Interview with T. L. Conner [7/6/2001]

Arthur R. Huseboe:

This is an interview with -- is it G.L.?

T. L. Conner:

T.L.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

T.L. Connor from Albertsville, Alabama, and conducted on the 6th of July, 2001. And Mr. Connor was a member of the battleship U.S.S. South Dakota, and I'm the interviewer, Arthur R. Huseboe, and we conducted this interview at the Ramkota Hotel in Sioux Falls, South Dakota during the reunion of the crew of the battleship. And then will you just speak your name and your address so that we can get the sound. Mike, you go ahead.

T. L. Conner:

T.L. Connor, [address deleted]. Telephone number [number deleted].

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Okay. Good. Now we'll -- how about your enlistment? How was it that you enlisted in the Navy?

T. L. Conner:

How what?

Arthur R. Huseboe:

How -- how did it come about?

T. L. Conner:

I -- I just wanted to get away from home and join the Navy. I didn't want to join the Army.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Okay. And how old were you? You told me earlier.

T. L. Conner:

18 years old.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

18 years old. And you dropped out of high school, didn't you, to join?

T. L. Conner:

Right. Right. I joined May the 8th, 1940.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

May the 8th 19-- oh, you did, 1940. Before the war had broken out?

T. L. Conner:

Yeah.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Yeah.

T. L. Conner:

Oh, yeah.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Okay. And you chose the Navy just because?

T. L. Conner:

I didn't want to walk.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

You didn't want to walk. Well, that will do it. Okay. And then where did go for your training for naval seaman?

T. L. Conner:

I enlisted in Nashville, Tennessee, sworn in --

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Yup.

T. L. Conner:

-- and I went to Norfolk, Virginia.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Oh, yeah.

T. L. Conner:

-- for eight weeks' training.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Oh, yeah.

T. L. Conner:

Then I was assigned to a U.S.S. Prairie AD-15, which is a destroyer tender. I put it in commission in Philadelphia.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Oh, yeah.

T. L. Conner:

In 19-- well, it would be mid-1940.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Yeah. Yeah.

T. L. Conner:

And we operated in and out from Philadelphia to Guantanamo Bay in Newport News -- I mean Newport, Rhode Island, and up to Argentia, Newfoundland for about 18 months.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Oh, yeah.

T. L. Conner:

And then I was transferred from there back to Philadelphia to put the South Dakota in commission.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Okay. So you -- you were assigned to the U.S. South Dakota when? How did you get assigned there, to the South Dakota?

T. L. Conner:

In March of --

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Oh, yeah.

T. L. Conner:

March of '42, I guess.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

March of '42. And what was your rating, your specialty?

T. L. Conner:

I was seaman first class when I was on the South Dakota.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Okay. And what were some of your duties?

T. L. Conner:

We -- our cleaning station was the superstructure on the South Dakota from -- from about the main deck all the way up to the yard arms.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Oh, yeah.

T. L. Conner:

And it was our duty to keep it clean and have to paint it when it needed it.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Yup.

T. L. Conner:

And I painted the yard arms because the other fellows were afraid to get out on it. It was about 100 foot up, I'd guess. And I volunteered to paint the yard arms.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Okay.

T. L. Conner:

And we -- that was our cleaning station.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Yup. Okay. The most hazardous action that you went through, the most dangerous, hazardous action?

T. L. Conner:

Oh, we had -- in the battle of Santa Cruz, which was an air battle, all we was doing is following in the aircraft guns at the enemy.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Yeah.

T. L. Conner:

Which we have a record of shooting down 32 planes. And the captain got wounded when a shrapnel hit the turret number -- number one, I believe, turret or number two maybe.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Yeah.

T. L. Conner:

And a piece of shrapnel hit him. But I wasn't wounded at all.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Were you on a gun? Were you manning a --

T. L. Conner:

I was on a five-inch gun, yeah.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Oh, five-inch gun?

T. L. Conner:

Yeah. Yeah.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Do you know if you hit any Jap planes?

T. L. Conner:

Yeah, well, I -- I don't know for sure, but somebody did.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Somebody did, yeah. And anybody in your group get wounded or killed?

T. L. Conner:

No, not that I know of.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Yeah. Yeah, okay. And then were you also at Sabo Island?

T. L. Conner:

Yeah, Sabo Island.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Oh, yeah.

