Today local resident Jay Carraway passed away. He will be missed by many. Below is his story.
On December 7, 1941, Jay Carraway was serving as a Navy Signalman Striker aboard the Clemson-class Destroyer, the USS Hulbert (DD-342) moored at the Submarine Base, Pearl Harbor. At approximately 7:48 a.m., Hawaiian Time, Jay was eating breakfast aboard the USS Hulbert with his fellow shipmates when the base was attacked by 353 Imperial Japanese fighter planes, bombers and torpedo planes in two waves.
Jay recalled, “Even after the first bombs went off, most did not realize that the base was under attack. Like everybody else, at first we said, ‘we don’t drill on Sunday morning,’ but that was no drill. A bomb finally hit close by and rocked the ship, and we realized then that something was going on.” During the attack, Jay manned the ships 5-inch gun and fired at the Japanese bombers. (Historians believe that the USS Hulbert was the first ship in the fleet to open fire and shot down one torpedo plane at 7:58 and downed a dive bomber at about 8:20 and damaged several other aircraft.) Jay recalls that “The torpedo planes came at us from about 150 feet across the stern and it felt like they were so close you could touch them.”
At dusk, as the Hulbert started forward in the harbor on their way to sea, Jay and others spotted a midget sub periscope between them and the wreck of the USS Arizona. They signaled the Navy Yard tower and returned to their dock while sub chasers went after the midget sub. He later heard that it was destroyed under the USS Solace. Following the attacks, he saw three planes returning from the USS Enterprise shot at while attempting to land on Ford Island. One plane was shot down killing the pilot, one crash landed and one landed safely. Jay served in the Pacific Theater of WWII. He witnessed the Aleutian people swimming toward his ship in the dark of night as the Japanese marched down the Aleutian Islands. Jay and his ship mates rescued over 200 people swimming from the Japanese invasion and harbored them, taking them to safety.
Jay served in the Pacific Theater during World War II and after 20 years in the US Navy he retired as a Chief Electronics Technician. Jay has resided in Northwest Florida most of his life after retiring from the Navy and has been a member of the St. Sylvester Catholic Church in Gulf Breeze for over 15 years.
