EYEWITNESS REPORT OF GORDON W. SUMNER, Phm2/c
USS UTAH BB31/AG16
I joined the US Navy in March 1938. My recruit training was in San Diego, California for three months. I then went to USN Hospital (Hospital Corpsman School) for four months. My first duty station was USNH, Bremerton, Washington. I was assigned to several wards; so I received training in several aspects relative to hospital care. After being transferred to the Naval Dispensary, I finally received orders to the USS Utah in August 1941. The USS Utah was being overhauled prior to transfer to duty in the Hawaiian area.
The USS Utah sailed via San Pedro, California where we loaded our deck area with 6” X 10” timbers which were used to protect our deck during bombing practice. During the weeks prior to December 7, 1941, we were engaged in practice of our planes dropping practice bombs on our surface deck space. During these periods we were located below our armored deck in the event of an accident.
December 7, 1941, Sunday, 7:52 AM – after breakfast I started cleaning up the Sick Bay prior to Sick Call when a violent jarring shook the ship and a lot of confusion started. I looked out the porthole and saw some planes diving on Ford Island and the ships in our vicinity. About that time the PA system sounded us to our battle stations when another racking from a bomb hit us. We started capsizing. I looked to the port side and saw water coming into our compartment which was probably from the torpedo hit. We heard the order to abandon ship and as I had not picked up my first aid pouch I went back into the Sick Bay to get it, along with Earl Moeller PhM 1. As we were leaving, we noticed Pete Saulis, who was still sleeping. We pulled him out of his bunk and told him the ship was sinking, whereby he took off like a shot from a gun.
As the ship was still capsizing, I removed my shoes as I had been trained to in boot camp, which was a mistake, because when I dove off the side of the ship and swam ashore, my feet were cut by the coral beach. I met Lee Soucy, another Pharmacist Mate. We looked for a spot to hide in and after receiving a ride to the BOQ quarters, Ford Island, we set up a Sick Bay and started treating the injured sailors that required our services.
Finally we ran out of supplies, so Soucy told me to go in the Jeep to the Dispensary and pick up some first aid supplies. I took one of our injured, Ship Cook Stryker, who had a dislocated leg (femur) and carried him into the patio in the Dispensary. As we entered the patio, we happened to look up and saw a 500 pound bomb heading at us from a Jap plane. The bomb struck about 20 feet from where we had fallen down. The bomb didn’t explode but caused a crater that was quite deep.
After I picked up some supplies and returned to BOQ, we continued treating the injured until we were relieved by a Corpsman from the Dispensary. We were sent to the USS Argonne where we remained over night. The next day we were sent to the USN Hospital, Pearl Harbor and were assigned to medical duties taking care of the burn victims and injured . A week later we were assigned, along with other Corpsman and Doctors to the SS Coolidge to transfer burn patients back to the mainland at USN Hospital, Mare Island. We arrived there on Christmas day, along with 350 patients.
The following day, we were transferred back to San Francisco and sent to the USS Henderson for transfer back to the USNH, Pearl Harbor. Eventually Earl Moeller, Jean W. Kerns and I were transferred to the USS Pelias which was ordered to Australia, where I remained for two years until returning to the USA.
