This is from a copy of George K. Weiss's story.................
Some were left to die!-
George K. Weiss, 4th Div.
CRIER, May, 1988
I was unconscious in the dressing room and during my trip to sickbay, I regained consciousness as the battle horn started blowing along with the call to abandon ship. There were no lights, only the blue battle lanterns. The third class pharmacists' mate, had his arm behind me holding me up while asking the first class mate "What about him?" The first class said "Leave him, he's gonna die anyway." The third class (Cook) was crying during the entire ordeal; he didn't want to leave me.
Except for the blue, foggy haze being illuminated by standing lights, it was dark. There were many metal-to-metal scraping sounds, but the loudest continous sound was that of the seawater seeking its level as it increased its death-like grip on the Yorktown. Consciousness would come and go, lasting only long enough for me to totally realize and understand my perilous situation.
I thought I was hallucinating. Someone was calling my name again, and it was real. Norman Pichette, a seaman from the 3rd division was calling me. He kept asking me "What can we do?" I told him to wrap a sheet around his waist and stomach and try to get on deck to fire a machine gun, and perhaps someone would know we were still on board.
At about 09:51, June 5, a lookout on Hughes saw the bullets hitting the water and made his report to the O.D. Pichette had become unconscious. He was taken back to the Hughes. While he was being treated on the Hughes, the pharmacists' mates heard him trying to say something.His last words were, "There's another live man in Yorktown's sickbay." He then died. I was found and transported to the Hughes. |
