Denton "Wally" Walling, served on the USS Pennsylvania (BB-38).
He served as a Signalman 2nd Class.



On the day of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Wally was not on the USS Pennsylvania. He went to a
nearby control tower to collect money, owed to him, from a friend
Details Click HERE!


The tower as it looks today




USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) was the lead ship of the Pennsylvania class of United States Navy battleships.
She was the third Navy ship named for the state of Pennsylvania. She was laid down on 27 October 1913,
by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, Newport News, Virginia. She was launched
on 16 March 1915, sponsored by Elizabeth Kolb of Philadelphia, and commissioned on 12 June 1916, with
Captain Henry B. Wilson in command.

At the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, Pennsylvania was in drydock in
the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard. She was one of the first ships in the harbor to open fire as Japanese dive and
torpedo bombers roared out of the high overcast. They did not succeed in repeated attempts to torpedo the
caisson of the drydock, but Pennsylvania and the surrounding dock areas were severely strafed. The crew
of one 5 inch (130 mm) gun mount was wiped out when a bomb struck the starboard side of her boat deck
and exploded inside Casemate 9. Destroyers Cassin and Downes, just forward of Pennsylvania in the drydock,
were seriously damaged by bomb hits. Pennsylvania was pockmarked by flying fragments. A part of a torpedo
tube from Downes, about 1,000 lb (450 kg) in weight, was blown onto the forecastle of Pennsylvania. She had
15 men killed (including her executive officer), 14 missing, and 38 wounded.




Pennsylvania leading Colorado, Louisville, Portland and Columbia into
Lingayen Gulf, Philippines, January 1945.



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