William Cooley

I went to my G.Q. station in the after engin room, lower level to man to feed and lube pumps. I had left my life jacket on the upper level railing. I noticed Lt. Warrick locking out the starboard hatch above me and then I heard 5", 40's and 20's going off. When I heard the 20m opening up I knew that something was getting pretty close. Then I heard a bang above my head. It was Lt. Warrick jumping down from the starboard hatch onto the deck plates above my head and up and out. Just then a great big fire ball went across the engin room and a fine mist came down after the explosion. The pumps started to lose steam pressure, the alarms started to ring, and the lights went out. I worked my way across the engin room to the portside hatch, and seeing daylight, I climbed the ladder to topside. I don't know if anyone survived on the upper level. I could not see or hear anyone. I met an officer at the hatch and we decided to find a portable lamp so we could go back down to see how badly we were damaged.

I went forward past midship and past the officers quarters. Just then a second hit us. A lot of twisted steel and other trash fell in from of me and the top half of an office door flew over my head. I started back toward the midship and met a colored shipmate with an arm blown off. I guided him to midship and the ship had listed to starboard. I could not hold onto him as I could not get any traction under my feet and my shoes came if, I stepped on some hot shrapnell and one piece embedded in the bottom of my foot. As the ship rolled over, a length of hose came loose from the railing and I climbed up the hose, walked over the side of the ship and dived into the water.

As I came up, the bow of the ship was straight in the air, waving and sliding back. I started to swim without my life jacket. It was hard to breathe because the oil was so thick. I was swallowing it and trying to spit it out at the same time. I looked for something to hang on to and noticed a group of guys in a circle so I swam to them. They held my hand and kept me afloat. I could not recognize them as they were all covered with oil and ll I could see was the whites of their eyes. I was picked up by the LCS and was pulled aboard by Gene Gavin. I said to him, "They saved you too?"

My first G.Q. station was the #2 gun mount in the lower magazine. Later I was transferred to the after engin room. If it wasn't for that I would not be here today.