Harold was born in 1921 about a half-mile north of Trevlac, in Jackson Township. He was the youngest of seven children of Milton and Viola Richards.
He attended the Branstetter School for eight years and the Helmsburg High School for three years. His mother died in November 1932, and for the next six years, the responsibility of his education and support was assumed by his brothers and sisters. The majority of the time he lived with Fritch and his sister, Naomi Fleener. During these years, in the height of the Depression, it must have created a hardship for them to bear the extra cost and responsibility. To them and to all the others who helped Harold, he was most grateful.
Even though the Depression created great hardships throughout most of the world, it gave us a generation that was generous, compassionate, and had great respect for neighbors and nation. This respect for our country Harold considered the deciding factor for his enlisting in the service.
Harold enlisted in the U.S. Navy on June 13, 1938, and was assigned duty on the U.S.S. Utah in September 1938. At that time, the ship had been converted from a battleship to gunnery training, and a submarine and a surface target ship. The ship was operating out of Long Beach, California.
In 1939, he traveled through the Panama Canal for battle practice in the Caribbean Sea. His four months there gave him the opportunity to visit Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica and the Virgin Islands.
In 1940, the soldiers were assigned duty in the Hawaiian Islands and remained in that area for the next 18 months. During this period of time they were given the most extensive training for war that any Navy had been subjected to.
On Dec. 7, 1941, their home, the U.S.S. Utah, was bombed and torpedoed by the Japanese and sank on the west side of Ford Island in Pearl Harbor. Harold’s money, pictures and clothes and all his possessions were destroyed with the ship. He was very fortunate that he was not critically wounded. He received a broken collarbone when a shipmate landed on him when they abandoned ship. They had approximately eight minutes from the time of the first torpedo.
There were many lifeboats retrieving the survivors, but the Japanese aircraft were strafing the boats with machine guns, so Harold decided to swim to the beach. By this time, the surface of the water was covered with oil and gasoline. Thank God it did not ignite until about 30 minutes later. On the day of the attack, they had a ship’s compliment of approximately 560 men on my ship. The U.S.S. Utah still remains on the bottom of Pearl Harbor rusting away, but serving as a memorial to those 56 men who gave their all. May God give them eternal rest.
After four days assisting in the burial of some of the 2,438 men, they were assigned to a new fleet supply ship, the U.S.S. Castor. The ship supplied the fleet and land bases in the South Pacific area with many types of necessities.
In February 1943, Harold was assigned to Guadalcanal in the Salmon Islands to establish a disbursing office to pay the personnel assigned to that area. He remained there for one year.
Harold received a 30-day leave and returned to Indiana to visit his family and friends. That was a joyous occasion, that family reunion! Harold would recall it was very cold here, and he had spent six years in a warm climate.
Harold was then assigned to the U.S.S. Ashland, as an amphibious landing ship dock. This was the first ship made of this type, used for landing troops and equipment, and the repair of small craft. Here he remained for the remainder of the war, serving in five major battles. Harold’s duties were as distributing officer and assistant in decoding classified messages.
After the war, they went to Korea for two weeks, and from there to China for two-and-a-half months, and four days in Japan.
During those eight years of service, Harold was on 38 islands in the Pacific. He remembers the many hardships they had during the battles, but after the war ended and they were sent to pick up our prisoners of war, he then saw the brutality our allies and American service men had endured. These men are the ones who deserve the highest honors.
Harold was discharged from the service in May 1946 and came back to his beloved Brown County home. Harold said, “As he looks back at the past, and recalls the good, and the bad, he knows that God has been very good to him and his family.”
This story was written by Harold S. Richards. Submitted by Pauline Hoover, Brown County Historical Society.
