Richard (Dick) Brown
Dick Brown was born on June 9th, 1917. He entered the Navy at the age of seventeen in 1935 as the ships carpenter. Richard was originally posted in China, but then he was transferred to Pearl Harbor after three years. As the ships carpenter he did all of the wood work. From making furniture to repairing all parts of the ship, all of it was done with out a level or a square. All of the work Dick did was done with a template he made and with his eyes. He had almost six years of service under him when Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese on December 7, 1941.
When Pearl Harbor was bombed Richard said, “I didn’t really think about what was going on, no one did. We just did exactly what we had all been trained to do.” Dick, like everyone else, was naturally scared, but it didn’t affect them because they had no choice. At the time of the bombing Brown was on a hospital ship, the Solace, just 500 feet away from the Arizona, which was hit first. “I was on the top deck when the Arizona was hit. The shock wave was so big it knocked me down,” said Brown. As the bombing went on there were bodies everywhere, some not even bodies just arms and legs blow everywhere. These images are difficult to deal with and are still with Dick today. But one young boy stands out from the rest in Dick’s mind. It was a young blonde haired, blue eyed boy, just average size. Dick reached into the water to pull the boy out and take him back to the hospital ship. The young man looked at Richard and said, “Where’s my momma?” The man died in Richard’s arms right then.
Richard was injured by shrapnel hitting him in the back. This sent Brown home on medical leave. He was later sitting in a barbershop listening to the radio when it was announced that the Japanese had surrendered. The barbershop instantly cleared out and shut down for two weeks in celebration. Later a group of Pearl Harbor survivors went in to get a hair cut and as thanks they all got their hair cut for free.
When Richard looks back at the war he has no issues with Japanese. The Japanese were just doing as they were commanded. It was there leaders decision not theirs. Although Dick believes that a lot of it was caused because our leaders were not alert of that kind of attack. To this day Richard deals with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder every day. 3 years ago there were 27,000 Pearl Harbor survivors. Today there are only 4,000 left. Their story can only be told by them and as in Dick’s case it is an amazing story.