HomeMy WebLinkAbout William H. Shenkir, Brazos Valley HeroesBy Bill Youngkin
Special to The Eagle
Life's journey led William H. "Bill" Shenkir, now of
the Steep Hollow community in Brazos County, from a
farm near Rogers, Texas, to being a participant in one of
the most significant events in our country's history: the
bombing of Pearl Harbor.
"I was born in 1922 in Rogers and had graduated
from Rogers High in 1939. I knew I wanted to leave the
farm, so I went to Cameron and got a job selling shoes
for $6.50 a week," Shenkir said. "My room and board
costs $3.00 a week so I was just barley getting by. A
buddy of mine and 1 talked about joining the Navy and
decided we would join together.
"I went home to tell my folks and then returned to
Cameron to meet my friend to go join up in Austin.
He said he wasn't going anywhere to join anything,
especially the Navy, so I left to join on my own. They
sent me to Houston for physicals and enlistment. I
raised my hand on July 4; 1940 and was sworn into
the Navy.
"We were to leave for San Diego the next day on
a train so they said we would need to find a place to
stay for the night. I found a hotel that charged a dollar
a night. About 2:30 or 3:00 a.m. I was awakened by a
policeman who said he was investigating a robbery that
had occurred there. After visiting with the policeman, ,it
appeared that I had spent my first night in the Navy in
a `cathouse'."
Shenkir was sent to boot camp in San Diego where
they were drilled, as remembered by Shenkir, "day after
day and week after week." Upon completion of boot
camp training they were allowed a furlough to come
home before advance training was to begin.
"I came home to Rogers to see my folks. It would be
the last time I would be able to come home until the
war was over. My Dad's health had~egun to fail and it
would be the last time I would see him alive. I'm afraid
that if I had been allowed to come home again I might
have tried to stay.
`9 went back to California for my advance training
as a seaman. I eventually was assigned to the USS
California, a battleship. Our first trip out to sea was
up the coast to Seattle and it was rough seas all the
way. I found out what rough seas could do to a sailor's
stomach.
Shenkir and the California were ordered to Pearl
Harbor as their duty station. In December 1941 they
were tied up to moorings beside Ford Island where the
California was scheduled for minor repairs and was to
undergo an inspection. They were in line behind the
Nevada, Arizona, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Maryland
but were separated from those ships. by some open
"I had duty that day, which was Sunday, December 7,
1941.1 had left my bunk, ate breakfast and had reported
to the ship's commissary store room where we were to
conduct an inventory of the stock there. I remember it as
being the usual pleasant day in Hawaii and I remember
music playing over the ship's loudspeakers.
"I was in the store room when I felt the ship "surge"
and then heard the general alarm sound. No one was
expecting anything like an attack but that was what
was occurring. I remember the confusion that existed
on the ship. We were hit by two large bombs. One went
almost to the bottom of the ship, curling metal as it
went. The guys in the bunk area were the ones who
suffered the most.
"Some of the guys got panicky but there was nothing
we could do. Most stayed calm and did what could be
done to get our guys out because our ammunition
magazine had exploded, killing and burning so many.
I guess I was lucky I was on duty and in the storeroom
when the bombs hit.
"It was difficult to get some of the guys out, but we
did the best we could: I remember one of my friends,
who had been burned so badly. He knew he was burned
badly and asked me if I could recognize him. I couldn't.
When we came top side, I saw that all the oil in the
water around the ship, was now on fire. The fire around
the ship was so bad they ordered us to abandon ship
but a wind shift moved the fire away and the abandon
ship order was recalled."
"That night I remember being so tired and sleeping
on the deck using my gas mask as a pillow. The next
day, the crew was separated, some sent to Ford Island
and I was sent to the Royal Hawaiian Hotel for my
quarters."
One hundred men had lost their lives on the California
that day and another 62 were wounded.
Shenkir spent the next four years. in the Pacific
Theatre aboard LCIs throughout the Pacific Theatre. The
California was repaired and participated in the battle
for Saipan and Guam. There were 94 vessels in Pearl
Harbor at the time of the attack. Eighteen were unable
to get underway but only three of those 18 never made
it back into action. The Utah and the Arizona were left
at their moorings where they remain today. Shenkir was
discharged in 1946 and began a career in the poultry
business, retiring from Feathercrest Farms in 1988.
"I visited Pearl Harbor a few years ago and I could
still smell the smell of that burning oil. I guess I always
will remember that smell."
Bill Shenkirs name can be found on the Brazos Valley
Veterans Memorial For more information, to make
a contribution, or if you know a World War 11 Veteran
whose story needs to be told, contact the BWM at www.
emorial.org or Bill Youngkin at (979) 260-7030.