The Silver Waterfall

by Kevin Miller

Iverson lifted his hand to shield his eyes. “Lifer, then, aren’t you?”

  “Yeah, guess I am. Heaven help me.”

  Chapter 45

  Naval Hospital Pearl Harbor, 1910 June 14, 1942

  “Ma’am, may I please visit Lloyd F. Childers, Aviation Radioman Third?”

  Wayne Childers twisted his blue Dixie cup hat in his hands and waited for the answer from the nurse, a full lieutenant by the braid on her cap.

  From her desk she studied him with disdain: With that chevron on his shoulder he should know better. His wrinkled chambray shirt was unsat, and filthy dungarees were never appropriate for visitors. Besides, weekend visiting hours were over. Lights-out for the patients was in an hour.

  “Sailor, you are not in the proper uniform of the day. Vistors must be, even on the weekends.”

  “Ma’am, I’m sorry, but my uniforms are…”

  Wayne caught himself. The fact that his uniforms rested on the bottom of the ocean could be classified. What he wore when he abandoned Yorktown was all he had until he could draw a set of crackerjacks from Base Supply. They had told him to come back Monday morning…payday. Hundreds of his shipmates would storm the place along with everyone else on the island, and he hoped the chief would allow him to be in line when the doors opened.

  The lieutenant eyed him. She looked older, like she was somebody’s mother. No, what husband would have her?

  “Ma’am, I arrived here a few days ago…these dungarees are all I have.”

  “Where’s your sea bag?” she snapped.

  Wayne swallowed. It’s never easy with officers.

  “Ma’am, I don’t have it, but my brother Lloyd was – is – my shipmate. I learned he was here two days ago, and this is my first chance to get a ride over here.”

  “Where are you now?”

  “Ewa Beach, ma’am.”

  The lieutenant seemed to soften.

  “You are the brother and shipmate of Radioman Childers?”

  “Yes, ma’am. Our mother is Marie Childers, from Norman, Oklahoma. Is Lloyd, I mean, Radioman Childers, okay?”

  Now realizing why Wayne was in his unkempt dungarees, she looked at her watch.

  “Okay, just this once I’m going to allow this. You have fifty minutes to visit. You are to keep your voice low, and if you don’t, I’ll remove you. And do not touch him.”

  “Is he okay?”

  “Your hands and uniform are dirty, and I will not allow infection.”

  Concerned that she’d change her mind, Wayne nodded his understanding. “Yes, ma’am. I won’t, ma’am. I promise. Don’t want him sick.”

  “Or anybody else.”

  “No, ma’am. Nobody else.”

  She rose and motioned for him to follow her down the hallway. Ahead of them, a nurse in her white uniform wrote on a chart that hung from a door. Wayne’s eyes were drawn to her white stockings, and, when he noticed her noticing him admire her, he turned red. A pretty one, she smiled and looked away. Wayne guessed she had plenty of suitors on the island; a lowly Aviation Machinist Third like him had no chance. Besides, nurses were considered equal to officers. Off limits.

  The lieutenant turned down another hallway. Through open doors Wayne saw men – like him – with darkened faces and bandaged limbs. Some had lost hands or feet. Others were burned and disfigured. For life. Was this Lloyd’s fate?

  As fear built inside, Wayne lagged behind. The lieutenant noticed and, under her breath, she snapped, “Keep up!” Wayne matched her pace and kept his eyes forward as the echo of her thick heels thundered off the passageway bulkhead. When they got to a wide opening, she stopped and turned to him.

  “Sailor, if you gawk at your shipmates again, I will take you out of here by your ear.”

  Wayne was as scared now as when Yorktown was attacked the first time, as scared as when he was sent to the principal’s office for a paddling in fourth grade. His eyes bulged wide in fear.

  “No. More. Chances!” she hissed.

  “I’m sorry, ma’am. I won’t… I’m sorry,” Wayne answered, his heart pounding loud enough for her to hear it.

  Leading him into an open bay ward, she strode among the beds as nurses administered to the patients. Some of the beds had curtains drawn around them. Now terrified of the lead nurse, Wayne refused to look at anything besides the back of her head.

