Oral History Interview with Pat Duncan, December 3, 2003

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Pat Duncan. Duncan joined the Navy 9 July 1940 and after training in San Diego he was put on the USS Brazos (AO-4) for transport to Pearl Harbor where he was assigned to the USS Raleigh (CL-7). He was onboard for almost a year before the war started. Duncan was the bugler, stood orderly watches and did deck work. He was standing watch on 7 December 1941 and saw the plane coming in low that dropped the torpedo that hit the Raleigh, right below where he was standing. The officer of the deck told him to sound general quarters but his bugle was full of water. His battle station was a three-inch gun. The Raleigh was hit again with a bomb aft, where Duncan’s sleeping quarters were. The ship was trying to turn over but the captain told them to jettison everything overboard. A barge came over with some float pontoons that helped the ship stay afloat. The Raleigh went into dry dock at Pearl Harbor where it got patched up enough to get to Mare Island for additional repairs. After seven and half months in San Francisco, the Raleigh made three trips to the South Pacific on convoy duty and after that she was sent up to the Aleutian Islands. Duncan was transferred off the Raleigh in 1943 to the USS Stoddard (DD-566). The Stoddard was sent to the Aleutians, Philippines, and finished the war Okinawa. Duncan states that they were 200 miles from where they dropped the first atomic bomb and that he heard it saying it was a strange sound that he had never heard before. The Stoddard got into Tokyo Bay on 5 September 1945. Duncan was sent home on 12 September 1945 aboard the USS Tucson (CL-98) where he was assigned to the ship’s company. He had signed up for six years of service