Sisters naval veteran was on Doolittle Raid in World War II

Harold O'Hara looks back to World War II. photo by Jim Mitchell Sisters veteran Harold O'Hara was a little young for World War II, but he didn't miss it. He was already in the Navy -- at the age of 15.

Born July 1, 1925, in a Brooklyn, New York, hospital, O'Hara was attending Brooklyn Tech when he decided, "I wanted to go into the Navy." He wanted to be a translator and go to "The Academy."

He celebrated his 16th birthday in U.S. Navy boot camp at Newport, Rhode Island.

"And that," he says, "Was the beginning of it."

But to get there he had to get his parents to sign for him since the minimum enlistment age was 17. He said with a chuckle, "They were very, very reluctant to do it. But I convinced them."

After boot camp, O'Hara attended Machinist Mate School in Detroit, Michigan, where he met Jean, his wife-to-be. War broke out on December 7, 1941. Before the year was out he was aboard ship and at sea.

O'Hara shipped out on the light cruiser USS Nashville (CL-43). In March, 1942, the Nashville escorted the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise through the Panama Canal to the West Coast.

On April 2, another aircraft carrier, the USS Hornet, loaded with sixteen B25 Bombers, and the Nashville sailed from San Francisco under sealed orders.

That afternoon the orders were opened -- The Hornet and the Nashville were to rendezvous with the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise and other escorting cruisers to launch the infamous Doolittle Raid.

O'Hara remembers, "At about 500 miles from Japan, Admiral Halsey left the destroyers and tankers behind for a high-speed run toward Japan. The attack group consisted of the Hornet, the Enterprise, the Nashville, and three heavy cruisers."

His first "baptism by fire" occurred on April 18. The attack force was spotted by a Japanese picket boat, which was sunk by scout planes from the Enterprise. The Nashville sank a second Japanese boat. Doolittle and Halsey decided to launch at that point.

O'Hara said, "After sinking the Japanese picket boat, we actually came around and picked up survivors. As far as I know these were the first prisoners of war of the campaign."

About this time O'Hara applied for the Navy Preparatory School. He said, "They found out my age one week before my 17th birthday. I went up before the Commander and he said, 'O'Hara, you're so close. I didn't see you today. I'll see you in a couple of weeks.' That is how I got to stay in the Navy."

From there, the Nashville went on to patrol the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. Stopping in Dutch Harbor for fuel and provisions, the Nashville sailed for Kodiak in heavy fog. According to O'Hara, a couple of hours later Japanese planes bombed Dutch Harbor but did not see the Nashville in the fog.

Leaving Alaska, the Nashville was dispatched to Guadalcanal, then started island-hopping in support of troop ships. O'Hara relates, "On January 5, 1943, while attacking the Japanese air base at Munda on New Georgia Island, the Nashville took a hit from shore batteries and lost 35 men."

O'Hara says he will always remember the day he was shipped back to the United States: "It was the day Franklin D. Roosevelt died -- April 12, 1945."

He had completed 41 months of continuous sea duty.

Then O'Hara had to confront his parents again. This time he needed their permission to marry Jean. May, 2005, will mark their 60th wedding anniversary.

Two weeks after his discharge from the Navy, O'Hara received a draft notice. Jean, his wife of five months, opened the letter and cried, "They can't do that to you!"

They didn't.

O'Hara produced his discharge papers to avoid getting drafted, for which he was now "of-age."