Mary McGreevy, Chris Keller, Tyler Gerome
Per. 6
American History
3/25/07
JackHammett-PearlHarbor Survivor
In this past week, we were given the honor of interviewing a Pearl Harbor veteran, Jack Hammett, a world war two veteran as well as a veteran of Pearl Harbor. A man that has seen the world at its very best, but also at its worst, Mr.Hammet knows what people are capable of doing to each other, and he was there to see it all on that dreadful day and throughout his military career.
Jack Hammet was born in Cleveland, Ohio and went to East High School. He was 17 when he joined the service in 1937, so he got his diploma while in the Navy and later got his degree in business and accounting from El Camino Community College. Mr. Hammet called himself “…a snotty nosed 16 year old kid…” before he joined the service, and was thankful that he became a part of the navy, because it taught him discipline. While Jack was in the navy, he fell in love with a beautiful girl named Mary Jo and they were married in 1940. He as stationed aboard the USS Argonne in San Pedro when he was 19 and she was 16, but when he was shipped to Pearl Harbor, he was unable to bring his wife along, but thankfully, her mother lent him the necessary amount of money, $85, and she arrived in Honolulu on April 1, 1941, only 8 months before Pearl Harbor was attacked. They lived in a small house with three other couples for $35 a month. Mary Jo worked as a waitress for a restaurant right across the street from an army camp. Jack recalls that “she never had a problem getting a tip.” Jack would sometimes get free meals from the restaurant, but when he didn’t, he would steal tea bags from the hospital and then buy rice from the Japanese store for dinner. And even though it wasn’t much, they were happy. A young couple crazy in love, living on a beautiful island with warm beaches and Hawaiian music, it was truly “paradise.”
Mr. Hammett was only just a seaman when he joined the Navy, but was later promoted to hospital apprentice where they had many three month internship rotations to prepare them for an emergency. There were three months of surgery, 3 months of urology and x-rays, three months on orthopedics and 3 months on medicine. But nothing they did could have prepared them enough for what was about to take place.
On December 7, 1941, a day that will live in infamy, the Naval Base of Pearl Harbor was attacked. That night, Jack and his wife were both peacefully sleeping in their beds when they awoke with a knock on their door. It was his Chinese landlord asking for the months rent. As he was leaving he also said that Pearl Harbor was under attack. Jack ran back inside and turned on the radio and heard, “We are under attack! This is not a drill! This is not a drill!” He quickly got dressed, commandeered a truck and went to the harbor. Jack said he and about fifty other men were running to their stations when a Japanese plane flew over them and fired straight through the middle of them, but didn’t hit any of them. While making rounds he got to one guy and said, “How ya doin’ Mac?”, then another corpsman said “Damn it, Hammett, he’s dead.” And that was the start of the war for Jack Hammet. His job during this time was to stack bodies and identify them. He said that they stacked bodies in buildings and then in the tennis courts. Jack also told us that he hid in a basement when people were shooting at the planes, only to discover shortly after there he was in a basement full of bodies. He started to panic and he ran out and noticed that there was a piece of intestine on his shoe. When it came time to put people in Japanese wooden coffins, some were too big, so they had to break their arms and legs to get them to fit in there.
After doing his rounds and finished stacking up the bodies, he went back to the hospital rooms and helped in surgeries, x-rays, casts, etc. He was gone for three days and three nights without a clue as to whether or not his wife was still alive. The men worked for four days and got four hours off to go to their families. He was very relieved to know that his wife was ok, but concerned about how she would eat. As it turns out, she went to the Japanese store and threatened to rat them out if they didn’t give her food.
After the war was over Jack and his wife, Mary, went on to live their happy lives together. They ended up adopting four children that have gone on to be successful adults. A career that Jack had and still does today was fly planes for companies that have shown him the world.
To say the least, Jack Hammet has been through many dangerous situations in his life that have made him very lucky. From the hospitals of Pearl Harbor to those of Normandy, Hammet has seen an eyeful of what most people will never get the chance to ever again.
“Remember Pearl Harbor, keep America alert.”
18 ships destroyed, damaged or sunk, 2408 dead, 1180 wounded, and it all happened in one hour and fifty minutes.