Oral History Interview with Robert Brunk, December 5, 2008

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Robert Brunk. In November 1940, 17-year-old Brunk joined the Navy. Upon finishing hospital corps school, he was assigned to the USS Curtiss (AV-4), a seaplane tender at Pearl Harbor. While on liberty ashore on the morning of 7 December, he received orders to report to his station. As he passed Battleship Row, he gaped at the extensive damage to other ships and soon found the Curtiss listing. He climbed aboard and fulfilled his duty of collecting and identifying the deceased. Brunk later sailed with the Curtiss to New Caledonia to set up a seaplane base. At Espiritu Santo the Curtiss became a flagship, with Admiral McCain aboard. Brunk was later transferred to Los Alamitos Naval Air Station as the senior pharmacist’s mate for CASU-33. After making chief, he developed an ulcer and was put on limited duty until the end of the war. Returning to full duty in October 1945, Brunk spent some time aboard the USS Dorothea Dix (AP-67) before his discharge in June 1946, whereupon he went to work for the VA, retiring as a hospital director