Richard Nowatzki grew up in Chicago, Illinois, during the Great Depression. The thing that stood out the most for him was how tough things were at this time. “Things were pretty rough,” Richard said. “A good job was very hard to come by. No one really had much.” This was not just true for the civilian population, but also the U.S. military.
“I would go and watch the news on the news reels they would show before the movies,” Richard said. “This one mentioned that Portugal had a more powerful military than ours. I also saw footage of these war games that were being held. We didn’t have enough equipment to train with. They showed a jeep with a big sign on it that just said ‘tank.’ I thought, ‘Wow, this must be pretty bad.’”
Richard’s family was not in a position to send him to college. He knew he’d have to get a job and get one quick. “I graduated on a Friday and planned to go job hunting Saturday,” Richard said. He hit the streets of Chicago to see what was out there.
“I went by the University of Chicago,” he said, “and they had their own power plant. I went in there and asked about a job.” Even though they weren’t hiring, Richard lucked out by being in the right place at the right time and landed a job there. “The job paid 12 dollars a week,” he said. “That was a big deal.”
One day Richard’s father commented on how lucky he was to have that job. “He told me I was set for life with that job,” Richard said. “It hit me that I was not ready for a forever job. So I went down and joined the Navy.”
After basic training, Richard was sent to Norfolk, where he would be assigned to a new ship. “I was assigned to the USS Hornet. We boarded the ship and commissioned it about 20 days later.” It was on the Hornet where Richard and his shipmates would hear the news of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
“After a shakedown test cruise, we came in and had a strange cargo loaded onto the deck,” Richard said. It was February 2, and Richard watched as they loaded two B-25s onto the deck. “We all felt that this was nothing too crazy, as the USS Wasp was used as a ferry ship before,” he said. “So this was just going to be another ferry job for us.”
The hangar bays of the Hornet were filled mainly with their own fighter aircraft. On April 2, the Hornet departed with its strange cargo.
“We got underway and went under the Golden Gate Bridge,” Richard said. “We all felt that we were going to Alaska. We were being escorted by cruisers and had about 20 ships total in our task force.”
As they moved away from the mainland United States, the ship’s captain, Marc A. Mitscher, came on the loudspeaker. Richard still remembers the words he heard come out across the deck. “Now hear this … the Army bombers and crews onboard this ship are going to bomb Japan.”
Richard said that the roar of cheering could be heard all over the ship. The secret raid would be led by Lt. Col. James Doolittle and his crew of volunteers. A few days later, the Hornet was joined by the USS Enterprise, which was commanded by Admiral William “Bull” Halsey. “Halsey was running the show, but we had the bombers,” Richard said.
Richard recalls a quiet moment where he and his friend Charlie were walking around the deck and they made a startling realization.
“We were up on deck looking over these big Army bombers,” Richard said. “We walked around the tail of one and there were wooden tail guns sticking out of it. I pointed this out to Charlie. One of the Army pilots walked by and I asked him if he was going to war with wooden guns. I started to think back to that newsreel with the jeep labeled as a tank.”
“Well, we had to add extra fuel and want to keep light enough to take off,” the Army pilot said. He then told Richard something that stuck with him. “Do you guys realize that this will make history? Japan has never been bombed.”
Richard and Charlie made their way to another Army pilot and joked about the tail guns. It was here that one Army aviator had some fun, and told Richard the Army was looking for Navy guys to man the cameras in the aircraft. Richard told Charlie this sounded amazing, and was told he needed to see Doolittle himself to volunteer.
“I tracked Doolittle down,” Richard said. “He was having a bowl of ice cream. I asked if I could talk to him a moment and he kindly replied of course. Then I asked if we could volunteer to run this camera. He began laughing and pounding the table. He said, ‘I think someone is having some fun with you.’”
On the morning of April 18, the task force ran across a Japanese picket boat. The ships quickly opened fire on it and sank it.
“We weren’t sure if a message had gotten off or not,” Richard said. “They called us to general quarters. My position was gun seven. It was an open gun tub at the rear and right side of the ship.”
Doolittle had a choice to make: Either push the airplanes overboard and retreat to safety, or launch early. Launching early meant leaving 10 hours and 1,700 nautical miles early. It meant not making their final destination, a runway in China. It meant risking their lives and being captured. However, it also meant a chance of a victory, something the United States had not had much of in the Pacific. It meant boosting the morale of everyone back home. It was time for the underdogs to have their chance to hit back. Doolittle decided to launch.
Richard remembers the announcement coming over the loudspeaker for Army pilots to man their airplanes. Soon the covers and tie-downs were removed from each plane and one by one the engines started.
“Where we were, the flight deck was right over our heads,” Richard said. “We went up to watch the launch. I remember the seas were rough, waves crashing over the deck. Doolittle went first. He made it with no problem. He then circled back and flew down the deck and waved his wings, and then made a direct line for Tokyo. They didn’t go in formation. Each went on its own.”
One by one the B-25s roared down the deck. “They all made it just fine except for one,” Richard said. “Ted Lawson’s crew in The Ruptured Duck. He forgot to put his flaps down. When he hit the end of the deck he just kind of fell off. But he managed to get airborne.”