  The lieutenant stopped in front of a drawn curtain and peeked inside. She closed it and turned back to Wayne.

  “Forty-five minutes,” she said in a whisper. “Absolutely no touching of any kind. If you are done sooner, ask a nurse to escort you out.”

  “Yes, sir, I mean ma’am, ma’am, thank you. Thank you, ma’am.”

  The nurse sneered dismissively at Wayne as he shuddered. She then opened the curtain and said, “You have a visitor.”

  After another long moment, she opened the curtain wider and motioned for Wayne to enter.

  Lloyd Childers smiled at his brother as he lay propped up in bed with a paperback novel.

  “Hi, Wayne. How are you?”

  “Hey, Lloyd,” Wayne whispered. He stood at the foot of the bed as the nurse pulled the curtain closed behind him.

  They looked at each other, each of them who had feared the worst about the other days ago. Wayne was careful not to touch anything, but as he gazed upon his brother, he realized the man in the bed wasn’t an apparition. It was really Lloyd.

  “When did you get here?” they asked each other at the same time.

  Lloyd chuckled. “You go first.”

  Wayne nodded. “I got here last Monday, the eighth. Over a thousand of us were on the tender USS Fulton. I was on the Portland first; they fished me out of the water.”

  “You were in the water?”

  “Yeah, most all of us were, including the captain! They had to lower the admiral to a whale boat, but after the second attack everyone thought she was gonna capsize…”

  “Second attack?” Lloyd was puzzled.

  “Yeah, the first attack was dive-bombers. One of them blew out the uptakes and snuffed out our boilers. We were dead in the water – and that’s when you came by! I saw ya when Mister Corl flew past on our port side. I ran the whole length of the flight deck wavin’ at you and you didn’ wave back. I like to died thinkin’ I’d have to tell mother.”

  “And then you were attacked after that?”

  “Yeah, about two hours later, after we got the boilers re-lit. We could only get about fifteen knots, though, and SOBs got us with torpedoes.”

  Lloyd thought back to that morning as he and Harry flew with the CO into a tornado of swirling Japanese lead. Toward a carrier. He didn’t even know if they hit it.”

  “Torpedo planes got through?”

  “Yeah, and we launched the VF as the Japs were in their runs. Lloyd, I’m tellin’ ya, it was so loud… You ain’t never heard thunder on the plains like that, and it was constant. I mean every gun in the task force was firing at the Nips until their barrels glowed red, and they still got through.”

  Lloyd nodded, processing it.

  “Two fish hit us port side amidships, one after another. The first one knocked me down, the ship shook so bad. It was like a hound dog shakin’ a bone, and we were the bone. The next one slammed me into the bulkhead just as I got to my feet. Within a minute, the deck starts to slant, and then the chief told everyone to get into the hangar bay.”

  Lloyd listened as his brother related the action. They hit us…because we didn’t hit them.

  “An’ not long after that the word came down to abandon. Now, I don’ know what I was thinkin’ but I was near our berthing, and I wanted to fetch my wallet cuz I had a lot of cash. So, with the deck at a pretty sharp angle, I went down there and got it. The whole time I was thinking, Please don’t roll on me. Please don’t roll.”

  Lloyd shook his head. “All for a few dollars?”

  “It was a hun’nerd and eighty-five bucks! I won it playing cards two nights before with the VF mechs! I had to get it!”


  “So you got your wallet?”

  “Yes, and I scrambled out of there as fast as I could. Another fella in Bombing Three was doin’ the same thing, and we went over the side by the aft elevator. She was listing steep, an’ we had to kind of scamper and cross the deck on all fours. Down the nets, and we swam to a whaleboat from Portland that stood off a piece. You know, the water was warmer than I had expected – like Hawaii water.”

  “Didja get mine?”

  Wayne looked at his brother. “Yer what?”

  Lloyd sensed he knew the answer. “My wallet in the locker next to yours. Did you think to get mine?”

  “Ah, sorry. No time. There was no time to…”

  Lloyd shook his head. “Well, at least I know where it is.”

  Wayne laughed and caught himself. He nodded to the curtain and lowered his voice. “Lieutenant Broom Hilda said no laughing.”

  Imagining the nurse admonishing him, Lloyd chuckled. As he did, he grimaced in pain.

