Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
9:13 | Destroyers were the cowboys of the fleet, says Gunner's Mate Harry Breeman. They rode herd on carrier task forces like Old West cowboys rode herd on cattle drives. He got a break from his regular duties when the call went out for volunteers to pilot Higgins boats that were ferrying troops to shore.
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Harry Beeman was excited to be leaving home and heading out to fight the Japanese in the Navy, but that excitement was nearly crushed by boring home front duty. He nagged the Chiefs every day until it paid off with an assignment aboard a combat ship.
Harry Beeman had pushed for a real combat assignment and he sure got one. His destroyer was part of the task force that launched the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo. Not bad for a first mission.
During the battle of Midway, Harry Beeman was part of a crack swim team aboard the USS Ellet that pulled survivors from sinking warships out of the water. They did this while dodging torpedoes from a Japanese submarine.
The main job on Harry Beeman's ship, the destroyer USS Ellet, was to protect the carrier USS Enterprise, but they also got a workout bombarding occupied islands as they were taken back from the Japanese, one by one.
On his destroyer, Harry Beeman's nickname was Little Deadeye because of his prowess shooting down Japanese planes. He attributes his anti-aircraft gun skills to a childhood filled with BB gun adventures. One particular plane gave him a little trouble, though.
Harry Beeman should have a Purple Heart. His wounds were serious but he didn't want to get sent to a hospital ship, so he hid in the tiny sick bay until he recovered. Now he wishes he had played it straight. He also survived the routine medical care on a US Navy destroyer, some of which rivaled enemy torture.
The maintenance on the destroyer's five inch guns was unending, explains gunner Harry Beeman. That kept him busy when he and his crew mates weren't busy playing the same trick, over and over, on the Japanese occupiers of the many tiny atolls they had claimed.
The screws were bent and the gun barrels smooth, so the USS Ellet was ordered to San Diego for repair and refurbishing. The six weeks in port were memorable for Harry Beeman, both for the visit home and for the giant dance floor at the Paris Inn.
Harry Beeman recalls how the Japanese troops on Rota would emerge from their caves and defiantly wave their flags at the passing destroyer. That helped with targeting. Then, while at Guam, he finessed a ride on a B-29, which was a definite highlight of his tour.
Totally by coincidence, gunner Harry Beeman encountered two future presidents during his adventures in the Pacific Theater.
The regular Navy looked down on reservists like him, according to Harry Beeman, but when the points were totaled at the end of the war, he had 139 when it took 80 to earn a discharge. That led to the 22 year old sailor getting the Bronx cheer from his elders as he walked off his ship and headed home.
Harry Beeman tells the stories behind some of his photographs, including how he got some extra fancy dress blues and why he was sent into downed Japanese planes that had not yet sunk.
