US FLAGBAR

anchor
James D. Hunter
F1c

USS Salt Lake City CA25
1941-1942
USN

FLAGBAR 501x15

USS SLC...Enlisted Navy...James D. Hunter, F1c

May 28th, 2001
Sandy,

My name is James D. Hunter and I was sent aboard the Salt Lake City the next day after the WeeVee was sunk. I was on a machine gun nest in front of Richardson Recreation Center when they had us all line up and chose who was to go where. I went aboard the SLC and immediately went to sleep as I was completely exhausted. I woke up many hours later and found I was laying on a steel deck while the crew had lowered the mess tables and were eating right over me. I don't really remember how long I was on the SLC but it was a few months and then they called for me to go back aboard the WeeVee. I was a Fireman 1st class and stood watches in the firerooms and was in the boat shop later working on the Buda diesel engines. I am sorry to say that the Salt Lake City sort of reminded me of a bucket of bolts.

I vaguely remember us launching our bi-plane to bomb some damn island and the Captain writing something on it.

I helped salvage the Wee Vee and return her to Bremerton then was transferred to destroyers and spent the rest of the war in the 7th fleet.

I am 80 yrs old now and have some trouble remembering all the stuff I was involved in.

I do remember one thing on the old bucket of bolts. We were taking on fuel from a tanker at sea. God only knows where we were. One of the crew members of the tanker shot a bolt across to the SLC with a small line attached which was attached to a larger line which was in turn attached to a fueling hose which we were supposed to pull across to the SLC and begin fueling. As I remember a couple of attempts were failures but finally came sailing across very accurately. In fact so accurately that the bolt went into one of our crew member's ball-red-02 [Bernard Godde] and came out the back of his neck. It was a miracle that the guy lived but he did with no ill effects.

Just wasn't his time. Next time we fueled I made sure I was below deck.

Hope this helps you.

James D. Hunter


SLC Deck Logs Dec. 1941  Jan. 1942  Feb. 1942  Mar. 1942
Information from SLC Microfilm Records

J. D. Hunter F1c, Service# 382-18-37 USN
Enlisted April 9, 1940 at Los Angeles, CA.
Reported aboard SLC Dec. 8, 1941
Transferred to USS West Virginia for Duty, March 30th, 1942
Battleship USS WEST VIRGINIA BB-48 Website... http://www.usswestvirginia.org/veterans/h/hunterj.htm

Pearl Harbor Story on the West Virginia Website

FLAGBAR 501x15

SLC MAIN INDEX     SLC MAIN ROSTER     WEBSITE UPDATES     ARTICLE INDEX
LG. GROUPS     MISC. PICTURES     SHIP PICTURES     SCOUT PLANES     HELPFUL INFORMATION
VETERAN'S STORIES     SHIP'S STORE     SLC ASSOCIATION     OFFICIAL DECKLOGS     SLC HISTORIAN

The address of this page is hunter.htm
Send Questions, Comments or Report Problems to Website Curator, Sandy Eskew
Return to SLC Main Index for Email Address
©Copyright
TO THE TOP