  Wayne reached toward him before catching himself. “Lloyd, you hurt bad? You…still have everything?”

  “Yeah. They shot up my legs pretty good, and I lost a lot of blood. Took one round on my right ankle that hurt like the blazes.”

  Wayne felt embarrassed that he had talked so much. He had abandoned a sinking carrier, but suspected his brother had a better sea story to tell. “Lloyd, what happened out there?” Wayne waited for his brother to answer. With a faraway look in his eyes, Lloyd tried to put it into words.

  “We found them north of us on the way out and turned toward them. The Zeros attacked as soon as we did. The VF couldn’t keep up with them, and there must’ve been twenty at least. We were constantly shooting, shooting guys shooting at us, shooting guys off each other’s tails…” Lloyd thought of Darce. You owe me, Okie.

  Patient, Wayne waited for him to continue.

  “We crossed their screen, and it was gunfire everywhere. We lost some guys… One exploded off our right wing.”

  “Did you see the CO get it?”

  Lloyd nodded. “He was right next to us. I think he was dead cuz the plane went down easy, on fire from the engine underside. We flew right by the splash.” The chief. He knew…

  Wayne nodded, imagining the terrible scene. He was afraid to hear more, yet wanted to.

  “Harry said we weren’t gonna make it, and when he said that, I got real scared. I mean, I had just turned twenty-one an’ all…and it’s over? In the back of a TBD, out in the middle of nowhere?”

  “Did you drop?”

  Lloyd shook his head. “I honestly don’t know, and if we did, I don’t remember. We may have. Wayne, they were everywhere. At one point, I stood up in my seat with my damn leg over the side so I could fire down at a guy that was just waiting to execute us. That’s when a bullet clipped me and I swear I almost jumped out of the airplane. Hurt like a sonofabitch.”

  “Holy cow…”

  “And then I ran out of ammo – and they were still comin’.”

  Riveted, Wayne probed further. “Holy Toledo. Wha’d you do?”

  Lloyd hesitated as he gathered his thoughts. The fire, the fear, men struggling to jump clear of their burning planes. No hope of survival. We’re not gonna make it!

  “I took out my .45 and placed it on my gun so I could use the sight. When a Jap got in range, I squeezed off some rounds.”

  “With your pistol! Did you hit one?” Wayne asked.

  “You know, I think I did! But I don’t think anyone saw me. The damn fighter pilots get confirmations cuz they have cameras in their planes to prove it. All I have is my word, the word of a shot-up Radioman.”

  “Wow, Lloyd. Where did you land? What ship?”

  “What ship is right! We didn’t land on anything, we ditched next to a tin can. Good thing they had a doctor aboard. A surgeon, and not just a Pharmacist Mate. He did surgery on my legs to stop the bleedin’.”

  Wayne was speechless.

  “I saw her go down, too.”

  “Yorktown?”

  Lloyd brought his finger to his mouth. “Shhhh. Yes. A Jap sub torpedoed her, and we ran off to give chase. Those depth charges rumble and shake the ship like a rogue wave when they go off. They said the sub got away, and we went back to attend Yorktown. She floated through the night even after taking another fish. They took me to a porthole to watch her as she rolled over at dawn.”

  Lloyd paused and looked into his brother’s eyes. “Best not repeat that.”

  “Did she capsize?”

  “Kind of. Rested on her port side and sank. You could see the torpedo hole. The stern went and the bow lifted up a bit. Then she was gone.”

  “Wow!”

  “With my wallet, you jerk!”

  “Sorry! I’ll get you a new one!” Wayne said with a smile, the break in the tension a welcome relief.

  “Don’t want no rawhide billfold either. I want tanned leather like from home!”

  “Okay, okay. I owe ya.”

  At that, Lloyd thought again of Darce. You owe me…

  He then turned serious. “Wayne, who else made it? Any word on that?”

  “Who else?”

  “Yeah, the gunners. Brazier was with Chief Esders, I saw him on the way back. But how about the other guys. Darce said I owe him. Did he make it?”

  Wayne could only look down. “I’m sorry, Lloyd. He didn’t.”

