Francis Clark Wotring

(Disclaimer: To the best of our knowledge, the information provided in this oral history interview is accurate. We do not make any representation or warranty as to the accuracy or completeness of the information.)

Oral Interview with Francis Clark Wotring
Conducted by Dan Hartman, Veterans’ Memorial Hall Program, St. Louis County Historical Society
Recording Date: 2010
Recording Place: Silver Bay Veterans’ Home
Transcriber: Susan Schwanekamp, St. Louis County Historical Society
Transcription process funded by a grant from the Lloyd K. Johnson Foundation

DH: We will begin an oral interview with Frank. And Francis is your formal name. What’s your middle name?
FW: Clark
DH: And how do you pronounce your last name?

FW: Wotring. You pronounce the “o” like an “a”.
DH: And how do you spell it?

FW: W – O – T – R – I – N – G.
DH: And you were a veteran of what war?
FW: World War II.
DH: And what branch did you serve in?
FW: I was Chief Machinist’s Mate.
DH: Where were you born?
FW: Hibbing, Minnesota.
DH: What year? FW: 1917. May.
DH: And your parents – were they from Hibbing?
FW: My mother was from Duluth. My Dad was from Michigan.
DH: What was your mother’s name?
FW: Mabel May Flicks (??) – her maiden name. Is that what you want?

DH: Yep. And did she grow up in Duluth?
FW: She grew up in Duluth.
DH: And do you know what ethnic background was your mother? Was she Swedish or was she German or….?

FW: German.
DH: And how about your father?

FW: Same. French-German. That was on both sides.
DH: So, you yourself are French-German as well, then. And so how long did you live in Hibbing?

FW: Not very long. What happened was my Mom and Dad got married, had me, World War I came along and Dad tried to enlist and they found out he had TB – tuberculosis. So he couldn’t…of course he was rejected. And he also lost his job and without a job, with a new baby and a new wife, they packed up and moved back to his home, which was Aitkin, Minnesota.
DH: And did he find a job in Aitkin?
FW: Yeah, when he got back to McGregor – you’ve got to give me time to think.
DH: No problem.
FW: I can’t remember which came first…
DH: Do you remember what jobs he had (while you were) growing up, in general?

FW: He – just hold on a minute - I don’t know. I can’t remember. My memory has failed and…
DH: Well, I’ll skip ahead. Don’t worry about it. So you grew up in Aitkin, right? And moved to Hibbing later?
FW: Yeah. He was a state mine inspector when he married.
DH: In Hibbing? And was that in Hibbing?
FW: That’s when he married.
DH: And so, when he moved back, when you were growing up in Aitkin…….
FW: I didn’t grow up in Aitkin. My father came from Aitkin.
FW: And when he lost his job – he was state mine inspector – and when he lost his job they moved back to Aitkin because my grandmother was still in residence there and I don’t know how long after that they brought property on Big Sandy Lake. And my Dad went into real estate. Handling real estate.
DH: Okay. And so – what did you do for fun in McGregor?
Did you swim a lot? Did you…
FW: I swam a lot. We ran a summer resort, so swimming was one big item.
DH: Did you play any sports? Did you play baseball?

FW: I played some. But while everyone else was enjoying themselves playing baseball, I was helping clean boats.
DH: Okay.
FW: See, we had a summer resort.
DH: So you worked a lot.
FW: Yeah. I worked ever since I was a kid.
DH: What was the name of the resort you worked at?

FW: Wotring’s.
DH: What?
FW: Wotring’s.
DH: Makes sense.
FW: View Point. View Point Resort. Wotring’s View Point Resort.
DH: Did you enjoy that?

FW: Oh yes. And then – when I graduated……It’s embarrassing for me – memory lapses. I’m 93 years old, and that’s my excuse!

DH: It’s a good excuse.
FW: And my memory is going. When I graduated from high school…
DH: OK. What did you do after graduation?

FW: I worked in the woods. Worked for____ longer – cutting railroad ties. Then I decided to go in the service. I went in the Navy.
DH: Why did you choose the Navy?

FW: I don’t know. But the war was on _____romantic… and a chance to see more of the world. And so I joined the Navy.
DH: Are you happy that you did?

FW: Well, I guess so. A lot of people aren’t happy, but I still am.
DH: Where did you enlist at?

FW: I enlisted in Duluth.
DH: Did you join the Navy Reserve or the active Navy?

FW: Active.
DH: Do you remember where in Duluth you went to, to enlist?

FW: Federal Building.
DH: What year did you enlist?

FW: 1936.
DH: What made you want to enlist so early?

FW: What?

DH: You were enlisted very early. Why did you want to…was it kind of more of a job to you? What made you want to enlist?

