Mr. Gombasy began by explaining that each month there was a single battleship appointed to patrol the island for protection.  The U.S.S. Nevada was the ship chosen for this particular month.  Around November 26 or 27, while going through the daily motions, a submarine surfaced in the distance.  The crew thought it to be American submariners doing standard exercises.  However, a rising sun was painted on the sub.  It crashed back down again after several seconds above water.

At the time, all of the sailors were under the assumption that they would be home for Christmas.  After being relieved from their harbor patrol, the Nevada became anchored in Pearl Harbor.  Their main job was to transfer post war materials from WWI such as gunpowder, shells, and ammunition off of the ship.  The Nevada was lucky enough to have removed all of its powder from the magazine onto a lighter vessel.  “We were debating on whether or not Sunday would be a workday or not,” Mr.Gombasy explained about the main topic of conversation on December 7.  Many of the sailors wanted to get out to shop for Christmas gifts for loved ones.

Early Sunday morning, Louis Gombasy woke up and proceeded to eat breakfast with many other crewmen.  He had then gone down to his compartment to relax for a while and read a magazine.  It was not abnormal to hear the army’s 21-inch guns being shot early on Sunday mornings, and traffic in Pearl Harbor was comparable to that of Times Square in New York City.  The city was always in some form of chaos.

The ship’s mess cook yelled something to the effect of “the Japs are here,” down into the quarters and Louis moved to look out the porthole.  “The first thing I see is two beautiful looking planes that you’ve ever seen coming about 30 or 40 feet high right directly at where I was on the ship”.  The planes were painted with the rising sun to represent Japan.    He saw bullets cutting through the water.  The crew headed to their battle stations.  Mr.Gombasy reported to the #1 turret, containing 14-inch guns.  His job was to load projectiles into a hoist and send it up to the next deck where other men could grab it and man the gun.  Most of the crew was on the receiving end.

The crew decided to attempt to move the ship and lift the anchor.  They were located right behind the Arizona.  Slowly but surely, the Nevada edged away from the dock.  They passed right along the Arizona, “she was already junk”.  They eased down the channel and saw a shiny Japanese airplane heading straight towards the ship.  Mr. Gombasy jumped alongside the anchor chains, bullets sprayed into the chains barely missing his heel.  A bullet grazed Louis’s head and the fellows around him took off their undershirts and ”played tug of war with em” to stop the bleeding.  “At that point I thought, no use trying to hide or anything now, you’re not gonna live too long now”.  At that point, the men just wanted to jump ship and swim for it because “any near misses will kill ya”.  They were reminded of the homemade bombs that were used to kill fish when they were kids, and how the Japanese could do that to the sailors in the water. 

Everything in the lower part of the ship that they were walking over was all on fire.  When the bomb hit and the shrapnel went all over, the heat welded all of the steel water buckets together, so there was no way to fight the fire.  Louis moved to the location where the quarter master’s lockers were, they opened up a couple of lockers and got out some cigarettes, there was nothing they could do anymore.  The men decided to move back and see if they could help with the firefighting, and on the way back they realized that an entire deck was demolished except for a narrow strip of steel. 

Mr.Gombasy was told that he had to leave and go to sickbay.  Sickbay was located on the U.S.S. Solace.  All of the wounded were horded into bunks, drinking coffee, and waiting to be looked at.  “There were a lot of worse casualties than I was, so I just sat there”.  At night, some American planes were coming in but they thought they were the Japs, so the whole harbor had a blackout with no lights on and “they would shoot at things like that”.  He didn’t get into the hospital until the following morning when he then got all patched up. 

After that he went into the receiving station, where the rest of the Nevada crew were located, because they had shifted into the navy’s floating dry-dock up against the dry dock with several other battleships which were partially destroyed.  When his tour duty was over in the hospital, he went back to his crewmates.  I had a friend who had the watch and “I very conveniently informed him that I would very much like to leave Pearl Harbor, any direction going anywhere except sitting there”.  Then he went over to find his crew, most of which were bunking in a brick amphitheatre.  The U.S.S. Chester came into port and Louis was granted leave, and that was to be his mode of transportation.  He became a member of the crew of the Chester and the ship departed at about 2:00 in the morning. 

