Ens. Tom Anderson's Pearl Harbor Colt..

Ens Tom Anderson was the OOD of the USS UTAH on Dec 7, 1941. He had just assumed the watch at 0800, when the first torpedo struck the ship at 0805. He was wearing this rig at the time. He survived the attack and was assigned to the 14Th Naval District Sampan Group on Dec 26, 1941 and kept the whole rig throughout the war.. I spoke to him personally while he was in a nursing home in Snohomish, WA before his death.... Look up the 14TH Naval District Sampan Group on the INTERNET. It was very interesting...

http://www.fototime.com/%7B07E2965E-2A5D-4B47-A421-9A03497EA819%7D/origpict/DSC01252.JPG

http://www.fototime.com/%7B347A98D7-C56E-4E40-ADEE-11AFD628B46F%7D/origpict/Rig%5B1%5D.jpg

Ens. Tom Anderson USNR..


http://www.fototime.com/%7B65502206-4078-4D49-935E-1C0B1E2F4D11%7D/origpict/Copy%2520%287%29%2520of%2520Anderson_T.jpg

VERY Nice.. providence and all.

That's some incredible history there.

My "real world" name is Tom Anderson (seriously) - I don't guess you'd be interested in selling it would you?

So well preserved and with papers too. Thank you for sharing.

I am just in in awe. What a piece of history.

Dave

Very nifty. I looked up information on the Utah. Anderson apparently was wearing a significant amount of the Utah's firepower at the time of the attack. All of the ships guns were dismantled and below decks at the time of the attack as the Utah had been serving as a target for practice rounds.

http://www.history.navy.mil/docs/wwii/pearl/ph94.htm

For me, this is the best thread I have read on this board. Thanks for sharing, and God Bless the Anderson family.

Actually, the Japanese Air Commander, Cdr Fuchida instructed his pilots to ignore to UTAH as she had no military value.. However in combat, and I have been there, you get pumped full of adrenalin and blood lust and so they attacked the nearest ship..

Here is the UTAH today, the forgotten ship of Pearl Harbor..

http://www.fototime.com/%7BB7E4CBE7-3D9A-44DE-898D-6BB4A25A15AB%7D/origpict/utah-wreck.jpg

Here is a letter that Ens. Anderson wrote to his mother a year after the attack.....



Dec. 18, 1942

Dear Mother;

I just received your letter of the 7th and am glad to hear that you received some letters from me finally. I’ll try to do better.

Now that Pearl Harbor has been revealed and the picture and all I’ll tell you what I know.

I was at Russ’ place the night before and got up late (he was going to send the Capt’s boat for me Monday for dinner didn’t make it needless to say) and wolfed down breakfast, relieved the watch at 0750 and at about 0755 I and the rest of the watch saw 3 dive bombers come down and drop bombs and we were a little puzzled and surprised, but they used to make practice runs quite often but no bombs! The last one made a big black smoke cloud. Just after that a torpedo plane came past the starboard side going aft and banked over towards the Japs and then I saw his jap insignia and instantly I knew what was going on. I turned to the messenger and said “tell the Head of Dept Jap planes attacking”. and he went forward, don’t know if he ever made it, don’t remember seeing him again. The officers’ motor boat came to the gangway just then and Johnny Bric and another officer [Hogan] came running up and looked over their shoulders and ducked into the first hatch way they saw I looked and here came a plane right at us but quite away off. I started to follow and then thought. “I’ve got the deck I can’t go below,” so came back on deck ran to the gangway and told the boat crew to get her to the other side of the ship and then turned around, just then the torpedo hit us forward of me staggering the ship, it listed about 10 immediately then the water spout came down tons of water poured down on me it was knee deep on deck and it downed me, I picked myself up and thought, “Look at my pretty clean uniform (white) it’s a mess” oil all over it, then I snapped out of it rushed into the O.O.D. shack and pulled the general alarm gong. I seemed to know she was going to sink so I said to the men around me “come on let’s get off of her.” We slide down the mooring lines which were snapping like string in some places and got on to a mooring platform and I called a near by boat to pick up the men near me and also helped pull men out of the water. One fellow [Lt. Jones] was having a hard time of it and I caught a line and life jacket. We got ashore and dispersed the men then took shelter in that building a small arms ammunition dump it seems the bomb was about 500 LBS and made a crater about 6-8 feet in the hard ground. a concrete wall was wavering like a sheet behind us but held up. We were taken by truck to the other side of the island and on the way over we saw the Nevada at xx with her bridge all afire. the battle lasted about another hour after that. But amm. kept exploding on the ships so it was hard to tell. I saw that one jap sub sunk too. Part of its conning tower was above water and a Destroyer rammed it, went on over and let go two depth charges which threw water and black mud etc up a hundred feet or more. To go back to the ship for awhile; when I went in the OOD shack to turning the alarm I didn’t even remember that it has a house of 6 x 12 timbers built around it and that it might collapse and trap me but I got out before it did. We had all our guns covered with steel houses and our decks with timbers for protection during bombing practice so we got no shot fired, and a lot of men must have been trapped below decks when the timber shifted and lost about 10% of the crew 45 men & 6 officers. Well that’s about it!