FW: I don’t understand your question.
DH: Why did you join the Navy?
FW: Why?

DH: Yep.
FW: The romance and the travel.
DH: OK. Did you get to travel right away?

FW: Well, at first I went to Chicago, Illinois, and I went through training – boot camp – at Great Lakes, Illinois.
DH: How was it?

FW: That’s kind of a toughie. I don’t know how to interpret it.
DH: Well – I guess – what did you do, for training?

FW: (Laughter) Mostly march and learn how to take orders. You learn regimentation, mostly. And after boot camp, you’re trained. You get what they call “boot leave”, and after that you come back and you’re assigned to a ship. I was assigned to the West Virginia battleship.
DH: Were you proud to be part of the West Virginia crew?
FW: What’s that?

DH: Were you happy to be assigned to the West Virginia?

FW: Oh yeah, I was.
DH: Good. And when did you first get on the West Virginia? When did you first get on the boat, the West Virginia?
FW: I’ve got to try to remember. I think it was in Seattle, Washington.
DH: Did you get to spend any time in Seattle?

FW: Oh yeah. My aunt, she was teaching college there. She was teaching at St. Nicholas. And of course, she had a car and she drove me around. We’d sightsee and stuff like that.
DH: What was your favorite part of Seattle?
FW: Huh?
DH: What was your favorite part of Seattle?
FW: Of Seattle?

DH: Yeah.
FW: I think that being so far away from home, having never been away from home before, was probably the biggest thing. And then the scenery – the beauty of the place. It was along Puget Sound and it was a beautiful place.
DH: And how often – when did you go on your first cruise? On the West Virginia at sea, and how was that?

FW: I think ……I’m not sure.
DH: So tell me a little bit about, I guess, your service on the West Virginia.
FW: Well, I - I guess these bell wagons (??), with their large crews – they were big on athletics. And I wanted ….that was one thing that I was keen on, was getting into the athletic field. And it was a good opportunity and I took advantage. But at the same time, all of a sudden I found myself on mess cooking.
DH: OK.
FW: And – which was a dead end proposition. It kept you from obtaining the advancement in your grading. And when I finally woke up to what was happening I was – I wasn’t getting any place as far as advancement and grading and so forth. As soon as I woke up to what was going on I put in for a transfer. And so I wanted a way to get away from it. And I got transferred to a destroyer and they were stationed in San Diego. And almost immediately after I got on it they went to Hawaii. And we were housed at Hawaii on a ship underway, the helm, that morning when the Japanese bombed. And by the way we were the only ship underway. Underway constitutes we had no ties – we weren’t moored to a dock, we weren’t anchored, and we had the engines running. I was on the phones in the engine room. And the Japanese bombed us and like I say, we were the only ship underway. While we were underway we were going to demagnetize the hull. And that was to compensate for the magnetic mines. And we were waiting for a submarine to get away from- they call it the “deperm” –the deperming (???) station so we could go alongside. And that was to go alongside this depermo, which is demagnetized, and they do it one ship at a time. And still, we went out there, the Japanese took care of that for us. They started bombing us and they put two bombs so close to our bow they caved us in and we had to go back to states after they steered up – we went back to states and had a new bow put on.
DH: So they actually attacked your boat?

FW: They actually attacked Pearl Harbor. And the ships that were in the harbor naturally were targeted.
DH: Was the West Virginia targeted? Was your boat targeted?

FW: It was among the ships that were being targeted (at Pearl Harbor). But they didn’t pick on us, special.
DH: OK. Did everyone on your ship remain safe, or…
FW: Huh?

DH: Was everyone on your ship safe? Was no one hurt?

FW: Well, nobody got killed, no.
DH: Good. And how long were you in Hawaii, before you went back to the States to get repaired?
FW: Well, not very long. About a week or a little better than that they had a summary of all the damages that the Japs had done, on the ships that needed to go back to the States. And we were in the group that had to go back. So they sent us back, got a new bow, and a convoy was going – things were starting to move, and a convoy going to Hawaii, because, with this convoy, it picked up another convoy, and it ended up in the Philippines.
DH: Ah. Now, before we get too far, what else do you remember about Pearl Harbor? I mean about the December 7th attack? Do you remember hearing the planes at all?
FW: I should show you one of my books. I wrote a book about it.
DH: I would be very interested in that. Do you remember the planes at all?

