Tony Duncan
On the morning of December 7th, 1941, Arles Cole, a 17 year old, Oklahoma lad was at his duty station on the navigation bridge, aboard the battleship, USS West Virginia. His orders for his advanced training after boot camp sent him to Quartermaster School. One of the many duties of the quartermaster is that of helmsman, a person who steers the ship. Large naval ships have a second navigation station one or more decks below the main deck of the ship in the event the main navigation bridge is badly damaged or destroyed.
At 7:40am, Arles saw the smoke coming from Ford Island and knew something was wrong. Within minutes, he heard explosions and gunfire as planes flew by with red circles on their fuselages and the underside of their wings. He immediately knew that they were being attacked by the Japanese navy. When the call for “battle stations” sounded, he made his way to his station, the second navigation station, 4 decks below. After arriving, he and his shipmates felt the ship shudder multiple times as Japanese torpedoes slammed into the side of the West Virginia. The ship started to list and settle to the bottom of the harbor. They knew they had to get out fast. Once an order is given to “batten down the hatches” all of the hatches in a damaged area of the ship are closed and locked down to maintain its water tight integrity in hopes of keeping it from sinking. Any crewmen not exiting the area would be trapped and would most likely drown, a fate that befell several of his shipmates.
Arles and a few of his shipmates found themselves in a long, pitch black corridor with sea water rising quickly around them. He spotted a light down the corridor that appeared to be coming from above. When they got there, they found that a Japanese bomb had torn through the decks without exploding. The dud bomb made an opening that allowed them to escape certain death. Arles spent the next several hours helping his fellow shipmates to safety.
After the attack, he noticed there was no flag flying on the West Virginia. He felt like there should be, so he made his way to the ship’s flag locker to get the biggest one he could find. The halyard on the flag pole had burned away during the attack, so he found a few scraps of rope and shimmied up the flag pole on the stern of the ship and tied the flag in place. Later, his shipmates told him that it gave them a sense of calm to see their flag flying again.
After Pearl Harbor, Arles was assigned to a mine sweeper for a few months. He was then assigned to the destroyer, USS Prichett, that was getting ready to make its way to the South Pacific. Destroyers were considered expendable and were expected to put themselves in harm’s way to protect larger vessels such as battleships, heavy cruisers and aircraft carriers. He was one of the helmsman on the Prichett, which participated in several battles including Okinawa, Guam and Iwo Jima. What he saw and experienced at Pearl Harbor paled in comparison to what he experienced in the South Pacific. He has shared his Pearl Harbor story on many occasions to schools and various civic organizations, but has never talked about what happened while serving on the Prichett.
It was a miracle that he survived Pearl Harbor and fought in some of the bloodiest battles in the South Pacific without sustaining any serious physical injuries. Emotionally, he was not as lucky. By the grace of God and the unwavering support and compassion from his loving wife, Virginia, he was able to come to terms with his wartime experiences and live a full and productive life.
To me, he was just “Uncle Arles”, one of my heroes. He was a big man, with a big laugh. He was a man of God. Uncle Arles and Aunt Jenny were two amazing people that I was blessed to have in my life. I miss them both deeply.