  Lloyd nodded. It was too much to ask. The tough Cajun had saved him, but when? How? He’d have to wait till they met in heaven to ask.

  “Darn. He was a tough cuss. Sure wish we could have talked about that attack. How about the others?”

  Wayne looked at his brother and said nothing. Lloyd waited for an answer, now uncomfortable at Wayne’s silence.

  Finally, Wayne spoke. “None of them, Lloyd.”

  Lloyd lay there, unable to comprehend. “None? No, Brazier was with us on the way home.”

  “He didn’t make it.”

  Lloyd blinked hard as he faced the ceiling, still trying to grasp it. “No one else? Am I the only gunner who made it?”

  “Yes, no one else. You are the only surviving gunner. Mister Corl and Chief Esders also made it. You three are the only ones.”

  Lloyd Childers opened his mouth to protest. To question, to cry.

  “The only one? Me?” His eyes welled up.

  “Yes, brother, and as much as I miss the others, I’m so glad God spared you.” Wayne’s chin quaked as his eyes watered.

  Repressed emotions rose to the surface, emotions that had built since that terrible morning, his birthday. He had sensed this truth, but hearing it now with finality – No others! – unleashed a volcano of sorrow he could no longer control. Without warning, he burst into tears, his body wracked by waves of grief at the memories of each of his mates. And questions.

  Why me? Why did I live and they didn’t? Why did you spare me, God? And guilt. Did I miss the Jap that got Darce? Am I to blame?

  Standing next to him, Wayne broke down, too. “I’m so sorry, Lloyd. They were good fellows…”

  Through his sobs, Lloyd choked out his words. “Barkley…Barkley was a good Christian fella. He hoped to live to see…to see…”

  Their boyhoods left out there, both men wept as one struggled with the news while the other watched him struggle. All of them dead, boys who would never know, with no markers for family to visit or signify they ever lived, each with stories of bravery and service in that dogged formation that flew into that hellish fire in those rickety planes that would never be told. Until they met in heaven, and only if any of their saved souls cared to hear of it. Would any of it matter then? Eye has not seen, and ear has not heard…

  Outside, swaying palm fronds caressed the window screens. The scent of sweet plumeria – mixed with the pungent odor of fuel oil floating on the harbor waters – wafted into the open bay. Tears streaked the faces of two brothers, their bodies heaving as they held each other against the rules, not knowing why God took the others and not them, not knowing how to
give thanks or for what.

  Far from their home and the red soil of Oklahoma, but home.

  Epilogue

  After Midway, the Imperial Japanese Navy remained superior to the United States Navy in every ship class, but it never recovered from the loss of four frontline carriers and the men who operated what was arguably the most powerful and lethal military weapons system at the time.

  For the remainder of 1942, the two bloodied navies escalated their deadly war of attrition in the South Pacific, with Japan offering battle with her carriers two months later – as if Midway was little more than a setback. Tenacious and then suicidal, Japan resisted for three more years in the face of overwhelming and finally mind-boggling firepower until Emperor Hirohito commanded the Japanese military and society to surrender and cooperate with the Allies. His sole condition of surrender was that he remain on the Chrysanthemum Throne.

  In Europe, in large part due to the fact that Japan was neutralized at Midway, Americans landed and engaged Rommel in North Africa, and the Soviets held in the east against a German Luftwaffe stretched to the limit. First up through Italy and then from across the Channel, the Allies repatriated Germany’s occupied territories and eventually met the Soviets on German soil, victorious.

  Though far from ignored, the Battle of Midway did not receive due reverence by the U.S. Navy until 1999, when Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Jay Johnson decreed that the battle be celebrated annually on June 4th, as the Navy also celebrates its birthday each October 13th.

  Today, Midway Atoll is administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service. Closed to the public, a modest memorial to the battle exists on Sand Island. Even more inaccessible, the desolate waters to the north and west of Midway – above the dark resting places of seven ships – roll eternal. Only lines on a chart and accounts passed down through the generations commemorate what happened there.

  Afterword

  John Paul Adams

  Awarded the Navy Cross for his actions at Midway, to go with his other Navy Cross from the Coral Sea battle. After instructor duty, fights again in the Pacific with VF-88 aboard the new Yorktown (CV-10).