KING HIGH REMEMBERS PROJECT: ALEC BOATMAN

KING HIGH REMEMBERS PROJECT:ALEC BOATMAN
Arellano, GraysonJimenez, BillyPope, KelseyRodriguez, Ashley

Alec Boatman was born and raised in Fort Smith, Arkansas in 1923.

The Great Depression made it difficult to find a job and he did not want his family to have to provide for him any longer.

With very few jobs available the military seemed to be the best option for Alec.

The Great Depression was an economic slump that began in the United States and later spread to Europe, and other industrialized areas.

It began in 1929 and lasted until about 1939.

It was the longest and most severe depression ever experienced by the industrialized Western world.

It began with a catastrophic collapse of stock-market prices on the New York Stock Exchange in October 1929.

Unemployment rose sharply and over 25% or about six million people were out of work

Needing a job desperately at the age of 17, he and his brother went to enlist in the navy. However, at first, he was rejected due to too many fillings in his teeth. Later the military's need for more men allowed for him to join up.

His first feeling was excitement and his dreams of traveling were coming true.

Boatman was sent to boot camp in Northern Virginia for a nine week intensive training.

Boot camp came with early mornings, late nights and rigorous physical and mental training.

He graduated from boot camp as an Apprentice Seaman.

Shortly after boot camp, Alec was sent to the Panama Canal to join a ships crew.The Panama Canal is a 48 mi ship canal in Panama that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean.Its key for international maritime trade.It was built from 1904 to 1914.

He Joined the fleet band on the USS Tennessee.A fleet band is: Sailors who knew how to play instruments already but did not join the Navy just to be part of the band.He played the trombone for the band for six months.Alec received orders to report to a different ship, the USS Oklahoma to play in their fleet band. However, he refused to go because he wanted to stay on the USS Tennessee with his brother. Ultimately, that decision saved his life because the Oklahoma was attacked and sunk at Pearl Harbor.

Commissioned in 1916Served in WW IOnly Battleship named for the 46th StateUsed oil instead of coal as fuelSunk by the Japanese bombs and torpedoes on December 7, 1941 at Pearl Harbor, HI.Killing 429 members of her crew as she capsized.She was uprighted in 1943 and sold for scrap metal but she sunk before getting to the mainland.

Alec became a Petty Officer.After band he went to the Construction and Repair department.He was always busy on the ship.Stationed at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.It survived the attack from the Japanese, although the Tennessee took direct bomb hits.

December 7th 1941Boatman had been in the Navy for only a year.He was planning to play tennis on shore that morning and was waiting on deck for the liberty boat when the attack began.During the attack all sailors were called to there battle stations.He was part of the Damage Control Team, they had to put out fires and try to stop more damage from being caused.Boatman got a citation for courage during the attack.

During the attack boatmen and the other sailors had to dive under the over hangs of the ship to be protected against the Japanese's bullets.

The Japanese's plane we so close to his ship he could see their star underneath the bottom of the planes.

Later he had to go to the hospital because he scraped up his knees so badly from scrambling under the gun turrets on the wooden deck to escape the machine gun fire from Japanese bombers.

The attack on Pearl Harbor also called the Hawaii Operation was a surprise invasion conducted by the Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941.The attack was intended as a preventive action in order to keep the U.S from interfering with military actions of Japans expansion.The base was attacked by 353 Japanese fighters, bombers and torpedo planes in two waves, launched from six aircraft carries Four U.S Navy Battleships were sunk and the four others were damaged.

The U.S declared war on Japan.Many men tried to get shore duty.Alec returned to land with the USS Tennessee for repairs from December- February.The home port became San Francisco.His ship patrolled the California Coast in 1945 for three months line during world war II. After Boatman was in the Pacific for the remainder of the war on a troop transport. He went ashore with the 25th Army division in the invasion of Saipan.

He left the Navy after four year tour.After his service he went to Long Beach to get a job in a ship yard.He stayed in contact with some of the men from his ship one of them being Mike Graden.He visited his brother often.He helped build and create a fresh water system for boats.He became welder.

He learned Spanish.He was interested in everything.Alec saw an ad in the paper from American Airlines and got a job as a flight Agent.He became a Supervisor of the fight attendants for American Airlines.He lived in New York for a while so he could work at JFK International Airport.He spent lots of time working on a book called the Pacific Appointment.He got married and had a family.

Boatman met Zenji Abe, one of the Japanese solder that bombed Boatmans ship. They became good friends, met each others familys and told each other their experiences of the Navy. This friendship inspired Alec to write a book about how the two men's lives were alike and different from the time they were born to the time they met at Pearl Harbor during the attack; and the time leading up to when they met in person years after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Instead of being angry and feel a grudge towards the Zenji Abe Boatman wanted to hear all about his life in Japan and how he ended up being a pilot.Boatman and Zenji Abe went back and forth from Japan and California getting to know each others background and each others families.

Boatman stole his best friends girlfriend after he got out of the Navy.The girlfriend had Boatman drive her to Long Beach.On October 3rd she called Alec again and asked him to drive her to Glendale.After knowing her for only 28 days he asked her to marry him.They married in Las Vegas, NV.They were wed for 56 yearsThey have five children, four girls and one boy.They both share a love of travel.

They travelled all over Europe
Costa Rica
And to Russia when it was still a closed country for Westerners
Cuba