Pearl Harbor Through the Eyes of a Navy Salvage Diver

After the attack that fateful day in December, divers immediately set out to retrieve the sailors who had died.
Pearl Harbor Through the Eyes of a Navy Salvage Diver
USS Arizona memorial. Public Domain
|Updated:
0:00

At the ripe old age of 103, Ken Hartle had lost count of how many times he’d cheated death. Hartle was fond of retelling many of these tales; he could recount surviving rattlesnake bites and scorpion stings, sailing accidents, car crashes, multiple broken bones, colon and prostate cancer, and sextuple cardiac bypass surgery.

There was, however, one memory he avoided sharing—his harrowing diving missions to retrieve the bodies of the fallen sailors at Pearl Harbor.

The Attack

At 6:45 a.m. on Dec. 7, 1941, the USS Ward was patrolling outside the entrance to Pearl Harbor. The Ward detected and destroyed a Japanese submarine tailing an American cargo vessel.
Bryan Dahl
Bryan Dahl
Author
Bryan Dahl is a writer and singer. He has sung for opera companies in Los Angeles, Chicago, and across Europe. His music reviews have featured artists from LA Opera and the San Diego Master Chorale. He currently lives in San Diego.