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John Gannon

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John Gannon describes a strategy that German U-boats would use to open up Allied convoy defenses in the Atlantic. (1:20)

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John Gannon, a naval gun captain, illustrates the procedure for firing some of the larger ship-mounted turrets. (1:35)

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John Gannon talks about the dangers that would arise from carelessness aboard naval vessels. (1:49)

John Hancock

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Along with a friend, John Hancock enlisted in the Navy in 1941. He had been smitten with a recruiting billboard featuring a Navy aviator. The pair were in training when Dec. 7th church services were interrupted for a news bulletin. (5:03)

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John Hancock got used to life aboard the carrier Yorktown as she cruised from Norfolk to San Diego. He was a latecomer to the crew so he had a hammock instead of a bunk. Once the ship got to the Pacific, its planes joined in the first retaliatory strike against the Japanese in the Marshall and Gilbert Islands. (4:38)

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The carrier Yorktown joined the Lexington near Australia in an effort to keep the supply lines to Gen MacArthur's forces open. When the Japanese sent a task force their way, the Battle of the Coral Sea ensued. John Hancock was manning a machine gun on the deck of the Yorktown and he fired so much he burned out the barrel. (4:19)

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During the Battle of Midway, John Hancock saw the sky filled with a million tracers. The machine gunner could not tell if he'd hit any of the Japanese planes, but he kept firing from the deck of the carrier Yorktown. He was knocked down when bombs hit the ship and when the torpedoes hit, the order went out to abandon ship. (5:31)

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John Hancock describes the experience of torpedoes hitting his ship at the Battle of Midway. Though it was close to sinking, the abandon ship process was orderly because of all the drilling. He didn't even know he had shrapnel wounds and a collapsed lung until after he was rescued from the water. (6:00)

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After surviving the sinking of the Yorktown during the Battle of Midway, John Hancock realized a lifelong dream and went to flight school. He had been a lowly seaman on the Yorktown but he returned to the war as a fighter pilot. (4:09)

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John Hancock outlines his trajectory through Navy flight school and the different aircraft he progressed through on his way to being a fighter pilot. When he got back to the war, he flew the Grumman F6F Hellcat from the deck of a brand new carrier. (3:08)