Veterans' Voices:
Oral History at Battleship Cove
Welcome to the online exhibit for Veterans' Voices: Oral History at Battleship Cove. This website contains six exhibits. Exhibit 1, Oral Histories, is a searchable database of the oral history archive. Exhibit 2, Images, is a searchable database of the archive of digital images and photographs relating to our oral history interviewees. Exhibits 3 through 6 allow you to hear selections of audio and view associated transcripts. To enter any of the exhibits, please click on one of the six pictures to the left.
Hear the first-hand accounts of veterans of war from Vietnam's Hanoi Hilton to the trenches of World War I to the invasion of North Africa during World War II. Thomas Dougherty, pilot of the Kingfisher scout plane on the Battleship MASSACHUSETTS in 1942, was there. "At approximately 4 o'clock in the morning… we were called to flight quarters ... We did not know if we were going to meet opposition. And so the signal was... if we were not to receive opposition there'd be a white flag flying at the end of the jetty that goes into Casablanca Harbor… but if there was no flag there, that meant that there was going to be a fight. So when I reported there was no white flag… I was practically over the JEAN BART looking down as the sun was coming up off of the Sahara desert... And that's when we encountered anti-aircraft fire from the cruisers and destroyers below us… Admiral Giffen said if you encounter enemy action you will call back to the ship 'batter up,' and the password that morning was 'play ball'... Sowhen I encountered enemy action I called to the ship, and I said 'batter up,' and I never did hear 'play ball,' but I heard 'salvo.' Now when the ship says 'salvo,' that means they just triggered nine 16" guns… I did not see any splash, and I gave a 'no observation,' and then I noticed there were some tin sheds that paralleled the JEAN BART, and I looked down, and I could see dust, and I could see gantry cranes tipped over. So I said 'Hell, we hit it.' So I called back, and I said, 'Belay the last order, and rapid fire no change,' and that's when the fighter planes got on us. Our mission changed then; it was try to get the hell away from him!"
