STU HEDLEY--AMERICAN HERO--PEARL HARBOR

Stu Hedley is a retired Navy Chief Petty Officer.  Early in his career, he was fortunate or (unfortunate) to be on the USS Wes Virginia on Pearl Harbor, he then went onto Wake Island and Bouganville. That is why I say fortunate and unfortunate.  He is very fortunate to be alive after all that--but his riveting story tells us he was unfortunate to have seen and been through the things he did. 

 

Stu was born on a yacht in West Palm Beach Florida on October 29th 1921--so he will soon be 93 years old.  His dad was  LtCmdr in the Navy stationed at Pensacola who had fought in WW1.

 

Stu had been married for 64 years when his wife passed last December.  He shared his secret to success --take a honeymoon every 5 years!  

 

Stu's parent divorced when he was 3, and he moved to Buffalo, New York.  Stu's step mother, Henrietta was a jealous woman, and of course Stu as the other wife's child was the brunt of much of her jealousy.  This was shared only because it was the reason Stu quit high school 4 months shy of graduating and gave up an appointment to Annapolis and tried to join the Navy.  at 4'11" and 112lbs, he did not meet the minimum requirements.  He talked to the Commander, since he had aced the tests, so they advised him of a new program Roosevelt had just started--supposed to be for on welfare, but they managed to get Stu in the Conservation Corps to build him up physically, mentally, and spiritually.  Given an ax and a forest full of trees to cut, the physical strength did come.  Then hos math skills were noted and he was asked to become a surveyor,  by this time Stu had reached 5'2" and 122lbs, so he enlisted in the Navy in August 1940.

 

Stu became a Gun pointer for turret 3 that shot shells 5'2" long and weighing 2,700lbs.

 

On December 7th at 5AM Stu was looking forward to going tot he beach with his girlfriend and her mother for a picnic, followed by a roller skating date.  But when he went to get dressed, his dress shoes were missing.  he asked around and was told that Pete Hartley had borrowed them--so he had to walk down to the forward aft steering compartment where he found Pete passed out drunk with his shoes on.  He took his shoes and was passing back when he was invited in for a cup of coffee--at that point he was just leaving the area when the watch announcement came.  Stu headed to his compartment for his gear and was heading out when 1stSgt Hicks--screamed get to your battle station--this is the real thing!  Stu was shocked--a young man and to hear this!  He was in his turret--although the shells he was in charge of were too large to allow firing in the port they were in.  So him and his turret mate watched--they were so close they saw the faces of the Japanese torpedo plane laughing! They then realized they needed to get inside the turret for protection!

 

Stu to this day is thankful for his dad's reinforcement of sitting on a chair on all four legs, vice two--or he would have lost both his legs that day!  Hearing all the machine gun noise, Stu and his buddy decided to see what was going on and looked into the periscope right in time to see the USS Arizona blown up--bodies were flying through the air--but even landing on the water could be a death trap, as the oil from all the planes and ships was burning on the surface of the water. One armor piercing shell took 1,177 of the finest military members into eternity in the flash of a second!

 

Interesting note--the night before this, the recreation center had a battle of the bands from the various ships.  The USS Arizona had taken all the prizes!  The winners of the band got a treat--they got to sleep in the following morning, instead of going on duty--this cost them all their lives!

 

3-5 minutes after the USS Arizona sinking, there was an explosion on the W. Virginia--2 planes topside ready to launch were hit and were full of fuel.  The planes were burnt to a crisp and it caused the catapult area to split in half.  at the same time, Stu and his friend were watching intensely as they saw the Oklahoma going down--in no so mice language Stu told his buddy "Let's get out of here"--meaning the gun turrets.  The Captain on the Oklahoma had been hit--and later Stu learned in his valiant effort to save his men he moved mortally wounded to get tot the speaker to annouce "abandon ship--she is no longer good to us" and he died!

 

75% of the Naval Officer's assigned to that Naval Group died that night! Stu as a survivor was tasked with helping to identify bodies--many were only identified by their dogtags.  When Stu came to his buddy--Johnny Anderson, and he saw Johnny's legs still as if he was sitting watch he lost it--he started laughing --laughing alot--the doctor slapped him as hard as he could.  Later the captain told him he could report him--but otherwise Stu would have been stark raving lunatic!  

 

Stu is now a healthy 92 almost 93 year old man.  He is President of the Pearl Harbor survivor Club.  He is planning to visit every surviving member of the club in their homes.  He says his key to living long is staying busy.  

 

Stu loves life and people!