Phillips Interview Before Pearl Harbor

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Pearl Harbor may have happened seventy-five years ago but the survivors can still recall the bombing in great detail. Many of the military servicemen and the people who were there during the attack have given first-hand accounts in interviews. These accounts have shed light on how those affected acted in the chaos. For example, in an interview with Captain Douglas G. Phillips of the US Navy, he recalls his shock of the attack and the orders he was given by his commanding officer. The details expressed in this interview as well as all the other interviews are shocking and some may find it disturbing. However, these details are needed to explain and understand the steps taken during the attack. Pearl Harbor has lasting effects on the people who …show more content…

Phillips describes what he was doing the day of the attack in the interview conducted by a former Admiral, Oakley E. Osborn US Navy. Captain Phillips describes the day starting out as a beautiful and sunny. It was his first day aboard the USS Ramsay. He said, “Then in about three minutes I saw planes coming over and finally it dawned on me that those were Japanese planes, and they came very, very close to the Ramsey. They were lined up to torpedo the Utah. " He later describes the captain asking, “Are those guns loaded?” and all Phillips heard was Load and he did. That was his first order aboard the USS Ramsey. Their ship later got orders to go to the entrance of the harbor and set up underway noises to keep the Japanese from setting up torpedoes down there . Osborn asks Captain Phillips if there was any more about Pearl Harbor that he wanted to recall. Phillips replied with, “The real aftermath story of Pearl Harbor was the salvage work. ” He is explaining that the US did a good job pumping the water out of the sunken ships and taken out of the Harbor. In his interview, he expresses how impressed he was with the actions taken by the US in response to Pearl Harbor. The account that Captain Douglas E. Phillips tells in the interview is insightful and can help explain how another ship, the USS Arizona, was brutally torpedoed on December 7th

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