T. L. Conner:

It was a night battle. The best I can remember, it started about half past 12:00.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.

T. L. Conner:

That would be 00:30 minutes.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Yeah. Yeah.

T. L. Conner:

And it was dark.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Yeah.

T. L. Conner:

And everybody was scared.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Oh, yeah. I'm sure.

T. L. Conner:

And we sideswiped a coral reef, but it didn't do -- it didn't seem to do any damage.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Oh, God.

T. L. Conner:

But the next day, we -- being the biggest majority of the wounded people or the wounded got killed was in the superstructure --

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Oh.

T. L. Conner:

-- that was our job to help tow them down.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Oh, yeah.

T. L. Conner:

And I noticed one room that I looked in, and it was about knee deep in water, and you could see a man's head --

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Oh, yeah.

T. L. Conner:

-- like a half a watermelon --

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Oh, boy.

T. L. Conner:

-- floating around.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Yeah.

T. L. Conner:

And that was -- that was really trying.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Yeah, you bet. Yeah, yeah.

T. L. Conner:

And I put my hand up on the ledge to kind of brace myself, I guess, and the man fainted -- fainted, rolled off in my hand.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Yeah.

T. L. Conner:

So we gathered him up and had to carry him down several flights of steps.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Yup. Yup.

T. L. Conner:

And laid him out on the fantail, which was -- everybody had a long face because the shipmates, I think 50 or 60 men got killed, and none of them was in my division. But this was -- this was one thing that kind of affected me a little.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.

T. L. Conner:

And we had a -- one night we was transferring ammunition to another ship and a tackle pulled loose from a turret and hit an electrician in the back of the head and killed him. And the next day we buried this man with military honors, with planes and all that. And he was -- when they slid him off the side of the ship, we could feel the water splash up on us, and that was -- that was kind of sad.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Yeah, yeah.

T. L. Conner:

And that's -- then after this we -- this battle at Sabo Island, we went into New Caledonia.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Yeah.

T. L. Conner:

And all the ships present knew about it, and they was lined up. They could see the ship was pretty well shot up. And they was lined up and give us the salute as we came in. And then the kind of sad part was we was -- had orders to return to the states, New York.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Oh.

T. L. Conner:

New York City.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

New York City.

T. L. Conner:

Well, they -- they had -- they needed some more men for duty on some of these ships, so they transferred all -- so many men from each division. And I seen boys crying because they -- they wanted to come back.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Oh, yeah.

T. L. Conner:

And this was kind of sad. The good thing was I wasn't one of the ones they transferred. I think really what they done, and this is true to the Navy, they transferred the goof-offs.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Oh. That's been done before.

T. L. Conner:

That's been done before. So I remember the way -- the trip back to the states, they -- we had a destroyer escort for awhile out to protect us from the submarine, Jap submarine, but then we went the rest of the way by ourselves, full steam, and went through the canal. And then went -- got through the canal, the destroyers picked us up to escort us to New York. Well, it was rough, the water was rough, and the captain -- of course the battleship could plow through it. And the captain was going so fast, the destroyer is telling him, "Slow down. We can't take it this fast." So, anyway, he said, "Well, you can come on. I'm going home." That's common knowledge.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Yeah.

T. L. Conner:

And we got to New York and the -- and the -- and the pride that we felt as we went in past the Statue of Liberty.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Yeah, yeah.

T. L. Conner:

We knew that we had just come from a couple of battles --

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Oh, yeah.

T. L. Conner:

-- to protect.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Yup.

T. L. Conner:

-- that and we was proud.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

You bet. You bet.

T. L. Conner:

And we still are.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

You bet.

T. L. Conner:

And we stayed in the Brooklyn Navy yard for about three months to get repaired.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Yup. Yup.

T. L. Conner:

And I wasn't afraid to go on liberty and walk by myself or whoever was with me. At that time it was safe to be out.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

You bet.

T. L. Conner:

Then we got a 30-day leave, and that was enjoyable.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

I'm sure it was.

T. L. Conner:

And then after this, we went to -- we -- I think it was called the biggest convoy ever made, we went with a convoy all the way to Russia, Murmansk, Russia. Of course we didn't go in port. We just went part way.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Yup.

T. L. Conner:

I think the theory was that we might draw out the -- the German battleships. And then we had some battleships where we could --

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Yeah, yeah. Was it the (turpets?)? The (turpets?), was that one of them?

