PEARL HARBOR

The Decision — USS Nevada

The Corps · Rollin E. Trueblood, USMC (Ret.)

On the morning of December 7, 1941, the quiet of Pearl Harbor was shattered as Japanese aircraft swept across the Hawaiian sky without warning. In less than two hours, America was thrust into World War II. More than 2,400 Americans were killed, thousands more were wounded, and battleships that represented the strength of the United States Navy were torn apart by bombs and torpedoes.

History remembers the attack.

What history often cannot fully capture are the countless individual acts of courage that took place inside those burning ships.

There were heroes everywhere that morning. It would be impossible to tell every story. This is simply one of them.

Deep within the battleship USS Nevada, far below the guns, smoke, and exploding bombs, was the engineering plant. By chance, the ship’s boilers had already been lit as part of routine operations that morning. Steam was available. If power could be routed through the maze of valves, pumps, generators, and mechanical systems, there was a chance the Nevada could get underway and escape the slaughter taking place around her.

That responsibility fell largely upon Warrant Machinist Donald K. Ross, a sailor who had begun his career as an enlisted man and knew the engineering systems better than almost anyone aboard.

As bombs exploded above, the ship shook violently. Every blast echoed through the steel hull. Smoke and blistering heat poured into the engineering spaces through the ventilation system. Fire spread through the compartment. Steam lines hissed. Metal that moments before could be touched now burned like a branding iron. Every man below decks understood the same truth:

They might never leave alive.

Realizing the danger, Ross ordered the men under his command to move to a safer compartment while he remained at his station.

Alone, surrounded by blistering heat, choking smoke, and failing systems, he continued communicating with those above while transferring power, opening and closing valves, and keeping the engineering plant operating. Every valve he reached for threatened to burn his hands. Every explosion sent another concussion through the hull. Smoke robbed him of clean air. The intense heat scorched his skin. Yet he refused to abandon his post.

By the time the attack subsided, Ross had suffered severe burns to his hands, face, arms, and legs. Exhausted, injured, and in tremendous pain, he had nevertheless remained at his station long enough to make possible what many believed could not be done.

His work enabled the Nevada to become the only battleship to get underway during the attack.

But success came with a price.

As the Nevada moved into the harbor, she immediately became the focus of repeated Japanese attacks. Enemy pilots understood that if they could sink her in the narrow entrance channel, they could trap the remainder of the Pacific Fleet inside Pearl Harbor.

Recognizing the danger to every ship behind them, Captain Francis W. Scanland made the difficult decision to intentionally beach the Nevada rather than risk blocking the harbor.

The ship was battered, burning, and heavily damaged.

Yet because one man refused to abandon his post, she remained under power long enough to give her captain that choice.

Donald Ross survived that terrible day. For his extraordinary courage and devotion to duty, he was awarded the Medal of Honor. His actions did not stop the attack. They did not save the Nevada from damage. But they demonstrated something far more enduring.

When every instinct tells us to save ourselves, character asks a different question.

Who still needs me?

That morning at Pearl Harbor, Donald Ross answered that question without hesitation.

He stayed.

And that was the decision.

— Rollin E. Trueblood, USMC (Ret.)