Admiral
Nimitz Arrives At Pearl Harbor - Dec. 25, 1941
"
I was privileged to be one of the pilots that flew Adm. Nimitz from San
Diego to Pearl Harbor
on
Christmas Day, 1941, about two weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Adm. Nimitz was
to
relieve Adm. Husband Kimmel and take over the badly wounded Pacific Fleet.
We took off
from
San Diego in the early evening of 24 Dec in a PB2Y-2, Coronado, BuNo. 1635.
The Coronado
was
a 4 engine seaplane, a big brother of the PBY Catalina. My log book shows
the flight took
17.2
hours and we arrived at Pearl Harbor about mid morning of Christmas day,
1941.
Upon
arriving at Pearl, we invited Adm. Nimitz up to the flight deck and asked
him if he would
like
to observe the damage and destruction inflicted by the Japs. He eagerly
accepted. We made
wide
circles over Pearl Harbor as well as Hickham Field. He was seated in the
left hand pilot's seat
for
purposes of this observation and he just kept shaking his head and clucking
his tongue. God
knows
what was going through his mind but if it was anything like what was going
through ours
it
was: "Those dirty bastards! Somehow, someway, we are going to make them
pay!" We were
looking
at the West Virginia, the California, the Utah, the Arizona, all crumpled
hulks. We were
looking
at skeletons of what were once hangars and flight lines filled with the
junk of what were
once
military planes. The carnage was sickening.
And
with all of this on his mind, what was Adm. Nimitz' demeanor as he disembarked
to take on
this
great responsibility? He took the time to shake the hand of every member
of the crew and
thank
them for a comfortable flight and apologized to each for having taken them
from their families
on
Christmas Day! What a giant of a man. What a great leader to take over
the Pacific Fleet!
Why
do I write this now? Two reasons: First, because I feel proud that we were
able to deliver
the
right man to the right place at the right time. And second, I said I was
one of the pilots on that flight.
The
others were:
Lt.
Bowen F. McLeod, USNA '30,
Ens.
Ross C. Barney,
Ens.
Thomas Robinson,
Ens.
Frank L. DeLorenzo (all ex-aviation cadets)
and
Warrant Machinist Clarence L. Pearson.
So
why DO I write this now? Because of those five, I am the only one still
living and I am 84 years old.
Tomorrow
might be too late!
March
28, 1999 Frank DeLorenzo,
Captain,
U.S. Navy (Ret.)
Although he flew Nimitz
to Pearl Harbor in the four engine PB2Y Coronado
on Christmas day, they
had actually tried to take him there the day before.
Christmas Eve, Delo
took the PB2Y out in very rough windy weather. As he tried
to turn the flying boat
into the wind, the wind was so strong that the plane dipped to one
side as he tried to
make the turn. Delo looked out the window and saw a prop start to beat
the
water and knew he should
not continue to try to get the plane turned into the wind. They
aborted this afternoon
attempt to fly due to the weather, and took the plane back to shore.
Perhaps at this point
they should have taken the plane ashore, but someone decided to keep
them in the water. Delo
and Ross Barney had to stay up all night, keeping the engines running.
They were unsure of
the weather and afraid the bow line might separate. So the two of them
had to sit there all
night, periodically revving the engines. In the morning, the weather
abated and Delo was
able to go home and get some rest. That afternoon, Delo and the crew
of that PB2Y Coronado
were able to take off and make the sixteen hour flight to Pearl Harbor.
I must think that at
this point in the war, they must have had some concerns about running
into trouble on the
way there. We had just been in the war two and a half weeks, a war
we
were unprepared for.
Who knew what trouble might be in the way of their flight to Pearl Harbor.
Nevertheless, Delo and
the crew did their duty conveying Admiral Nimitz to Pearl Harbor
to relieve Admiral Pye
(who had relieved Kimmel) and take over the command of the Pacific Fleet.
They arrived at Pearl
Harbor the following morning. I asked Delo if there were any smoke
or
flames still burning
from the attack and he said the fires were all extinguished. However when
they landed in Pearl
Harbor, the harbor itself was covered with six inches of oil. It was a
mess.
After landing, Nimitz
thanked the crew and asked about his cruise chest being brought ashore.
A Lt. Commander (whose
name is intentionally not mentioned herein out of respect to the dead and
his
family) told Nimitz
there is no way we can get the cruise chest out before the plane is brought
ashore.
An ensign, Tommy Robinson,
took the cruise chest out the tunnel hatch and placed it in a dingy.
He soon had the chest
ashore, which embarrassed the Lt. Commander after he had just Nimitz it
could not be done.
From a 2002
interview with DeLo by Allen Peisner - thanks Allen
Special
Thanks to DeLo for all your help with this picture.
This
painting is now in the collection of the
U.S.
Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida