[QuadList] Fwd: Stuff "Interesting facts on our history"-Quad tape and the USS Arizona

Tue Jun 21 00:20:13 CDT 2011

Hi, George,

I hadn't.  As some folks on the list know, my dad Joe Langdell was one of 50 Ensigns assigned to the Arizona and was the one detached temporarily for duty with the Fleet Camera Party several months before the attack.

Otherwise he'd have literally gone up in smoke. His battle station was in the bowels of the Number Two gun 14" gun turret, down by the powder magazine that was ignited by a Japanese bomb that penetrated several decks and blew up by the powder.

He's 96 heading for 97 on Columbus Day this year, and expects to be back in Pearl this coming December for the 70th anniversary of the attack.  He may be the only surviving officer from the ship still living, at least according to USS Arizona Reunion Association historian's records.

To connect the USS Arizona and Quad Videotape—

The man who became the ranking surviving officer during the attack—Lt. Commander Samuel G. Fuqua—was honored in an NBC-TV broadcast on Dec. 3, 1958, when Ralph Edwards' "This Is Your Life" took Ampex Quads and IO cameras to Pearl and put together a program that was recorded live to tape.

There are kinescopes I've seen of the broadcast, but this clip at archive.org is from tape:

http://ia600502.us.archive.org/7/items/this_is_your_life_samuel_g_fuqua/this_is_your_life_samuel_g_fuqua.avi
Also on YouTube, here:
http://thefilmarchived.blogspot.com/2011/02/this-is-your-life-rear-admiral-samuel-g.html

Ampex is credited by Ralph Edwards at the end of the broadcast.  The show's end credits list Mort Lewis and Paul Phillips as the editors... but I can't say whether that was for writing or audiovisual editing.

Joe Conn was the TD. Lighting by Bud Wilkins, Audio by Bob Jensen, Video by Stan Saueressig. Credits fade before they finish, so I can't tell you whether there were credits for videotape operators.

Several of the people you'll see in the video are (or were) USS Arizona Reunion Association members. I've met a number of them and/or interviewed them.

If anyone on the list is interested in attending the Pearl Harbor 70th Anniversary as part of the USS Arizona Reunion Association's group, please let me know off list by clicking here:
webmaster at ussarizonareunion.org with subject "QuadMember-Pearl Harbor Trip.

We'll get you information on the itinerary, costs, etc.

Thanks for the rewind well before 1956!

Ted

On Jun 20, 2011, at 8:25 AM, george keller wrote:

> Ted,
>  
> Thought you might like to see this, if you haven't already.
>  
> George Keller
> 
> 
> Sent: Sun, Jun 19, 2011 10:38 pm
> Subject: Stuff "Interesting facts on our history"
> 
> Pearl Harbor: A Very interesting observation and perspective on our history
> Chester Nimitz Junior, (son of WW2 Fleet Admiral Nimitz) himself a rear Admiral, became President of The Perkin-Elmer Corporation upon retiring from the Navy and my boss at our home offices in Norwalk, CT. Cursed like the salty sailor he was and told tall tales about getting busted for drag-racing his Nuclear Submarine at maximum speed against other U.S. and British submarines on the Thames River giving the very proper British Navy fits. I shuddered every time I had to bring a female scientist client in to meet him.
> His Naval career in subs was served totally in the absence of the fairer sex, and I never knew what was
> going to come out of his mouth next. A great Boss who always treated me right and sent me a glowing
> letter of commendation which I still cherish. Wish we had more like him now!
> Spence
>  
>  
>  
>  Very interesting observation!
> Tour boats ferry people out to the USS  Arizona Memorial in  Hawaii every thirty minutes.  We just  missed a ferry and had to wait thirty minutes.  I went into a  small gift shop to kill time.  In the gift shop, I purchased  a small book entitled, "Reflections on  Pearl Harbor " by Admiral  Chester Nimitz.
>  
>  Sunday,  December 7th, 1941--Admiral Chester Nimitz was attending a concert  in  Washington  D.C.    He was paged and told there was a phone  call for him.  When he answered the phone, it was President  Franklin Delano Roosevelt on the phone.  He told Admiral  Nimitz that he (Nimitz) would now be the Commander of the Pacific  Fleet.
>  
>  Admiral  Nimitz flew to  Hawaii to assume command of the Pacific  Fleet.  He landed at  Pearl Harbor on Christmas Eve,  1941.  There was such a spirit of despair, dejection and  defeat--you would have thought the Japanese had already won the  war.  On Christmas Day, 1941, Adm. Nimitz was given a boat  tour of the destruction wrought on  Pearl Harbor by the  Japanese.  Big sunken battleships and navy vessels  cluttered the waters every where you looked. As the tour boat  returned to dock, the young helmsman of the boat asked, "Well  Admiral, what do you think after seeing all this  destruction?"  Admiral Nimitz's reply shocked everyone within  the sound of his voice.  Admiral Nimitz said, "The Japanese  made three of the biggest mistakes an attack force could ever make  or God was taking care of  America .  Which do you think it  was?"  Shocked and surprised, the young helmsman asked, "What  do mean by saying the Japanese made the three biggest mistakes an  attack force ever made?"
>  
>  Nimitz  explained.  Mistake number one: the Japanese attacked on  Sunday morning. Nine out of every ten crewmen of those ships were  ashore on leave. If those same ships had been lured to sea and  been sunk--we would have lost 38,000 men instead of  3,800. 
>  
>   Mistake number two: when the  Japanese saw all those battleships lined in a row, they got so  carried away sinking those battleships, they never once bombed our  dry docks opposite those ships.  If they had destroyed our dry docks, we  would have had to tow everyone of those ships to  America to be  repaired.  As it is now, the ships are in shallow water and  can be raised. One tug can pull them over to the dry docks, and we  can have them repaired and at sea by the time we could have towed  them to  America . And I already have crews ashore anxious to man  those ships. 
>  
>  Mistake number three: every drop of fuel  in the Pacific theater of war is in top of the ground storage  tanks five miles away over that hill.  One attack plane could  have strafed those tanks and destroyed our fuel supply.   That's why I say the Japanese made three of the biggest mistakes  an attack force could make or God was taking care of America .  
>  
>  I've never  forgotten what I read in that little book.  It is still an  inspiration as I reflect upon it. In jest, I might suggest that  because Admiral Nimitz was a Texan, born and raised in   Fredricksburg ,  Texas --he was a born optimist.  But anyway  you look at it--Admiral Nimitz was able to see a silver lining in  a situation and circumstance where everyone else saw only despair  and defeatism. President Roosevelt had chosen the right man for  the right job.  We desperately needed a leader that could see  silver linings in the midst of the clouds of dejection, despair  and defeat.
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Ted Langdell
Secretary
Skype: 	TedLangdell
e-mail:	ted at quadvideotapegroup.com

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