Notes
Lt(jg) V.A. Dybdal served as the gunnery officer on the
USS Helm
.
Text from Typed Script
HELM'S JAP AT PEARL
(7 December 1941)
The week before Pearl Harbor day, all the HELM's ammunition had been struck
below, locked up in the magazines, and the keys hung in the Captain's cabin
where they belonged. So trying to get ammunition to the guns shortly after
0800 on the 7th was a problem. Ens Pug Sutherland, in violation of the most
sacred regulations, got a bull cutter and cut the locks off the magazines.
In due time our guns were firing.
(I wonder if the Helm's magazines were EVER locked from that day until
1946?)
I had a very good friend, a Lt(jg)USNR, who was on watch in the harbor net
station that morning. He swore that the Jap aircraft that the Helm shot
down that morning was headed direct for the net station and for him. He
claimed we saved his life.
It was the after 50 caliber that got that airplane. The name of the gunner
has been on the tip of my tongue for 40 years, but I still can't remember
it.
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| Citation : | Lt. V. A. Dybdal, "Helm's Jap at Pearl", 7 December 1941, Thomas C. Buell Papers. |
| Location : | East Carolina Manuscript Collection, Manuscripts and Rare Books, Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27858 USA |
| Call Number : | Thomas C. Buell Papers #538.1. Display Collection Guide |
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