Vernon Olsen

Seaman First Class Vernon Olsen was assigned to the 50- caliber machine gun in the crow's nest of one of the USS Arizona's masts. From his vantage high above the deck he had an unusually good view of the bombing runs made by the Japanese planes. Later, after abandoning ship, Olsen went to Ford Island, where again he had a panoramic view of the remainder of the assault. His brief but action-packed account comes from an anthology titled The USS Arizona.

Iwas just getting ready to go to quarters and the attack started. We looked outside and saw the planes going by. Then they rang the general alarm. I went up to the crow's nest on the after mast. They were strafing and bombing, but it don't take you long.

You crawled up the ladders...