Local vet recalls key WWII battles

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - This weekend, HBO is premiering a ten-part miniseries called 'The Pacific', which shares World War II stories from the Pacific Front. These are stories that are not often told.

So FOX10 News is sitting down with local veterans who served in the Pacific front, and sharing their stories with you.

Foley native Chuck Wheeler was a sailor who served on the aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise.

The ship took part in some of the fiercest and most decisive allied wins in World War II, but the legendary ship just narrowly missed disaster as the war broke out.

In November 1941, the world was at war while the United States sat on the sidelines.

Chuck Wheeler was a sailor aboard the Enterprise, and on November 28, the aircraft carrier was sent on a mission with unique orders.

"While on this cruise if we encounter any hostile aircraft, and we all knew they were alluding to the Japanese; hostile aircraft submarines or ships, we will sink 'em!" Wheeler said.

Their mission was soon completed. They encountered no enemies, but rough seas delayed their return home. The date of their arrival was supposed to be Saturday December 6, 1941, and their port was Pearl Harbor.

"If we had been in Pearl Harbor on Saturday afternoon, Sunday morning, the Enterprise would've been the center of the target," Wheeler said. "That was our guardian angel."

Wheeler loaded bullets and bombs onto airplanes, and sometimes rode along, shooting down the enemy.

"I was terrorized by the time I got into them and terrified until I got out," Wheeler said.

The Enterprise helped the U.S. get back at Japan in the Doolittle Raid.

Aircraft carriers and ships sailed toward Japan and launched bombers to target Tokyo. Wheeler stood on deck while he watched the first bomber fly off another ship.

"He started down the deck, when he did, the bow of the ship went down a little bit, and then it caught one of the high waves and when it caught one of the big high waves, it just lifted him up and flipped him into the air," Wheeler recalled.

There were worries, but the raid succeeded, and the Enterprise later fought in the Battle at Midway, severely weakening the powerful Japanese Navy.

"The American Navy was the only military organization powerful enough, anywhere in the world, to stop the Japanese aggression," Wheeler said.

The Enterprise was one of the most decorated ships of World War II. The USS Enterprise Association said she gunned down 911 enemy planes and sank 71 ships.

But she was vulnerable herself, and severely damaged after a kamikaze attack.

"I was no hero by a long shot. No one was a hero," Wheeler said. "Our back was against the wall, it was the American Navy or nobody."

The Enterprise helped turn the course of the war, but if it had been at Pearl Harbor on December 7, like it should have, one has to wonder how different the war would've been.

Wheeler feels these stories are ones that need to be shared. Without the determination and strength of thousands of servicemen in the Pacific, he says the U.S. could have been stopped and the world would be a different place today.