Chief Petty Officer Clarence
E. Lux USN
Signing up for a six-year spell, Clarence Lux joined the Navy
in February 1940, and had almost two years experience behind
him before Pearl Harbor. After training he was posted to the
32,300 ton battleship USS Tennessee and at the time of the December
7 attack was on duty in the after engine room when two Japanese
bombs hit the ship.
When the stern of the Tennessee was set on fire following the
explosion that destroyed the Arizona, Clarence worked with the
fire-control parties to save the ship. He remained with the Tennessee
for the whole of the war, seeing action that included the bombardments
at the Aleutians, Tarawa, the Philippines, Iwo Jima and Okinawa,
and the sinking of the Japanese battleship Yamashiro.
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Chief Boatsman Edward Wise USN
Joining the US Navy in September 1940, Edward Wise also found
himself posted out to the USS Tennessee at Pearl Harbor. As part
of the battleship’s port watch as a quarter deck seaman,
he worked in the ship’s post office, but on the morning
of December 7, 1941 his duties were about to change. Moored astern
was the Arizona, and when the Arizona exploded the stern of the
Tennessee was engulfed by debris and burning oil. Edward was
soon part of the quick thinking fire control parties that brought
the blazing ship under control and saved her from destruction.
He remained with the Tennessee for the remainder of the war.
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