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Podcast: Veterans Chronicles
Episode: Lt. Jim Downing, U.S. Navy, WWII, Pearl Harbor
Description: Jim Downing joined the U.S. Navy in 1931 because the pay was very attractive at the depths of the Great Depression. After training he would be assigned to the brand new USS West Virginia, serving on 16-inch guns and as postmaster for the ship. Ten years later, on December 7, 1941, Downing was at a meeting on shore at Pearl Harbor when word came that the Pacific Fleet was under attack. In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Downing explains how he raced back to his ship, helped protect it from exploding and also took it upon himself to...