St. Cloud Times from Saint Cloud, Minnesota • Page 9

Dec. 5, 1986 Daily Times, St. Cloud, Minn. 1 SECTION Mary Phillips4B Older adults4B Religion news9B Harbor's forever night mare in. a- 1111 1 I y- I i i i a u- A ip 1 mmmmmmmmmmammmMin -iinirni I fcL-, -T r-m -'j to1 Homer Ostergaard Cook on USS Nevada Ambrose Feia Crewman on USS Oglala Survivors' memories stand still on Dec.

7 By MIKE NISTLER Timet Staff Writer Fluffy white clouds danced high above the Hawaiian Islands on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941. The temperature was 72 degrees shortly after sunrise and most people expected a hot, but beautiful Sunday. But for 11 Central Minnesota men, that day quickly turned into a nightmare. Sunday is the 45th anniversary of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, where 2,600 Americans were killed in a battle that marked the entry of the United States into World War II.

Following are the remembrances of some of those Central Minnesotans who were at Pearl Harbor that day. Dfl Ralph Krafnick, Route 7, St. Cloud, is the president of the Minnesota chapter of Survivors of Pearl Harbor. Even though he formed that organization so people would not forget Pearl Harbor, Krafnick, 69, doesn't want to remember the event too clearly himself. "I tell you, I have no urge to go back there," Krafnick said in a raspy voice.

Unlike Krafnick, many Pearl Harbor survivors will be returning to Hawaii this week to reminisce with old friends about the attack. Krafnick, a retired government worker, was a crewman on the USS New Orleans in 1941. Even though he has never returned to Pearl Harbor, he can remember the events of that day as if they happened five minutes ago. Krafnick, then a dark-haired, handsome man of 24, was on deck of the New Orleans in his red softball uniform. An accomplished athlete, Krafnick was warming up with his teammates for a game against the soldiers aboard the USS Utah.

"We always played in the morning because by afternoon it was too hot," Pearl December 7, 1 Ralph Krafnick Crewman on USS New Orleans he said. But the boys from the New Orleans and the Utah never played that game. At about 7:55 a.m. Japanese aircraft came snorting through the sky. "At first we thought it was another drill," Krafnick said.

"But when we saw the red meatballs on the wings, we knew we were in trouble." Krafnick remembers the bullets from the enemy planes ripping the wooden docks to shreds. The sound of bombs and torpedoes exploding in water could be heard from every direction. The invading aircraft flew so low that Krafnick could see the eyes of the Japanese pilots as they whizzed by. "We stood there frozen. We didn't know which way to go," he said.

Some soldiers grabbed pistols and fired at the low-flying planes. But there was little most could do but watch. There wasn't even a place to take shelter. "One thing you can't do on a ship is dig a foxhole," Krafnick said. RB Ambrose Feia, Sauk Rapids, was aboard the USS Oglala minutes before the Japanese attack.

Just before 8 a.m., Feia was on his way to a church service aboard the nearby USS Pennsylvania. Feia, 67, who is retired from the Veterans Administration Medical Center, and his comrades, had just arrived at the gangplank of the Pennsylvania when the attack began. Stanley Idzerda On USS West Virginia control center through the ventilation system's pipes. The ship began to list even more dramatically. "A mixture of fuel oil and sea water was above our waists," recalled Idzerda, St.

Joseph, professor of history at the College of St. Benedict. "We lost all phone communication with other damage control stations." "I came out of the tube (tunnel) about 8:45. On the deck of the bridge our captain lay dead, killed by a bomb fragment. The second wave of Japanese attackers was swarming over the harbor and their planes seemed to fill the sky." At about 8:55 a.m.

Idzerda walked off the steeply slanting deck and swam around the burning oil to where he was picked up by a rescue boat. He was admitted to a nearby naval hospital where he stayed until Dec. 9. "I left the hospital, as did nearly all the patients who were ambulatory, and went to Pearl Harbor. Smoke was still rising from the ruins of buildings and ships," said Idzerda who will return to Pearl Harbor this week for the anniversary.

The next day Idzerda joined the crew of the destroyer USS Drayton. "The next day the Drayton went out to sea, loaded with ammunition," Idzerda said. "We headed west." Bernard Williams Was near 'Battleship Row' floating up in the air. Well, the sparks were tracer bullets being fired. I heard the sound of aircraft overhead and, of course, thought that the Japs had returned.

Suddenly, all of the anti-aircraft guns in the harbor were blazing at the 'invaders' overhead." Williams, a retired funeral home director, and the other soldiers thought they finally had something to cheer about as planes began falling to the ground like winged fireballs. But to their horror, the men soon realized that the planes being shot down were American. The American pilots, in the confusion of the day, "had broken the cardinal rule that no planes were to fly over the harbor. And, naturally, our gunners shot them," Williams said. "I'm sure many of us cried." Stanley Idzerda, 66, an electrician's mate, was sound asleep in the bowels of the battleship USS West Virginia when he heard the clanging of an alarm.

Soon his commanding officer at the ship's main communications and damage control center ordered his troops to prepare for flooding. A torpedo had struck the ship, causing it to tilt slightly. Within the next half-hour four more torpedoes struck the ship. Crude oil from the ruptured fuel tanks began to flood the vessel's "When the bombers banked to leave we all saw the rising sun on the wings. We all said The "The next 20 minutes we would find out what war really was like.

The three of us immediately started back to the Oglala running from one shelter to another to avoid exploding bombs and flying shrapnel." Eventually the USS Oglala sank into the burning waters of the harbor. "Now we were without clothes, money, home or a place to eat. After the Oglala sank we found a motor launch and went out into the bay to pick up sailors swimming in the water which was burning from oil and debris. "The next weeks were not the best. We slept under barges and stood sentry over sunken ships.

We ate at any ship serving food. They gave us a folding cot, blanket, a set of dungarees and an automatic rifle." On Dec. 16, Feia was shipped out of Pearl Harbor on the USS San Francisco. "I often wonder who of the salvage crew got my $5 out of my locker on the USS Oglala," he said. Homer Ostergaard, 64, of 2718 Eighth St.

was a cook in the Navy during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. When the first squadron of enemy planes began to attack his ship, the USS Nevada, Ostergaard was dumping garbage overboard. "All hell broke loose," is the way Ostergaard describes that moment. The Japanese bombers were flying so low that one cook began throwing potatoes at the planes, said Ostergaard, who is able to laugh about the incident now. But 45 years ago it wasn't funny, he said, especially when he was assigned to carry the bodies of his dead buddies from the rubble.

There were 149 crew members killed on the Nevada, said Ostergaard, who escaped the attack unharmed. Today the only scars Ostergaard bears from his 35 years in the military are a large tatoo on his right arm and the remembrances of that day 45 years ago. nn The first indication Bernard Williams had of the attack was when he looked out the door to his quarters on a mobile naval hospital and saw a column of smoke rising above the island adjacent to "Battleship Row." Williams, 1272-13th Ave. and his fellow soldiers left the building they were in and took cover on a nearby hill. From that perch they watched the devastation delivered by the Japanese.

After the attack the soldiers began the monumental task of cleaning up the debris. That project went well into the night. After darkness fell, Williams said, "I noticed what I thought were sparks 0: Homer I Harbor ZT U.S.S. Nevada h. 941 uaa Ambrose Feia VCTstS 7L Middle LochjpLrl' u.s.s.oga yCILjyi I "vwwyf 2 yy U.S.S.NewOteans V.

'SEEdSC Ford Island 3, -XlV.