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Contact Info
Home Town Claremont, Virginia
Last Address Waverly, Virginia
Date of Passing Feb 10, 1998
Location of Interment Claremont Cemetery - Claremont, Virginia
Captain Anderson was born in Claremont, VA on September 22, 1914. He enlisted in the Navy in 1932 and was accepted to the Naval Academy in 1934. He graduated in the top 113 of his class in 1938. He received his gold Naval Aviator Wings in March 1941 and transitioned into the Douglas SBD. He reported aboard the USS Enterprise in May 1941. Enterprise participated in the Marshall Islands Raid. From June 4Ih to June 6 1942, the Enterprise, along with the carriers Hornet and Yorktown, fought the Battle of Midway. He served as a Section Leader of a bombing squadron aboard the Enterprise and for his actions was awarded the Navy Cross. He also received the Distinguished Flying Cross for his efforts during the Battle of Midway. From August 1942 to January 1944, he served as a Chief Instructor for advanced carrier operations and Chief Flight Instructor at NAS Jacksonville and NAS Dayton Beach. From January 1944 to January 1945 he served aboard the USS Ticonderoga. He was the commanding officer of Bombing Squadron 80 and flew the SB2C. While serving on the USS Ticonderoga, he was severely injured in two Kamikaze attacks and received a Purple Heart as a result of these. In August 1949, he reported to the USS Midway as an Air Officer. In June 1955, he reported to the USS Forrestal where he served as the Executive Officer until July 1956. In August 1958 he was given his first command of a surface ship the USS Onslow, which was a seaplane tender. On June 6, 1961 he was given command of the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt and on July 1, 1968 he retired from the Navy after a 32-year career.
World War II/Asiatic-Pacific Theater/Attack on Pearl Harbor
From Month/Year
December / 1941
To Month/Year
December / 1941
Description The attack on Pearl Harbor, also known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor, the Hawaii Operation or Operation AI by the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters, and Operation Z during planning, was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Territory, on the morning of December 7, 1941. The attack led to the United States' entry into World War II.
Japan intended the attack as a preventive action to keep the U.S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions the Empire of Japan planned in Southeast Asia against overseas territories of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States. Over the next seven hours there were coordinated Japanese attacks on the U.S.-held Philippines, Guam and Wake Island and on the British Empire in Malaya, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
The attack commenced at 7:48 a.m. Hawaiian Time. The base was attacked by 353 Imperial Japanese fighter planes, bombers, and torpedo planes in two waves, launched from six aircraft carriers. All eight U.S. Navy battleships were damaged, with four sunk. All but Arizona were later raised, and six were returned to service and went on to fight in the war. The Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship, and one minelayer. 188 U.S. aircraft were destroyed; 2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 others were wounded. Important base installations such as the power station, shipyard, maintenance, and fuel and torpedo storage facilities, as well as the submarine piers and headquarters building (also home of the intelligence section) were not attacked. Japanese losses were light: 29 aircraft and five midget submarines lost, and 64 servicemen killed. One Japanese sailor, Kazuo Sakamaki, was captured.
The attack came as a profound shock to the American people and led directly to the American entry into World War II in both the Pacific and European theaters. The following day, December 8, the United States declared war on Japan. Domestic support for non-interventionism, which had been fading since the Fall of France in 1940,[19] disappeared. Clandestine support of the United Kingdom (e.g., the Neutrality Patrol) was replaced by active alliance. Subsequent operations by the U.S. prompted Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy to declare war on the U.S. on December 11, which was reciprocated by the U.S. the same day.
From the 1950s, several writers alleged that parties high in the U.S. and British governments knew of the attack in advance and may have let it happen (or even encouraged it) with the aim of bringing the U.S. into war. However, this advance-knowledge conspiracy theory is rejected by mainstream historians.
There were numerous historical precedents for unannounced military action by Japan. However, the lack of any formal warning, particularly while negotiations were still apparently ongoing, led President Franklin D. Roosevelt to proclaim December 7, 1941, "a date which will live in infamy". Because the attack happened without a declaration of war and without explicit warning, the attack on Pearl Harbor was judged by the Tokyo Trials to be a war crime.