About that diary from Warren and Winnie, it’s against Navy regulations to keep a diary now days but I can use a lot of the spaces it has.

I’m back in commission now and everything is as good as can be, we get enough sleep and food if we take the trouble, it’s easier and cheaper at the Sec. base. I don’t know where Johnny bric is. I like the material in the suits the wide whale is just like the old one. I didn’t know I got a wallet as I was saving the package for Christmas. Well I’d better stop, this is probably overweight now will write the Mac’s.


Love to all

Tom

Thanks for posting

I hate to point this out, but the paper shows it was issued 12/26/41, Pearl Harbor was 12/7/1941.

I hate to point this out, but the paper shows it was issued 12/26/41, Pearl Harbor was 12/7/1941.
I wouldn't be surprised if it were a "re-issue" to account for the war losses on and of the Utah.
It may well be the same one worn on Dec 7 if the pistol was issued to him originally "ship board" those records may have been (were probably) lost with the arms locker.

Thats amazing. What a neat story that too many people are forgetting about every day.

I wouldn't be surprised if it were a "re-issue" to account for the war losses on and of the Utah.
It may well be the same one worn on Dec 7 if the pistol was issued to him originally "ship board" those records may have been (were probably) lost with the arms locker.

That is exactly what I was thinking



Incredible story and an astonishing piece of history....there are some things that you really cannot put a monetary value on, and for me, this would be one of them

I join the others in thanking you for posting this.

I have always had a great interest in WWII and in recent years have done quite a few interviews for the Library of Congress' Veterans History Project (www.loc.gov/vets). The vets have ranged from the father of my first/best childhood friend (who flew Army observation planes in the Pacific), to a guy who was one of the radar techs on the USS West Virginia the night of the Battle of Surigao Strait (his ship was the first to spot - with radar - and fire upon the Japanese column moving up the strait).

Strongly urge all with the interest, who know WWII vets, to look into this (check the website). It's simple to do a digital audio interview. Just need to do a bit of advance work including looking over the vet's paperwork and assignments/positions during the war - and of course homework on battles/theaters/activities that will be covered always helps. Civilians directly involved in war work at home are also part of the project.

So much is being lost with the passing of each member of the WWII generation. Many of us can preserve a little bit of info and history, one small portion at a time, by recording the stories of veterans. Current trends notwithstanding, who knows, some day we may once more live in a country with an interest in its heritage.

This Colt was issued to Ens. Anderson as he assumed the Watch as OOD moments before the attack. He carried it with him and when he was assigned to the Sampan Group, since all the original documents went down with the ship, it was reassigned to him by the 14Th Naval Dist Ordnance Officer... He told me all this when I met him in the nursing home...

http://ussutah.org/

Another thank you for posting all of this. Really amazing.