Navy Man

My name is Rick Oterman. I am in the U. S navy and have been for the past eight years. I enlisted in the Navy on my eighteenth birthday. I had a life that I did not want to fallow. My mom and dad are contently fighting about every thing. Its mainly because my father is a heavy drinker and spends most his time drunk and obnoxious. I wanted out of that situation and to make some thing of my life.

I joined the Navy and it became my life. I got through boot camp like an outdoor education Class. I found it really easy to do all the physical challenges because I was in really good shape. I played sports all through high school so I was in really great physical shape. Right after boot camp I was put into active service and started to serve the U.S Navy. I have a passion that the Navy helped me fulfill. I loved to cook so the Navy made me into a cook.

Right after I passed basic training I was placed at Purl Harbor. I was assigned to be one of seven cooks from our platoon to be on the U.S.S Arizona. I loved being placed at Purl Harbor because it was so far away from my home in Providence Road Island. After working on the Arizona for four years I was promoted to a head cook position. I was in charge of feeding a few thousand solders. I had to make sure that we had food, water, and clean eating utensils. I took my job seriously and with a lot of passion. I made sure that every one was that was eating on my ship was happy with the quality of the food. I personally feel that if your going to be away from you should not miss the home cooking.

The atmosphere at Purl Harbor was really laid back and happy. There was no sign of fear. We thought that nothing would happen to us because we had nothing to do with the war yet. Every thing was happening around us and we were told to just ignore it because it did not involve us. Well eventually it directly affected us. There is one day that I would never forget for the rest of my life. The morning of December seventh was a morning that had good hopes for a great day. I was up really early that morning because I had a food shipment coming in. So at five o’clock that morning I was up waiting for the supplies. I got done around seven o’clock and started to eat breakfast. I went down to my quarters to see if I could get some sleep. I was a sleep when the Jap’s started their cowardly attack.

A shack awakened me. The ship had been hit by two bombs and is now under full attack. The first thing I remember hearing is the screams of terror and pain. I came out of the sleeping quarters to see every one running up and down the hallways. I got to the ladders leading to the top decks. About half way up there was a troches smell that I could not explain. I could only tell you that it was the smell of death and fire. I got to the top deck to see what was going on and I saw the most frightening sight I have ever seen. I instantly went into battle mode. I stopped thinking about what was happening and went into autopilot. My training is what I was thinking about. I did not think weather or not I was going to die. I was thinking about what I had to do to survive. I instantly went to the anti-aircraft guns on the ship. The first gun I came to was un-manned or so I thought it was. The man that was on the gun was a Privet. He was shot by an aircraft machine gun in the neck. There was blood everywhere. I had to trough the body off the gun so that I could kill the people that were doing this to my people.

I do not really remember me shooting the guns but I remember running out of ammunition. It was common procedure to keep limited amounts of ammunition at the guns in peacetime. So I had to go down below deck to the armory hold to get shells. As I got in side the hold, the whole boat shuck. There was fire everywhere you looked. The only way out of where I was is to clime the ladder. The problem with that is that is almost covered in flames. I had to use peaces if old uniforms to make glove to grip the mettle ladder witch would be really hot. I jumped on the side of the ladder and started to climb the bar was extremely hot. The uniforms I had wrapped around my hand were starting to melt as with my boots. I finally got to the top deck with the shells and got back to my gun. My hands and feet hurt but I did not think about it. All I thought was that if I took the time to get the shells mine as well put them to good use. So I got back on the gun and started to really get on the shells.

I used about one case when all of a sudden I was in the water. A plane crashed into the side of the boat where I was. It took me and threw me out the boat into the water. I woke up floating next to the Privet that was at my gun before. The sound I remember was so load that it made your ears ring for months. It took me a few seconds for me to orientate my self and then I started to swim towards shore. Then I came across a Privet with his leg blown off. He was struggling to stay afloat so I started to drag him to shore. The Privet is still alive to this day.

For me I got out of the water with third degree burns on my entire back. They eventually healed and now I just have a permanent memory on my back that will always remind me that I am a lucky person. I feel the U.S had to do what they did to set an example on how much power we have and not to try to mess with it. I feel that we should have done the same kind of a shady act of deception to them. They deserve what they got because they not only killed U.S Navy men they lied to the whole country. Talking about how they want peace and then they come and bomb that same country. In the long run I think they did learn from their mistakes. We showed them a lesion and they learned.