FW: Oh yeah. I sure do. Being underway – as I told you, we were the only ship underway. I was in the engine room on my special sea detail. And they started dropping bombs and you could hear karrumpf, karrumpf, karrumpf, and a fellow and I looked at each other – and he said what the hell was this? And I said the Japs - they’re having practice. Well, pretty soon a messenger came down into the engine room with an official order and his eyes were that big around – he says “we’re getting bombed”. And said that the airplanes had big red circles on them. Well, big red circles on airplanes – that was automatically Japanese. So the military (??) details took over. Someone else relieved me on the phone. I went topside and started making ________ exposures. (??) And after things quieted down and the Japs left we had soldier ships all over the place.
DH: How long…? I know you said “How long before you went back to the States?”

FW: About two weeks.
DH: OK. How long did the attack last?

FW: I don’t know. I’d have to get some kind of a record on it.
DH: How long did it feel like it lasted, to you?

FW: Huh?

DH: How long did it last, to you? Was it like a half-hour, was it a couple hours? The Japanese attacking.
Was it a half a day?

FW: Well, it lasted awhile. We had ships attacking us and we had airships actually after I got out of the engine room, off the phone, I went topside and started making these wartime ___s. And at the same time we were getting zoomed, we were getting dive bombed, and that’s when we got our bow caved in. We were – it was about two weeks until they sent us back to States.

DH: OK. And you said there were a lot of sunken ships around you when you got out?

FW: What?

DH: There were a lot of sunken ships around you?

FW: Oh, yeah. They were in the harbor.

DH: Can you describe the scene at all? What did it look like?

FW: Well obviously, devastation. But, I’m trying to think of words that would describe it. Best describe it. I don’t know, I think that the descriptives have been used for those same circumstances (??) more than cover anything I can add.

DH: OK. And sorry to ask you so many questions, but it’s rare to meet and listen to a Pearl Harbor survivor.

FW: Thank you.

DH: Is there anything else you want to mention about the Japanese attack?

FW: No, I don’t know of anything. Of course we had no …we didn’t know where all the ships were coming from, but we found out, afterwards. Do you want to turn that thing off for a little bit?

DH: So you’re back to the station, now.
FW: Yeah, we were back to the station. And in a convoy to lead all the way back to Hawaii, and kept on going. We were …..
DH: And you said you went to the Philippines, earlier.
FY: Yeah, we were in the Philippines, and Australia.
DH: And tell me – what were you doing? Were you just driving along protecting ships, or…?

FW: We were doing convoy work and we were doing, we were doing…I’m trying to remember what we were doing. I think you waited about 30 years too long for your questions!

DH: So, tell me a little more about the Philippines, I guess. Do you remember that at all? Or Australia?

FW: I remember quite a bit about the Philippines, because, you see, before WWII, I was stationed out in the Philippines, so I got a chance, first hand, to know the country.
DH: Was it different when you came back during the war?

FW: What’s this?

DH: Was it different after the war than it was before?

FW: Are you referring to…?

DH: After Hawaii, you went to the Philippines. Do you remember how long you stayed in the Philippines?

FW: We were operating out of there, so it’s hard for me to pin anything down as far as time lapse, or…
OK. And where did you go from there? Were you there…..?

FW: No, I can’t remember.
DH: OK. What do you remember about the Philippines? Was it a beautiful place? Was it….?

FW: Hot. Mosquitos.
DH: Worse than here?
FW: We were …..
DH: Were you being attacked, while you were in the Philippines, by the Japanese, still? Or were you pretty…?

FW: Oh yeah, we were attacked. And we attacked them. I think you might as well shut that off, for now.
DH: We could talk about something else in WWII. Where else did you go, in WWII, in general? They don’t have to be in order. Is there a certain thing you remember about WWII?

FW: What’s this?

DH: What else do you remember about your service in WWII?

FW: We did a lot of convoy duty, and we had several engagements. Attacks, you know, and counterattacks. I can’t remember specifics, right now.
DH: That’s OK. You can just talk vaguely, if you want. Whatever you do remember.
DH: So, when you’re – what does convoy duty mean? What was the ship doing?
FW: You’ve got a bunch of merchant ships that are carrying their cargo. Now, whether it’s ammunition, or supplies, and food, repair parts – whole thing. So then to protect these ships, they put in the war ships that are designed to – designed for military use. They’ve got several different calibers of guns. They’ve got everything from the main battery to the anti-aircraft. And they will be stationed intermittently throughout your convoy. And they do the protection work.
DH: What was your – is there a certain story or memorable moment, that you remember from WWII that you think would be good to have on the record?

FW: I’ve got a lot of them – memorable ones, but to pick up any one of them – would be pretty hard. I mean, just spur of the moment.
DH: I think that probably will be good. OK. Well, thank you for doing an interview with me, today.
FW: Well, I didn’t do much.
DH: Well, you actually did about 45 minutes worth. So. Thank you and it’s an honor to meet a Pearl Harbor survivor.

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