Continued from today's Cooter's History Thing blog.
John Tait, of Concord, California, was below deck on the cruiser USS St. Louis when the skipper decided to leave Pearl Harbor and head to deeper water to maneuver. "There was a two man submarine waiting for a ship and fired two torpedoes at us, but there was a coral reef between us and the coral reef took the hit," Tait said.
They were at sea for three days after that, chasing down any and all reported Japanese sightings. When they returned to Pearl, it was a scene of carnage.
Said Tait, "We just didn't think the Japanese would be that bold to come all that way. We thought we were impregnable."
After the war, Tait and his family were stationed in Japan and got along very well with the people. "They're a wonderful people and it's their warlords and our warlords I don't like."
2012 marks the 200th anniversary of America's "Forgotten War," the War of 1812 that took place over three years, 1812 to 1815.
Battle of New Orleans.
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