Journaling
Bill was working nights and had just arrived at the chief’s quarters right before 8 AM and was preparing to hit the rack., when he heard a loud bang. He immediately rushed down to the maintenance shop to see if they knew what was going on. “This is not a Drill” announcement was made and General Quarters was called. Someone from the deck above hammered on the ceiling hatch and opened it to bring down a badly injured sailor. Bill helped get him down and then on to sickbay. He ended up on a hose fighting the fire on the hanger deck for several hours. Unbeknownst to Bill, he was reported missing as he was not in the shop when the roster was taken after battle stations was called and lock-down happened.
One of the explosions on the flight deck ripped a hole in it and down through several decks below. The chief’s quarters he left was damaged and he would have been killed or severely injured had he not left the space when he did.
The ship limped back into Hawaii later that day. Bill was not able to get off the ship to call home until the next day. The lines to get to a phone were hours long and limited to 5 minutes per person.
