Words: 782
Marie Ferguson Mr. Matson Final Copy of essay #2 The Attack on Pearl Harbor Today is a nice warm day on the USS ARIZONA. It was sunny outside with a nice cool breeze. There was not a cloud in site. I was lying in bed when my bunk partner decided to Jump out of his bed. He was totally unaware of me lying in mine. As he landed on me I fell off and hit the floor and felt one of my teeth fall out. I stood up and before I had the chance to say anything we heard the sound no one in the harbor wanted to hear.
As I was running through the barracks the sirens were blaring and everyone was unning around like crazy. While I was running to the top deck I heard people yelling “were under attack”, the German’s are here”, or “get to your stations”. People were running as fast as they could to the top decks of their ships. As I looked towards the sky I noticed hundreds offghter and bomber planes about to fly over. While I was looking around my commander was yelling at me telling me to grab the AA gun and start shooting. As I was shooting, I noticed that the planes weren’t German but in fact Japanese bombers.
While I was shooting the fighter next to me took a bullet to his skull and blood poured out. After Just four minutes my ship had over 100 men in the water, dead, or wounded. There were ships exploding off in the distance and there was fire everywhere. People were running around and some were Jumping into the water. It was complete chaos on the ARIZONA. I had somehow managed to take down two planes, damage five, and kill one pilot. While I was aiming at a plane a bomb hit the first deck of our ship sending me and countless others overboard.
I hit the water pretty hard and sunk several feet. I was swimming up to the surface when I heard a noise and saw fire everywhere. When I reached the top of the water I found the USS ARIZONA torn in half. I looked around to find the water filled with swimming sailors and dead bodies. I started swimming to the shore of the harbor. There was explosions everywhere and bullets were flying past my head. The water was stained red from all the blood. As I reached the shore the only thing on my mind was to reach the building ahead.
I as a hundred yards away when a plane flew right over my head and shot barrels full of explosives outside the building causing it to collapse. Since I was unfamiliar with the island I had no idea what the building was for. I looked around and in the distance I did see a building I did know. It was the FORD ISLAND NAVAL AIR STATION. But I couldn’t tell how far way it was but I knew it wasn’t close. As I started to make the slow Journey to the air station things got quieter behind me. All the Japanese planes were leaving the harbor.
I started to walk slower and ad thoughts about turning around and helping those who were wounded. I was tired, my stuff was wet, and I was weighed down by the weight of my soaked equipment. It nad caused me to tall a tew times on the way to the air station. As I was nearing the station I heard a loud explosion by the water. I felt fear as I looked up towards the sky and once more I saw another wave of planes. I threw all my gear down on the ground and started running. Up ahead I saw a small shack and immediately had a life or death decision to make.
Do I take cover here at the shack or o I make a run for the station? I decided to make a run for it. I was running as fast as I could and was almost there when a bomber hit the station with a missile. I flew backwards from the blast and hit the ground. When I hit the ground I had blacked out. I woke up thinking this was all Just a dream. But I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my leg. I yelled “ouch! ” Then I heard a voice say, “is everything 0k ma’am? ” I then threw my head up and saw a nurse working on several other wounded people in beds next to mine. Then I realized this wasn’t a bad dream.