'Mom Remembers Pearl Harbor'
(See R. Bartlett, pp. 60-65, December 2007, and P. K. Cullins, p. 67, April 2008 Naval History)
Robert E. Klees
I read with great interest Rear Admiral Cullins' letter containing his boyhood reflections on living in Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. He tells of the young neighbor wife of Ensign Herb Jones stationed that morning on the USS California (BB-44) running into his driveway shouting that Pearl Harbor was being bombed. He adds that Ensign Jones was killed in the attack and earned the Navy Cross.
In fact, Ensign Herbert Charpoit Jones received the Medal of Honor. On board the California, after rescuing a wounded Sailor, he took command of an antiaircraft gun until it ran out of ammunition. He then organized and led a party to supply ammunition to the gun battery after the mechanical hoists were put out of action. Lying gravely wounded by a bomb in a small compartment engulfed in flames, he refused aid, telling two Sailors that he was "done for," and to save themselves.
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