Pearl Harbor

Hey folks. This question may come off as silly but December 7th was a Sunday, so were a lot of personnel on weekend leave during the attack?

 

How long would weekend leave be for the soldiers, marines and sailors? Was it from Friday evening to Saturday night

 

wow!...we had that ''crap'' in the 80s, when we were overseas--and I got into trouble one time because of it.....we had to be back on ship by, about that same time...the officers got to stay out!!--unless, like you said, we had passes.....I thought that was very unfair for the officers to be able to ''party''/etc longer ......one time, we stayed out later because we were with some Dutch women.....so, we got punished for it
...in South America, we had some Hispanic Marines that knew the lingo, of course, so one time we got to stay out later because they hooked us up...I think it was mostly a ''fake''' story we made up, but it worked

 

...not to be picky, but ''Marines'' should be capitalized....I just went over this with some civilians on a MSM site...plus, the poster who said he was in the USMC, not only did not capitalize Marine, he also used the word ''guns'' for firearms = a big no-no in the USMC =very questionable if he served in the USMC

..from what OpanaP said, they had to be back at midnight, both nights......?? ..or were they just given liberty Saturday morning?
..also, we called it ''liberty, not ''leave''.....leave would be when you went home or took a ''vacation'''

 

Pearl Harbor Attack
Action Report
CINCPAC to CINCUS

The ships in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, were adequately manned from the officer and the enlisted personnel standpoint. Supplementing the restriction of Navy Regulations that not more than one-half of the crew should be granted leave or liberty at the same time, a Fleet directive limited overnight liberty in Hawaii to Chief Petty Officers and Petty Officers First Class. While this directive enunciated no policy as to shore leave for officer personnel, Type organizations provided for a duty section of officers on board at all times.

Excerpts from a summarized report on personnel actually on board at the commencement of the attack on 7 December, 1941, are enlightening:

ON BOARD
Commanding Officers of Battleships 5 out of 8
Commanding Officers of Cruisers 6 out of 7
Commanding Officers of Destroyers 63%
Damage Control Officers of Battleships 6 out of 8
Average percentage of officers:
Battleships (approximately) 60-70%
Cruisers, Battle Force " 65%
Destroyers, Battle Force " 50%
Average percentage of men:
Battleships 95%
Cruisers, Battle Force 98%
Destroyers, Battle Force 85%

 

So leave was only in the morning through evening or was there none at all ?

 

...there were some that had duty and could not go on liberty ...some went on liberty, but some did not

 

If given liberty , would it be the Cinderella type , Friday to Saturday?

 

....I was in the USMC in the 80s......on ship, I don't recall ever being given overnight liberty, unless you had a pass.....I remember 2 times getting a pass..one that I mentioned already and when we had the Marine Corps Birthday in Rio--89' --I think it was..... and they had the Ball at the Sheraton..so 3 of us got a 3-day pass, because we stayed at the Sheraton .....we saw some waitresses there , so that's why we wanted those passes
.....I was on 4 ships for about 19 months
..the Marines did not have as many ship duties as the Quackers did , so more of the Marines got liberty

 

How did your liberty work ?

 

"Liberty" was free time within the confines of a working week. Leave was just that, vacation, usually for a period of weeks or more (Army officers for many years took "block leave" in which all accumulated "vacation" was taken at once...in that case they would be gone for a month or more.)

You may want to consider the context too. Forces in the islands secured from two weeks of war warning-related field maneuvers on the morning of 6 December, but were still on a state of alert.As stated, only a proportion of Navy officers and senior Petty Officers were granted overnight liberty the night of 6/7 December. The same pertained to the Army. Enlisted men and most junior officers could not afford hotels, and an overnight brothel stay is an oxymoron. The idea that significant numbers of Army and Navy forces were carousing all night in Pearl City is a myth.

 

Ok that finally clears it up . So can it be said that for the majority liberty was morning to evening?

 

More like late morning to mid evening.

 

And what days would it be on ?

 

..most were young ''kids''.....they probably had enough trouble with the midnight regulation.......if they let them out till the next morning or 2 days, there probably would've been mucho AWOL/problems ....
..now I'm guessing base liberty was the same...[??? ].however, the midnight regulation was only for overseas when I was in..of course I was not stationed on ship in US ports
...I was stationed on a Naval base and we had liberty for 48 hours/etc....we had some very crazy duty hours

 

Saturday and Sunday, likely with a stricture Sunday for getting in early. Again, the Pacific Fleet and Hawaiian garrison were operating under a war warning.

Why are you so fixated on this subject?

 

It came off as more interesting than i thought. I thought it was a simple system and maybe had a impact during the attack. Apologies if i came off as annoying.