T. L. Conner:

Yeah, they was -- yeah. they never did come out. And the best I can remember is it was always foggy and cloudy and damp, and it was -- you couldn't see the end of the ship. There's lots of them, a lot of destroyers.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Oh, yeah.

T. L. Conner:

Anyway, we turned back when we got safe in Murmansk, and went to Scapa Flow, Scotland. And I remember going over the Liberty in Scapa Flow and went in a barn like thing and they had beer, and the -- the British sailor wanted to buy me a beer. So we drunk a beer, and I couldn't hardly understand him and he couldn't understand me, I don't guess, too much. But, anyway, we're on our way back. After a few days, we went to Iceland and we anchored in one of those fjords in Iceland, and we had a chance to transfer one man from each deck division back to the states. And I was the only one in my division from Alabama, so they let me go. And we left the ship at 10 o'clock at night, and it was still -- the sun was still shining.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Yeah, yeah.

T. L. Conner:

And a fellar -- one fellar offered me $200 for my orders. But I wanted to go as bad as he did and I had the opportunity. So, anyway, it took us about a month to go back to the States on an old eight-knot steamer, an old rust tub steamer. And they put us on lookout, and I remember one night I was on lookout from 12:00 to 4:00, and it was -- it was bright moonlight, and I was watching 'cause this thing didn't have no way to protect itself.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

No. No.

T. L. Conner:

So I had good eyes. I was about 20 years old then, 22. So I seen a ship off in the distance, and they had a voice tube, and the voice tube on a merchant ship is different than it is on a naval ship. You just talk into these. But I hollered into it. And the officer of the deck come running out and said, "You woke the captain up." And he come out with his little old nightcap hanging down, and he pulled out a telescope about this long and looked through it.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Yeah, yeah.

T. L. Conner:

He said, "Goddamn, boy, did you see that?" I said, "Yes." He said, "Well, I'm going to go back to bed. If you're the lookout, I ain't going to worry." So we made it safe back to New York.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Oh, yeah.

T. L. Conner:

Then we caught a train to Mobile, and that's about the end of my experience with South Dakota.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Yeah, yeah. Boy, that's exciting.

T. L. Conner:

Now, is there anything else you wanted to ask?

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Well, let's see. I was going to ask a little more about -- about heroic actions by yourself or others on -- during those battles. Were there some commendations given, some recommendations given to people right after the battles?

T. L. Conner:

There may have been. I didn't -- I didn't get wounded and I didn't deserve anything, so I was just doing my job.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Okay. Were you seasick at all?

T. L. Conner:

Never. Never seasick.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Not on the South Dakota. How about on the destroyers?

T. L. Conner:

Nope. Never was seasick. But I've seen 'em yearning to die from seasickness.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Now, did you get bored?

T. L. Conner:

We was mostly occupied so much, you didn't have time to think about home or getting bored or nothing.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

How about bad weather?

T. L. Conner:

Bad weather is bad on destroyers. On the battleship, it's not much.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter, yeah. Although I heard there was one -- Now, were you on the South Dakota when it ran into that whale?

T. L. Conner:

No, I don't -- well, I must have been. I think that was on the way to Murmansk.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Yeah, yeah.

T. L. Conner:

I don't -- I heard them talking about it, and I don't remember.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

You don't remember it. Well, you couldn't be everywhere, you know.

T. L. Conner:

No. No.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

If that wasn't your duty station --

T. L. Conner:

Some things you can remember and some things you don't.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Sure. Sure. Sure. How about submarines, did you see any or --

T. L. Conner:

We chased submarines when I was on another ship.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

T. L. Conner:

Not with the South Dakota, though.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

How about being being afraid of submarines, were you worried about them a lot?

T. L. Conner:

Yeah. Sure, I was.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Yeah, yeah.

T. L. Conner:

Yeah.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Yeah.

T. L. Conner:

The most -- the most scared I was ever was on this destroyer. We was chasing this sub all day or two. We finally sunk it. But I was -- everybody wasn't on the watch at one time. So I was laying in the bed and they -- they shot a K-Gun with a depth charge and -- and as they did, the lap -- We done screw a lot, but just a little bit. But, anyway, the shock of this K-Gun going off turned this light on just momentarily, and I said "Oh, my God, they blowed the side of the ship out." Then I -- in a split second I knew what happened, see.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Sure. Sure. How about bombing attacks? You were on a gun.

