Interview with Russell Davenport 05/1/1988
1988.050
Creator
Pitts, Bill (Interviewer) [Recorded in Kansas City, Missouri]
Language
Transcript for this interview is available
Extent (quantity/size)
21 minutes
Subjects
Military / Oklahoma (Battleship) / Pearl Harbor (Hawaii), Attack on, 1941 / United States -- Armed Forces / World War, 1939-1945
Descriptive Notes
Russel Davenport was born on February 25, 1923. He enlisted in the US Navy in December 1940 in the town of Bluefield, West Virginia. He served on board the USS Oklahoma. Davenport describes his time in boot camp and on the Oklahoma. He also recounts the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Davenport describes the experience of the torpedoes hitting the Oklahoma, and seeing his shipmates killed in the attack. He was forced to flee to the bottom deck of the capsized ship, and was rescued through the bottom hull. He was the last man out of the bottom of the ship.