Photo By Petty Officer 2nd Class Connor Burns | Chief Cryptologic Technician (Collection) Joel Perkins, a native of Cave Junction,...... read more read more
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It has been 82 years since the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941 and personal connections to that piece of history fade with each passing day. There are only about two dozen Pearl Harbor survivors remaining that can relay their personal account of the events that day, according to the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors organization.
While there may be very few Veterans left who can share their first-hand experiences from the day of infamy, the legacies of service and sacrifice live on through history.
Every year on Pearl Harbor Day, one Sailor, Chief Cryptologic Technician (Collection) Joel Perkins, assigned to USS Boxer (LHD 4), honors his family’s service in the Navy. This year, the Boxer crew and Marines from the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit gathered on the mess decks to hear Perkins share several of his grandfather’s letters to family during a commemoration of the 82nd anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attacks.
Perkins’ grandfather, Bob, served as a Machinist's Mate during World War II. Petty Officer 2nd Class Robert “Bob” Perkins was underway aboard USS Kaula (AG 33) when the attack on Pearl Harbor took place and aided in relief efforts in the aftermath. Bob continued his service in the Navy until the end of World War II. His journey, leading up to, and following the events at Pearl Harbor, were documented in a series of letters he wrote to his family while at sea.
He was born in 1921 to Roy and Ame Perkins, and according to his grandson, was a child of the Great Depression. While growing up in Washington, Indiana, Bob labored to provide for the family while his mother made a small career as a painter. In the summer of 1939, at the age of 18, he made the decision to enlist in the Navy.
“He joined to serve the country,” Perkins said. “He was a man of his times, and that’s what a lot of men were doing then. There was almost an obligation to serve out and do your patriotic duty.”
Bob Perkins was assigned to the first Washington battalion of the Naval Reserve following his graduation from boot camp.
The world was changing in the fall of 1939. On Sept. 1, Germany and the Soviet Union invaded Poland. Great Britain and France then declared war on the Germans, thrusting the world into a second world war. Though the United States initially remained neutral in the conflict, many Sailors, Soldiers and Marines were called up from reserve duty to be placed on active duty. Bob was one of these individuals.
Bob received orders to Kaula, which was bound for service in the Hawaiian Islands. He recounted part of his journey to Hawaii in a letter addressed to his grandfather. According to Bob, Kaula transited through the Panama Canal in February 1941. From there, the ship navigated up the coast of California before pulling into San Francisco.
“I really got a look around passing under the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco,” he said. “I had a great time there. Several of us went to Chinatown and saw the sights. We got a chow mien dinner and had to eat it with chopsticks. We sure had a fun time trying to eat it.”
Bob later departed San Francisco and arrived in Hawaii sometime during March 1941. In a letter dated May 26, 1941, Bob describes his impressions of Hawaii.
“I like Hawaii and think it is a swell place as the climate here is wonderful,” he wrote.
As the months went by, Bob had many adventures on the Hawaiian Islands, experiencing the most he could during his Navy journey. Bob and his companions got to take part in several local sports, including one that no one from the mainland had ever heard of: this strange thing called “surfing,” where he happened to rub elbows with several stars of the Golden Era of Hollywood.
“Some of us were at Waikiki Beach trying to master those astounding ‘surfboards’ that can be rented thereabouts,” Bob said in an August 1941, letter addressed to an Aunt Marie. “The millionaire Brenda Frazier graced the famed beach with her presence. Boy, millionaires are a dime-a-dozen out here. Later that same day Loretta Young and her husband went for a swim. Every time we go swimming there we see some new personality of radio, stage or screen.”
When he wasn’t interacting with celebrities, exploring or learning to surf, Perkins still fulfilled his duties as a Sailor. This included returning to sea as Kaula prepared for a deployment to Alaska.
“We’re getting underway this afternoon for Palmyra Island, so must hurry to finish this letter,” Bob wrote in a letter to his father dated Dec. 4, 1941. “A Canadian cruiser came into Honolulu yesterday with a couple big holes in her bow. Don’t know where they saw action. I’ve got a lot more to write about, but just don’t have the time. We arrived in Pearl Harbor Monday, took on fuel and then came to Honolulu the same evening and started loading, so you can see how rushed we are. Lots of love, Bob.”
Three days after Bob sent that letter home, Japan launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Fortunately for Kaula and the crew, the ship was out to sea on Dec. 7, 1941.
The attack on Pearl Harbor took the lives of 2,403 US service members and 68 civilians. In addition, several ships were damaged or sunk, including USS Arizona (BB-39), with the loss of more than 1,100 Sailors onboard.
Kaula returned to Pearl Harbor on or around Dec. 18, 1941, and immediately began to aid in salvage and rescue efforts. It was then that Bob was able to send a telegram home stating that he survived the attack, adding, “Am well, merry Christmas – Robert Perkins.”
Four days later, Bob sent a follow-up message to his family. The tone of the letter became more somber and referenced the loss of a local Sailor.
“‘Doc’ Russel was the only one killed in the raid. He was the regular from Washington,” said Bob.
He went on to spend the remainder of the war serving on the Pacific front. At some point before 1944, he was transferred to USS Thornhill (DE 195).
Following WWII, Bob was honorably discharged from the Navy. He went on to attend and graduate college with a degree in forestry before moving west to California. He eventually became chief head ranger for Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, where a tree bearing his name continues to grow to this day. Another lasting impact to his life was becoming the father of two boys and three girls.
Bob worked hard to become a private pilot, holding a love and fascination for aeronautics that propelled him to try skydiving for the first time on his 70th birthday. He continued piloting his own aircraft until he was well past the age of 80 and eventually settled in Cave Junction, Oregon, where he would become a caretaker for his grandson, and future Navy Chief, Joel.
“My Dad had some businesses in New York that he lost,” said Perkins. “As a result of that, we had to move in with my grandpa (Bob) when I was six years old.”
Bob stepped in to be a parental figure, role model and extremely influential figure for his grandson.
“My grandpa helped raise me,” Perkins said. “He drove me to school and practices, he taught me how to read street signs and give directions, and he told these amazing sea stories.”
Though the older Perkins had been out of the Navy for many decades, the influence of the organization never left him.
“I’d remember Grandpa always walking around with his Navy sayings,” said Perkins. “’Stop milling around the p-ways, shipmate.’ He was always telling us these stories, like the time someone threw his boots out of a port hole, or the time he spent Christmas morning on Christmas Island. Grandpa was the life of every party.”
It was his grandfather’s Navy stories that encouraged him to enlist in 2008.
“I’d always wanted to be in the military,” Perkins said. “Hearing Grandpa’s stories is what put me where I am today as a chief petty officer.”
Unfortunately, Perkins would never get to share his adventures and sea stories with his grandfather. Bob passed away in 2008 at the age of 87, but his grandson has vowed to carry on his grandfather’s legacy as a way to keep his memory alive.
“I never got to share my Navy experience with my Grandpa,” Perkins said. “So I share his stories with my Sailors as a way to let him live again.”
Perkins has served in the Navy for 15 years and is one of many Americans impacted and compelled to serve by Bob’s generation, who sacrificed that we may live today in freedom.
| Date Taken: | 12.07.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 12.30.2023 19:48 |
| Story ID: | 461104 |
| Location: | NAVAL BASE SAN DIEGO, US |
| Hometown: | CAVE JUNCTION, OR, US |
| Hometown: | WASHINGTON, IN, US |
| Web Views: | 184 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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