T. L. Conner:

Yeah.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Do you remember any of the things that happened relating to, oh, the Enterprise was nearby at Sabo Island -- or, I mean, at Santa Cruz?

T. L. Conner:

Santa Cruz, yeah.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Santa Cruz.

T. L. Conner:

Well, there was a Hornet. The Hornet got sunk.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Yeah.

T. L. Conner:

And the well got damaged so bad that they -- the Americans sunk it.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Yeah. Yeah.

T. L. Conner:

And I could see that smoke.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

You could see that.

T. L. Conner:

Yeah.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

How about the Enterprise, could you see that at all?

T. L. Conner:

No, I couldn't see -- I don't believe I noticed the Enterprise. Anyway, a destroyer got a hit on the bow.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Oh, yeah.

T. L. Conner:

And the destroyer had a smart captain, I suppose, so he cut across and he hit the wave that the South Dakota was making, and the water come up on the foc'sle and put the fire out.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Put the fire out. How about torpedos during that battle, did you --

T. L. Conner:

No, I don't believe there was any torpedos. I don't know --

Arthur R. Huseboe:

You didn't see any, or notice them?

T. L. Conner:

No, I didn't, uhn-uhn.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

No.

T. L. Conner:

This was strictly an air battle. We never did see ships.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Yeah, but I mean torpedos from the ships -- from the planes coming in.

T. L. Conner:

Oh, yeah. Well, no, I didn't --

Arthur R. Huseboe:

We heard --

T. L. Conner:

I couldn't see. I was in the upper handling room.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Yeah. We heard that the South Dakota really maneuvered.

T. L. Conner:

Yeah.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

You got a --

T. L. Conner:

Yeah.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

You got an appointment?

T. L. Conner:

Yeah.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

You got to get to the --

T. L. Conner:

I need to go for some --

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Okay. All right.

T. L. Conner:

Are you about done with this?

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Yeah, I'm just about done. Is there anything you want to add to -- to the story?

T. L. Conner:

I believe I told you all the important things.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Yeah, yeah.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

You enjoyed getting home to -- Did you go back to Alabama on your leave, that 30-day leave?

T. L. Conner:

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Folks -- could you talk about your experiences?

T. L. Conner:

Well, not much. People didn't want to talk about it much then.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

No. Yeah, yeah. Well, it was confidential or top secret or whatever.

T. L. Conner:

No. Well, the ship was. They told us not to talk about the --

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Yeah.

T. L. Conner:

-- the Waterloo Old Nameless was.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Oh. Oh, they didn't want to -- oh, you couldn't say it was the South Dakota?

T. L. Conner:

Uhn-uhn. Right, right. You wasn't supposed to. But I guess some of them did.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Some of them did.

T. L. Conner:

They kept it secret a long time.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

I know they did.

T. L. Conner:

We had a great captain.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Yeah, yeah.

T. L. Conner:

A great captain.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Yeah.

T. L. Conner:

I've had some that was psychotic though. They was terrible. On other ships.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

On other ships, yeah. Well, the South Dakota had a great -- a great record, a great campaign record, just outstanding.

T. L. Conner:

Yeah. I really think President Truman, I feel hard on him. The top brass in the Navy wanted to -- the Japanese signing on the South Dakota 'cause she was the queen on the fleet.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Yeah.

T. L. Conner:

Had more battle stars than any other ship.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Yeah.

T. L. Conner:

But then Truman was from Missouri. He said, "We'll have it on the Missouri." If I'd have been the admirals, I'd have say we'll make out like we gonna have it, but they could have done it. There wasn't nothing he could do about it. Of course, he could have played heck with them admirals.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Yeah, I suppose. But you were right -- you were berthed right next to the Missouri, weren't you, in Tokyo Bay? Weren't you the next ship over?

T. L. Conner:

Well, no, I wasn't on that ship.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Oh, you -- that's right. That's right.

T. L. Conner:

I was on the destroyer. I was -- I was in there, but I was in a different place.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Yeah, different place. Oh, yeah, that's right. Well, I really appreciate your taking the time.

T. L. Conner:

I enjoyed it.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

And you got to run another errand?

T. L. Conner:

I enjoyed it. You done good. I don't know how I done.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

Well, you did fine.

T. L. Conner:

I better be a running.

Arthur R. Huseboe:

All right.

Conclusion of interview]