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I agree.See image of California. Clearly a Kingfisher and clearly NOT in the air. Yes, she was preparing to get underway and thus would have had her aircraft aboard. Later newspaper clippings say he was a dive-bomber pilot. So I believe the newspaper article simply guessed at how he might have died.
Great info, Dana!Hi guys,
A few years back I had a chance to review California's deck logs. Here are my notes from 7 December 1941:
moored berth F-3; attacked 0750; returned fire 0803; 0925 2-O-5 capsized while getting off ship; 0930 lowered 2-O-4 over side - taxied to NAS. 2115 three planes approached from down channel showing running lights. Ships present opened fire, destroying one plane.
I can presume that the aircraft seen on the high cat after the attack was 2-O-6, or it could have been a flagplane.
Ensign Richey might have been in one of the two Kingfishers that tried to move to safety, perhaps dying in 2-O-5 or dying later after moving 2-O-4. It was a time where many parents lost sons - reports that those sons died as heros often helped...
Cheers,
Dana
...and a lack of knowledge of the role of aircraft on a BattleshipHmmm...
Face saving or fog of war?
Yes, in my post on the Facebook Page I start by saying that I in no way want to take anything away from a man who lost his life in service to our country. I should have started this post the same way.I agree.
Some of the best photos of the status of the ships that morning, were from the Japanese, interestingly enough.
The very fact that he was there, that morning, places a him in the hall of honor.
Thank you so much for the info. I will pass it on to his cousin. He has done quite a bit to keep Joseph's memory alive locally (St Joseph, MO)Hi guys,
A few years back I had a chance to review California's deck logs. Here are my notes from 7 December 1941:
moored berth F-3; attacked 0750; returned fire 0803; 0925 2-O-5 capsized while getting off ship; 0930 lowered 2-O-4 over side - taxied to NAS. 2115 three planes approached from down channel showing running lights. Ships present opened fire, destroying one plane.
I can presume that the aircraft seen on the high cat after the attack was 2-O-6, or it could have been a flagplane.
Ensign Richey might have been in one of the two Kingfishers that tried to move to safety, perhaps dying in 2-O-5 or dying later after moving 2-O-4. It was a time where many parents lost sons - reports that those sons died as heros often helped...
Cheers,
Dana
Questioning the news article's accuracy doesn't diminish Ens. Richey's sacrifice, so no worries.Yes, in my post on the Facebook Page I start by saying that I in no way want to take anything away from a man who lost his life in service to our country. I should have started this post the same way.
You are 100% spot on. nothing to diminish his sacrifice. To me, hearing from Dana Bell was like a light shining down from heaven. Such a respected guru of our interests, a real gift to us enthusiasts for years.Questioning the news article's accuracy doesn't diminish Ens. Richey's sacrifice, so no worries.
There was so much confusion that morning, that even now, there's still missing pieces to the puzzle.
News agencies have always been notorious for either mixing up information or embellishing in order to either add interest or fill in blanks.
Dana's info is a solid clue as to his demise, though.
In the photo, is that a crewman crouched on the wing next to the cockpit?One of the disappointing facets of my research for our NASPH book, was the nearly total lack of documentation regarding the SOC/OS2U flights from Pearl Harbor subsequent to the attack. The spotty dispatch traffic--preserved to/from the Tangier, and some to/from CinCPac--mentions occasional side numbers, but very little apart from that. There are decoration citations for Lt.(j.g.) Ginn and RM2c Robert who crashed offshore in 4-O-7 close to Barbers Point on the evening of 7/8 December, but no names are mentioned for the other OS2Us. There were about four of them that went up, based on the dispatches (including two from the Arizona). Ens. Rafael Semmes took up an SOC after the attack... that, documented in a report from the St. Louis Aviation Unit.
Gobs of stuff on the JRS-1s and J2Fs from VJ-1, though.
Here is a photo (heavily cropped) of 2-O-4 putzing down the channel from the California toward the seaplane base.
View attachment 706022
Best...
Mike Wenger
MIke, when was this photo taken, the day of the attack?Hmmm... probably. There was so much debris in the water, and it was well nigh impossible to see forward over the cowling. From surviving reports, the PBYs taking off had to do a real dance around the flotsam in the water, so as to avoid puncturing the hull.
There are other details that are cropped out of the photo... a fire truck (pumper) on one of the seaplane ramp sucking water out of the harbor for fire fighting.
See below...
MW
View attachment 706031