Huntsville Navy veteran Lewis Ellenburg returns home after visiting the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. Saturday with the Honor Flight Tennessee Valley, but this time he didn't have any potatoes to throw.
With ammo gone, Ellenburg could only watch attack
Japanese planes were swarming over Pearl Harbor, killing Americans and destroying the U.S. Pacific fleet. At one point on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, all Navy seaman Lewis Ellenburg had to fight back with were potatoes.
U.S. Navy ships were ablaze from the surprise attack by Japanese aircraft. Waves of bombers pounded the ships and fighters buzzed over Pearl Harbor and Ford Island, shooting at sailors and soldiers.
"I was dressed in my Navy whites - my dress uniform - and headed to church that morning. I was waiting for the little boat that would take me ashore," said Ellenburg.
"Then the Japanese came. I didn't make it to church. They planes came in so low, maybe 30 or 40 feet over top of us, that you could see the writing on them."
The USS MacDonough had put into Pearl Harbor for overhaul and repairs. For safety reasons, there was little ammunition on the small destroyer, which was home to 200 sailors.
"We had some ammo for rifles and such, but nothing for the big guns. We shot back with what we had, but we ran out pretty quick."
Ellenburg's job was fire control. He directed the ship's guns to targets, but there was little to do because of the lack of ammunition.
At one point, Ellenburg and his shipmates noticed a tub of potatoes that had been left on the MacDonough's deck. "We started lobbing those up at the planes thinking the pilots might believe they were hand grenades.
"Then we ran out of those and we could do nothing but watch."