Oral History Interview with Robert Batterson, April 27, 2004 Page: 18

                                
Page 18 of 38

Mr. Batterson
No, I wasn't down at the water. No, we initially started helping them to get cleaned up, and got
clothes for them. Then we went down to the Cassin and the Downes. I think the worse thing, other
than seeing those guys get killed, I did see them strafe guys in the burning oil. Those Japs were sort
of like these Al-Qaida terrorists, only not that savage. These guys we are fighting now are...!
shouldn't compare the two, but...
Mr. Misenhimer
You were talking about strafing men in the water?
Mr. Batterson
Oh yes. And then this is after they murdered guys w ho were aboard ship who were in their bunks,
and never had a chance. There was one thing that hit pretty hard w ith the Arizona. The night before
Pearl Harbor, Saturday night at the "Battle of the Bands" at Richardson Center, there was a lot of
entertainment for us. During the "Battle of the Bands", the best band was saluted as the first in the
Fleet. And the Arizona, as I recall, came in second. And the next day every one of those Arizona
musicians was killed. Just think. Those guys were really playing good music about ten hours
before the attack.
Mr. Misenhimer
Then, like on the third day, what did you start doing then?
Mr. Batterson
Well, we were getting back to routine, back to the regular job. And about six months later the Navy
issued a new policy which opened up flight training to enlisted personnel. And I put in for flight

training just as soon as I could. And it was in late '42 that I was selected to go into a flight training
program, into the V5 Aviation Cadet program. And I started that in January of'43. I started at the
University of Southern California for training, physical training and academics, and then the
University ofNew Mexico for flight training in a Taylor craft. That was called War Training School.
I lived in the University of New Mexico under the stadium, which was okay. We soloed there and
then we went to Del Monte, to what they called the pre-flight program. It was academics and more
physical training. I got out of there two weeks early, because I made some pretty good grades. It
was rough. And then I started flight training at the elimination base at Hutchinson, Kansas in the