Richard reflects on the crews still after all these years. “I was so impressed by their pride and guts to go knowing the odds were against them.” After the last aircraft launched after an accident with a ground crew member, the Hornet turned around to get out of the area.
“We knew the time frame that they should hit Japan,” Richard said. “We had someone onboard who spoke Japanese. We tuned in a radio and listened. The radio broadcast cut off and when it came back on the announcer was very excited and talking fast. That was the word we had been waiting for. Word was passed onboard the ship. Simply we just said, they made it.”
After the raid, the Hornet next saw action at the Battle of Midway. “We had missed Coral Sea by a few days,” Richard said. “Now we were going to try to set a trap at Midway.”
Richard recalls seeing the torpedo bombers of VT-8 depart that fateful morning. “I saw the planes they were using. I again thought back to the newsreel of the jeep masquerading as a tank. Only one of our guys from VT-8, Ensign George Gay, survived.” During the battle a crippled SBD Dauntless made its way to the Hornet and crashed on the deck. The ammunition started cooking off and killed five people and injured 20 more.
“The sky was filled with anti-aircraft fire, and planes,” Richard said of the battle. “It almost darkened the sky. From where I was I could see the Yorktown, and could see it firing at kamikazes. We had never heard of them. It was the dive bomber crews who won the day. If it wasn’t for men like Wade McCluskey, we would not have won that battle.”
After Midway, Richard and the crew on the Hornet would proceed to the Solomon Islands. By late October, they would find themselves locked in another battle at Santa Cruz. October 27, 1942, would be a day to remember.
“They got us at 0900,” Richard said. “We were hit by four bombs and two torpedoes. The ship was listing to the right. Two attacking aircraft came out at the same time and hit us. The explosion was violent. It straightened the ship, which vibrated hard, then rolled again. We thought it was going to roll over us. We were now dead in the water. No power. We lost 150 sailors. I could see blood running down off of the deck.”
There was nothing more for the Hornet crew to do. The call to abandon ship was made. “Everyone except for a rescue and salvage team was to leave,” Richard said. “I was on that team. So I stayed. I thought about going to my locker to get some money I had in it. I could see damage in that direction. I figured I was not going to risk my life for $40.”
The Hornet was just drifting at this point. “Finally, in the afternoon a cruiser circled and announced to us that they were leaving the area and that we needed to get on board their ship.”
As Richard began to plan his egress from the ship he had another surprise. “I figured I’d go off on my side of the ship since it was listing that direction it would be shorter. As I looked I saw that the blood was still dripping from that side of the ship into the water. A school of 15 sharks were down there. I said, well, that’s not good.”
As Richard made his way off of the other side of the ship to the other ship, the Hornet was still being attacked. “I saw an explosion at what was my gun emplacement. Another gun went flying! We were then hit with a shockwave from the bombs. It felt like we were being crushed.” The Hornet was sunk. At the time it went down it was just a year old.
A Destroyer picked up Richard and there he was safe. “I didn’t even have shoes. One of the crew had a spare set and gave them to me. After about two weeks, we made our way to New Caledonia. They marched us to a warehouse and when we came out on the other side we had Army uniforms.”
Despite his confusion, Richard was just happy to have clean clothes. That feeling didn’t last long. “They told me that we were going to help the Marines on Guadalcanal,” he said. “They handed me a WWI-style helmet and a brand new rifle. The rifle was still covered in that Cosmoline oil. It took me four days to get all of that crap off of that rifle!”
As they arrived at Guadalcanal, Richard and the others unloaded the ship. Moments later, a Japanese fighter strafed the beach. “Everyone was running and diving into foxholes,” Richard said. “I had never seen a foxhole. Didn’t even know what they were. I kept running toward the trees. Bullets were hitting around me. I was probably the only person moving on the beach!” Richard found a swamp to dive into and evaded the gunfire. He climbed out and leaned against a tree. Someone came over to warn him about the alligators hiding in those swamps!
“After a few days, the Navy came to sort us out from the Army folks,” Richard said. “They pulled us out and I was then assigned to fill in as a maintenance officer for a PT boat squadron. The PT boats were fierce machines. The crews would go out at night and turn their mufflers on to get in range of Japanese ships. Then they’d fire, and use their speed to get out of there. It was dangerous duty.”
Being on a PT was dangerous; however, stopping the movement of the enemy was vital. “We lost a few boats one night,” Richard said. “They were presumed lost. Then one PT boat showed up with men all over the deck that they had rescued.”
The boat that rescued them was PT-109. “Richard pointed out that, though 109 gets a lot of attention as it was later commanded by John F. Kennedy, all of the brave crews of the patrol torpedo boats need to be remembered. “They had a hard job and never turned away from it,” he said.
Richard’s amazing career did not end there. He went on to serve in Korea and Vietnam before retiring from the Navy. He is proud of his service and looks back fondly at his front row seat to history.
Recently the USS Hornet was found. As a way to honor Richard, he was able to watch on a screen as a submarine went down to explore. They even took him to his old gun station. “I asked them, if they ever went by my locker, if they could get my $40,” he said.
It was amazing to get to listen to Richard tell me in vivid detail what it was like to be at some of the largest and most historically significant events from WWII. I need to say thank you to our mutual friend Mrs. Lawson (no relation to Ted) for calling out to us that there was someone we needed to talk with about the Doolittle Raid. She was very correct.