. We can’t make trades like we did here at Coral Sea. The Japanese lost one carrier and another was damaged, an even trade. The
main hitch was that they have 10 carriers left and we only have 3, four
if you can count the USS Saratoga, which seemed to spend all of its
time in port, entering or leaving port. The Sara has a hard time getting away from the west coast. This was no fault of the ship’s crew. The ship had been designed to be a cruiser. Halfway during construction plans were changed to make it a carrier. The USS Lexington and the Saratoga were awkward and cumbersome. It was not the fault of the officers or men that these two ships were ineffective.
On June 4, 1942 we had the Battle of Midway. The
battle is over and the Japanese have lost 4 carriers, 2 cruisers, 3
destroyers, 1 or more transports and an estimated 275 aircraft and they
lost 3500 men. Our USS Yorktown, which had been damaged at the Battle of Coral Sea, was sunk. We also lost 1 destroyer, 150 planes and 307 men. This was Japan’s only naval defeat since 1592. So I had stood in gloom exactly 6 months ago. Now naval balance is restored. This is the turning point of the war. In
as much as I played a part which was important enough for Admiral
Raymond A. Spruance to write me a commendation letter, I felt that my
vow had been fulfilled. As far
as I know, I and four officers who worked under my direction were the
only personnel besides aviators who received letters of commendation for
the Battle of Midway. I went down and cut of my “alleged” moustache. . . . Nobody even noticed.
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