The crew was lucky because the Chester was one of the few cruisers equipped with “Mother Murphy’s Bed Springs”, a form of radar in the shape of a bedspring.  When approaching Wake Island, the crew saw the 15 or 16 Japanese ships that were taking the island.  The ship was lucky enough to get out quickly so they would not have to engage in battle.  When you enlist in the navy, you are told that your approximate survival time in battle is three minutes.  

The inhabitants of Pearl Harbor were very lucky that the Japanese had overlooked the main supply vessel that was stocking all of the powder for the entire harbor.  If that boat had been hit, the entire harbor would have been demolished.  “I guess the Japs just took a look at it and said, oh it’s just a supply ship, we won’t bother with it”.         

After that incident, the Chester took a cruise around the pacific for about 165,000 miles without touching a U.S. Ports.  They were taken care of by supply ships with fuel and necessities. After coming close to Japan, and islands of the Japanese, they would bomb them and run.  “We were letting them think that there were more U.S. Navy ships out there than which they knew of.”  The U.S.S. Chester had many close calls including one in the Coral Sea.  There was a mission to knock out a Japanese radio tower, but 16 of the Rising Sun bombers “decided to make hash out of us!”  However the Chester was able to skid ahead of the bombers, with small defects to the ship.

More cruising was continued, including picking up survivors of the U.S.S. Lexington, a badly beaten-up ship.  They returned the survivors to the U.S. mainland, leaving some vacation time for Mr. Gombasy, which included time with the family and selling war bonds for the Navy.

He was then given a set of orders, not on the Chester but on the aircraft carrier the U.S.S. Wasp for about 9 months.  He again returned to the states and was sent to fight the Germans!

He was stationed on a ship that served as a command post for incoming and outgoing planes.  They were covering 69 ships that were bringing supplies to the Russians, keeping watch and guard.  These fighting planes were hardly any match for the German submarines, keeping in mind that they had no bombs, simply bullets.  So only 6 out of the 69 supply ships made it to Russia!  When they reached Russia, their treatment was unpleasant, he adds, “I might have just been the enemy.  They even accused us of killing their sheep for food.  Sheep is just about the worst thing I’ve ever had! Why would we do that!” 

Another trip included a visit to the beaches of Normandy, even before they had decided to fight there.  Mr. Gombasy’s ship simply took a sneak peek at the area to see if anything could occur there, little did they know that spot was the site of one of the most famous battles of WWII history.

After harsh treatment in Russia and places like Iceland, he returned to the Pacific Islands.  He took a battered ship part of the way to Wake Island, and flew to Pearl Harbor, then from Pearl, back home for a short “jaunt.” 

He joined the new Chicago, shooting into island nook and crannies and heading for the mainland of Japan.  They would again bomb and run, leaving the Japanese to think they were sunk. However during this time he includes that “around 2 am or 3 am we would race like heck to get back to the air force.”  They even were stuck, out of fuel, sitting in a breakwater, until a supply ship decided to come over and give them just enough to get them sailing again.

Mr. Gombasy was in the significant position of being at the site of the beginning of the war, Pearl Harbor, to the end, the Tokyo signing, on the U.S.S. Chicago.

After Pearl Harbor, Mr Gombasy was involved in the clean up of the U.S.S. Arizona.  At the time, it was still in one piece.  Using an air hoist to lower them in, a lantern for light, and oxygen bottles strapped to their hips, they worked to clean that ship, leading to memorial that stands there today.  Dressed long johns and woolen socks, they searched for anything, including body parts.  These would later be placed in the cemeteries and such.

Mr. Gombasy also compares the information “Uncle Sam” would tell them during WWII, compared to the attacks of September 11^th, 2001.  He found it hard to believe that our freedom would be challenged again like it had been during Pearl Harbor.  He also reflected on the modern war technologies and politics.

Mr. Gombasy’s most lasting memory of World War II includes his luck, which followed him everywhere.  “Lets just say the Man upstairs took care of me.”  He felt that when things happened, he always seemed to be spared.  His worst memory was stationing in the below-deck magazines, and knowing that if the ship was sinking, they would be prisoners of the water unless a friend from above undid 14 bolts that would lead them to the main deck.

His most fearful moment was if the war was prolonged.  He felt the Japanese would use their man-directed torpedoes, but this was not developed until the end of the war.

Mr. Gombasy is currently a member on the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, a group of veterans, both men and women that were involved in Pearl Harbor.  With this he takes place in meetings, memorial services, reunions, and much more.