Veterans Day Memories Aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise

[davekill]

Leonard S. Lewis, 89, wrote a memoir about serving aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise during World War II. Sailors aboard the aircraft carrier had a front-row seat to the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo and the Battle of Midway.

http://www.theunion.com/article/20101111/NEWS/101119968/1066&parentprofile=1053



Len Lewis joined the Navy in 1940, looking more for a job than for a fight.

But the day his aircraft carrier took a front seat to the Pearl Harbor attacks, there was no turning back.

The Eskaton resident, who will turn 90 on Saturday, is one of a diminishing number of World War II veterans celebrating Veterans Day today.

"I never did get very involved in veterans groups," he said. "We never did think of ourselves as heroes. We thought of it as a job."

But that job put him in the middle of the action of World War II. He worked as aircraft carrier mechanic aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise, the most decorated carrier in Navy history and the only one to participate in WWII from start to finish.

He remembers arriving at Pearl aHarbor the night of Dec. 6, 1941, but the Enterprise stayed out of the harbor, circling the island instead of entering during the dark.

When the carrier pulled into the harbor the following evening, Dec. 7, "we came back to piles of rubble, death and destruction," he said.

As oil slicks on the ocean surface burned in a hellish scene, sailors aboard the Enterprise unloaded anything extra and flammable off the ship and restocked it with provisions.

Suddenly, the carrier was thrust into the fray of war. The Enterprise escorted the U.S.S. Hornet off the coast of Toyko for the historic Doolittle Raid, the first U.S. air strike on Japan's home soil after Pearl Harbor.

In a move many thought couldn't be done, large B-25 bombers took off from the Hornet. Lewis motions with his hand to show how the heavy planes left the decks, dipped below the carrier runway for one terrifying moment and pulled up into the air for the attack.

Then there was June 1942's battle of Midway — an epic contest between U.S. and Japanese forces considered the most decisive in the Pacific theater.

""We sunk four of their carriers. They were never on the offensive again," Lewis said. "If we had lost that battle, we would have been in deep trouble."

As a mechanic, Lewis was responsible for keeping the planes flight-ready.

"When we were under attack, I tried to help," he said, imitating the clatter of gunfire. "But I never had the pleasure of — 'ta-ta-ta' — shooting back."

Lewis comes from a long line of military men. His grandfather fought for the Confederate army in the Civil War, his dad fought in World War I, and one of his sons fought in the Vietnam War. All escaped with their lives.

He said he loved his six-year term in the Navy. But he's clear it wasn't glamorous, especially the times he brushed with death and saw his friends succumb to it.

"The first time we were under attack, I was never so terrified in my life," he said. "I wonder if all the patriots screaming for war have ever been there."

He hardly talked about his war experiences until recently, when he worked with local writer Pat Barrentine to produce a memoir. She delivered that 120-page softcover volume this week.

As the book explains, Lewis was born in Oklahoma and raised in California. After he got out of the Navy, he worked with the East Bay Municipal Utility District.

When he retired, the outdoor enthusiast led some 50 major backpacking excursions through the United States and abroad to the Himalayas and beyond.

His backpacking days over, Lewis loves acting, reading and playing bridge. He's also a member of Sierra Center for Spiritual Living.

He wants no talk of heroes, but he said he's deeply proud to have served his country in that pivotal war.

"It is my fervent wish to be remembered for the things I've done," he writes, "and not just as an old man with a cane."