From Herbert - 3/19
I was on the USS Hughes DD-410 during the whole Midway Battle and while my memory is decidedly amiss at times I have a minor correction to offer.
After the battle the Hughes was assigned as sub screen which we did alone round and round the "abandoned" ship.The emergency generator was clearly heard on the list side. At some time during the second day while on break from the radar watch I noticed little spouts of water walking away in a straight line from the Yorktown. That's strange I thought. We were then moving away from the list side on our patrol. The lookout said "Oh, that's caused by flying fish." On the next pass it happened again so I reasoned that it was a gun being aimed and shot at us to get our attention.
I brought it to the attention of the OD. The gig was lowered with a boarding party. They found 20 men in sickbay and one man with enough drive to go out to get our attention. All 21 were brought over. The man who got our attention died shortly afterwards. He had been disembowled, removed his IV and did what was needed. I believe we buried him at sea. The day the Yorktown went down, the fan-tail was last to be seen. Herb |
