Oral History Interview with Charlie Boswell, December 6, 2003

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Charlie Boswell. After boot training in San Diego, he was assigned to the USS Tennessee in April 1941. The Tennessee was at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 tied up on the inside of the USS West Virginia, next to the pier. Boswell's battle station was as an ammunition handler on one of the 5-inch guns. He went down there and stayed there all day, sending up rounds. Boswell states that the Tennessee took two bombs hits. After about seven or eight days and they had blasted the big concrete pillars to give the Tennessee enough room to get out, they went to Bremerton, Washington along with the USS Pennsylvania and USS Maryland. After repairs, the Tennessee operated out of San Francisco. In September 1942, the Tennessee put back into Bremerton for additional work. Boswell was transferred to the Brooklyn Navy Yard and the USS Waller (DD-466), a new Fletcher-class destroyer. The Waller sailed through the Panama Canal and ended up in the Solomon Islands, around Guadalcanal, where they joined up with four cruisers and four other destroyers. They operated out of an island called Tonagawa for two years. The Waller came back to the States in September 1944. Boswell states he wasn't off the Waller but twice in those two years. After leave in the States, the Waller went to the Marianas for the invasion of Guam, Saipan, Tinian and then to the Philippines. Afterwards, they patrolled between China, Japan and Okinawa and were the first ship into Shanghai, China. The Waller hit a mine and came back to the States; the atomic bombs had been dropped. Boswell was discharged in January 1947