All we had aboard the ship that morning was one Annapolis graduate and three reserves.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
After the United States entered the war, I joined the Naval Reserve and spent ninety days in a Columbia University dormitory learning to be a naval officer.
On 9/11, 2001, the Navy stood at 316 ships. By 2008, after one of the great military buildups in American history, we were at 278 ships and had 49,000 fewer sailors.
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.
We were very fortunate that the carriers weren't in the harbor.
The one good thing about our school was the Cadets; I chose to be in the Navy, purely for the sailor's outfit. A pity we had to give them back.
I was standing on the deck of the USS Blue, a destroyer. We were all alone out there at this buoy, tied up.
We held the team together for as long as possible and then sent all except the most critical personnel home.
We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now.
Destroyers were the first to herald our entrance into the war.
At the end of our NASA careers, no one had a place for us in the military.