Louisiana Pearl Harbor vet visits home of 'the boss'

FREDERICKSBURG, TEXAS — No one wants to get caught kicking back in the boss’s chair with their feet on the desk, especially if that boss is a five-tar admiral in the U.S. Navy. But local U.S. Navy veteran Joe Richard laughs about the time he got caught doing just that.
“He (Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz) had went ashore,” Richard said. “I never heard when he come back, and he had his desk, his hat, his chair (in his office). I told my buddy I was going to sit there, and boy I cocked my feet up and put that hat on and there he (Nimitz) walks in. You know what he told me? ‘Looks good on you. If you take care of yourself and do the right thing, you might have one like that yourself someday.’ Talk about I was ready to get out of there. I know he would have court martialed me.”
“After that, when he would see me, he’d salute me,” Richard said, laughing.
Richard said he was doing work inside Nimitz’s office aboard a ship, likely when it was stationed near Guam during World War II.
Richard, 97, is Louisiana’s last known Pearl Harbor survivor, according to Louisiana Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Joey Strickland and the National WW II Museum in New Orleans. He is also a member of American Legion Post 225 and Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9903, both in Church Point.
On April 29, Richard, his daughter Connie Figueron, members of American Legion Post 225 and VFW Post 9903 and several others from the Church Point and Acadiana area made their way west to visit Fredericksburg, Texas, the hometown of Richard’s former boss. In addition to being the birthplace of Nimitz, the town is also home to the National Museum of the Pacific War, originally named the Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz Memorial Naval Museum, and a tour of the museum was on the itinerary for Richard’s journey.
Before leaving Church Point, Richard’s caravan, which included escorts from several Legion Riders, the Church Point Police Department and the Church Point Volunteer Fire Department, traveled by all four of the town’s schools, and students waved and wished Richard a safe trip. Once the group reached Interstate 10, it was escorted to the Louisiana-Texas state line by the Acadia Parish Sheriff’s Office, from the state line to Kerrville, Texas by the Texas State Police and through Fredericksburg by the Fredericksburg Police Department.
During the journey, others joined the caravan on motorcycles and in vehicles, and during a stop at Cowboy Harley-Davidson of Beaumont, Richard was greeted by several veterans and motorcycle riders. Two of those who joined the convoy on the east side of Houston were WW II veterans Bob Cook, a native of Illinois and current resident of Texas, and Joe Rodriguez, of San Benito, Texas. Cook served in the U.S. Marine Corps, and Rodriguez served in the U.S. Army.
In addition to the museum, the trip also included a visit to a joint meeting of Kerrville’s two American Legion posts and two Veterans of Foreign Wars posts, where Richard visited with two other WW II veterans from Texas.
When Richard and those who accompanied him on the journey arrived at the museum on April 30, they were greeted by WW II veteran Tommy Whetstone, of Fredericksburg. Whetstone, who is also 97, served in the U.S. Army, and he and Richard, wearing his American Flag button up shirt, spoke briefly before Richard’s tour of the museum began.
Karen Stevenson, Director of Visitor Services at the museum, said the two most significant Pearl Harbor artifacts at the museum are a Japanese midget submarine and a door from the USS Arizona.
“The Arizona door is an exceptional artifact both for us having it — that it was recovered — but also that story it represents for us,” Stevenson said. “Few things capture people’s imagination, our visitors empathy and imagination, seeing that oil line and knowing that hole was cut by rescuers trying to find somebody behind that door, and they didn’t find them. We have Kleenex stashed all over the museum.”
The submarine was one of five submarines that attacked Pearl Harbor on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, and each submarine had a crew of two and carried two torpedoes. The gyrocompass in this particular submarine, HA-19, malfunctioned, and the vessel ran aground outside the entrance to Pearl Harbor. According to the museum, Ensign Kazuo Sakamaki, the boat’s commander, survived while his crewmate drowned. Sakamaki then became the first Japanese prisoner of war.
Tour Guide Wayne Slaughter led Richard and his group through the museum’s Pearl Harbor, Doolittle Raid, Okinawa and the Atomic Bomb and Iwo Jima exhibits.
“The museum was awesome,” Richard said. “It was beautiful. They really went all the way out. He (Nimitz) deserved it. He was a great admiral.
“They really tried to make us feel at home. It (the museum) was out of this world.”
Richard said his favorite part of the museum was the wall of plaques in the campus’s Memorial Courtyard. The wall bears plaques that recognize the heroic contributions of individuals to the war effort in the Pacific.
Ted Stout, a member of American Legion Post 225, organized the trip. Stout, of Sunset, has already visited the museum twice, and he and Richard had spoken of his previous visits.
“He (Richard) and I had talked about it, and I realized it was very important for him to visit the museum,” Stout said. “We did everything we could to make this trip possible.”
Stout said he enjoyed seeing the expression on Richard’s face as he viewed the museum as well as the reception Richard received on the journey and at the museum.
“To see that there are still a lot of patriotic people in this country, the people that came to shake his hand at the stops we made on the way there — it was very nice to see,” Stout said. “It was an unbelievable trip. Everybody got something out of this trip even though the trip was about Mister Joe. Everyone came away with something good.”
He continued, “Mister Joe, even if he wouldn’t be a Pearl Harbor survivor or veteran, he is still a remarkable person, and I am glad our paths crossed.”
American Legion Post 225 Commander Dennis Hart was also part of the trip, and it was his first time to visit the museum.
“It’s a great museum — very detailed and very well put together with the slide shows and videos,” he said. “There are lots of good artifacts at the museum.”
Hart said he was also pleased about the welcome Richard received.
“The number of people who responded (to be involved with the trip) shows how much he is appreciated,” Hart said. “It was great to show him what he did and remind people of what actually happened.
“Mister Joe felt honored and appreciated. I think that was the best part of the trip.”
Hart said that during the visit with the American Legion and VFW posts in Kerrville, some of the posts’ members commented that Richard may be the last Pearl Harbor survivor between the two states.