PLAINVIEW (Special)--And now, we continue with Part II of our interview with Pearl Harbor veteran Lee Soucy:
101: It then seems to be a really good idea, then--since you seem to be leading towards something...Now let's set the stage, so to speak, for what you're discussing...Is this with what in terms of doing the Utah, was this right before the time of Pearl Harbor?
Soucy: Well, I was on it eight months before Pearl Harbor...
101: Well, go ahead and go on, then--there's a certain point at which there's a question I want to ask...
Soucy: ...I was transferred to the USS Utah, which was a old battleship that had been decommissioned and then recommissioned after disarming as a bombing target. We would
go on high-speed manuevers--the ship was radio-controlled...it was first in the world that it could be controlled from other ships, from airplanes, from land even--I don't know what the range was...But it was really a unique ship. And the idea was that the ship would go engage in high-speed manuevers to try to elude submarines that were trying to torpedo us or aircraft, dive bombers, airplanes that were trying to bomb us. And our job was to try to elude them--their job was to try to outsmart us. So I was on there from March the 1st until December 7th when the ship was sunk.
101: Now you're getting to the point...Let's now set the stage for what happens. Let's do this by starting on a time frame--first of all, from the area of the week IMMEDIATELY BEFORE December the 7th. Turn back the clock for us and tell us what life was like for you and all the others that were at the Naval Air Station at Pearl Harbor. What was the atmosphere of that time like? What about the overall morale and spirit of the people that were there at the time? And were there any inklings or bad tidings that kinda warned you and others about the events that were to take place?
Soucy:...We knew [that]...Hitler had already invaded Poland, you know, and Czechoslovakia and Austria. And we knew that
sooner or later we'd have to go to war with Germany. They were pounding England--and England was a little island. We never suspected that the Japanese would come from 4000 miles to attack the world's strongest naval base. That just didn't fit our minds--we never thought such a thing was possible...
